Dutch Design Week 2022: new technologies, new creators and sustainability in the spotlight

Central Image: maxkneefel

Dutch Design Week (DDW) is one of the most successful and popular design events in Europe and the world. Like every year, Eindhoven hosted, from October 22-30, the creations of 2.600 designers. With “Get Set” as a slogan, the event emphasised the urgency for acclimation to the rapid changes that are taking place in the world, something that could be achieved through drastic measures, ambitious proposals and collaborations. After all, the spirit of collaboration was one of the main driving forces behind the creation of DDW as a means for communication between professionals, designers and graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven and Eindhoven University of Technology. Always looking towards the future of design, the event aims every year to highlight Dutch creators, but also to present realistic proposals that can solve problems and touch on a facet of modern life while keeping the human at the centre of design.

Here are some proposals that stood out to us during our visit to DDW 2022.

Buycloud, Studio Noa Jansma. Photo: noajansma.oom

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show

One of the most important aspects of DDW is none other than the Graduation Show of Design Academy Eindhoven. More than 200 new creators had the opportunity to present their ideas to a specific audience, while the Academy itself showcased to the local and global community its extrovert character. Among the dozens of projects, the following stood out to us:

Teresa Fernández – Pello deals with creations – sculptures and installations that are strongly linked with digital fabrication and digital aesthetics in general. In fact, she gives great emphasis to research and theory, studying the interaction between technology and spirit within society. Her project "Spiritual Accelerationism" includes a modern altar entitled "The Heart of the Heart", where samples of technology are deified - objects that represent the existential beliefs of today's man. Parts of mobile phones, tablets and speakers have been deconstructed and reconfigured into geometric patterns, connected all together and with their digital media outputs transformed into rhythmic light and vibration flows.

Photo: προσωπικό αρχείο Teresa Fernández – Pello

The "Who can afford to be critical?" campaign by graphic/communication designer Afonso Pereira de Matos, deals with the contradictions that a graduate must face as they experience reality outside the academic environment. His installation includes posters, brochures, magazines, a website, as well as clothing and a series of conversations with other graduates, all addressing the following: “But the aim of the research I’ve conducted is to show that saying that “design is powerful” does not necessarily equate to claiming that designers themselves, as individuals, as professionals, are powerful as well”.

Photo: afonsodematos.com

Apart from the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show, the 'Hydro' exhibition at the Albert van Abbehuis gallery grabbed our attention with works by Phil Procter, Earnest Studio (Rachel Griffin) and Tom Chung. The designers presented their new objects and installations, combined with books, videos and audio clips created by other invited designers, organized into a whole where their designs communicate and overlap. The exhibition explores the subjects of connections and language, concerning people in general but also people specifically in the field of design.

Photo: ddw.nl

MU Hybrid Art House organized the exhibition 'Reproduction Otherwise', which showcased radical scenarios and creative speculations around the evolution of human reproduction in the 21st century. Artists Ani Liu, Charlotte Jarvis, Future Baby Production, Kuang-Yi Ku, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Puck Verkade and Victorine van Alphen, several of whom collaborated with scientists, sought answers to the questions "how long will humans reproduce" and "what role will biology, society, technology and economy continue to play".

Photo: IVF-X, Victorine van Alphen. A creative installation that allows you to “meet” your digital baby.

Another exhibition that also impressed us was titled "RE-design-er" and was organized by Onomatopee Projects - a public gallery and publishing house active in interdisciplinary projects that also hosts progressive artists and organizations, designing revolutionary exhibitions. The exhibition, curated by Cecilia Casabona, presented designers who research and re-approach the role of the designer as well as design, in combination with activities open to the general public. A part of the exhibition, the installation “Despise design, all bless the Fair!” drew inspiration from the seven deadly sins, transferring them to the contradictory reality of design -for instance, an exhibition dealing with climate change may generate tons of waste.

Image Source: instagram.com

Dutch Design Awards

The awards that are given every year -to designs that concern different scales, from graphic design to architecture- were also of particular interest. This year, in the "Communication" category, the award went to Ruben Pater for his book entitled "CAPS LOCK". It is a thorough investigation of how much capitalism has historically limited graphic design but also how one can escape from this condition. The book includes examples from designed objects as well as designers who support this system with their actions. Another project that was awarded in the "Data & Interaction" category and caught our attention, was "Buycloud" by Studio Noa Jansma. It is an innovative investigation of how natural phenomena are transformed into exploitable resources. The investigation spans the beginnings of colonialism, the climate crisis and life on other planets. In practice, "Buycloud" is an interactive installation with video, a website and also an original "purchase" of a single cloud since it is assumed that by buying a cloud (research shows clouds tend to disappear, increasing the temperature on earth) man makes a poetic, yet stable investment.

Photo: prole.info / untold-stories.net

It is worth mentioning that all the projects that were candidates for the Dutch Design Awards were exhibited in the Microlab space, a large-scale space that has been hosting individual projects, collections and group exhibitions in the context of DDW since 2021. It is located in the Strijp-S district of Eindhoven, which is distinguished by the old industrial shells that have been revived as residences, shops, workplaces and cultural spaces.

More info about DDW here.