Future Makers meeting @ArtEZ Arnhem

On June 6th Future Makers, the Center of Expertise of ArtEZ, organized their annual public meeting together with NL NextFashion & Textiles, Powered by ClickNL. The purpose of this meeting was to bring the various research projects of Future Makers to the attention of over 100 researchers, creative professionals, designers and entrepreneurs. The meeting attempted to demonstrate that creative methodologies and asking provocative questions lead to new insights, radical ideas and challenging design projects.

The meeting was introduced by Nishant Shah (Dean Graduate School ArtEZ). In his video message, he emphasized the importance of research and experimentation for an art college, and in particular for ArtEZ. In the keynote lecture the Brazilian multi-disciplinary artist and researcher Ivan Henriques investigates living systems via multimedia installations. In his works he investigates hybrid forms of nature and (technological) culture that create new forms of communication between people and other living organisms.
After the keynote reading, Future Makers presented three own projects that illustrate the wealth and breadth of Future Makers; the center realizes research-by-design project in the field of new materials, circular creative processes and socially engaged projects.

3 projects presented

The first project that was presented was the Designing for Precarious Citizens project. This is a research-by-design project that takes as its starting point the work of the Dutch architect Johan Niegeman. Niegeman was convinced that designers should always work for the most precarious groups in society and that designers should do that with the most advanced techniques.

Then Daniele Bruggeman explained the Emotional Durable Design project. Sustainability and the circular economy are important themes in the textile and clothing chain and more and more companies want to play a role in the transition to a circular fashion system. The starting point here is that the current linear disposable system is untenable and that an alternative system must be developed in which the reuse of raw materials, products and materials is central. Read more on this project on this site.

Finally, designer Tjeerd Veenhoven presented about the project The Future of Living Material. This project researches and develops new ‘living’ materials (eg bio-based materials, textile from micro-organisms, etc.) for a future transition to a sustainable (fashion) system and a circular society. The afternoon ended with a reflection on the meeting by Alice Twemlow, Lector Design KABK The Hague and Peter Joore, Professor of Open Innovation at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. Future Makers 2019 was held under the banner of NL NextFashion & Textiles and Powered by ClickNL.