Design – 35 projects selected| Stimuleringsfonds

In the fourth Design round of 2023, 35 projects have been selected. Tibor Bijl, Design Grant Scheme coordinator, reflects on the round.

25 January 2024

general impression

This round includes the themes of biodiversity, artificial intelligence, humanity, inclusion, non-human perspectives and the interplay between digitalization and working by hand. Within these themes, the projects reflect on global events and the position of humans in them. There is also a growing awareness about the position of humans in systems and chains, which is reflected in the applications on biodiversity and the non-human perspective in this.
This round has seen an increase in artistic research across the various sub-disciplines of the grant scheme. The projects are more investigative in nature and place less focus on a tangible outcome or application. In addition, this round includes a number of cross-disciplinary projects as well as projects that are at the intersection of design and art or design and performing arts, which also involves an increase in seeking collaboration with other disciplines.

selection

The available budget in this round was not sufficient to award a grant to all 35 positively assessed applications. A few notable projects from this round’s selection are:

Ik ben de chauffeur – Curious Wolf
Ik ben de chauffeur (I am the driver) is a short animated diary documentary by Floor Adams about a young woman’s years-long struggle with her eating disorder. It shows a personal and poetic insight into her thoughts in which she expresses herself critically and harshly, but above all vulnerably, about herself and those around her. Matching her style of writing and thinking, the film uses different graphic styles to translate her reflections, inner conflicts, food lists, shopping lists and poems to the audience in a layered way. With the film, Adams aims to give a voice to anyone directly or indirectly affected by the issue of an eating disorder, in the hope that the reflections will contribute something to signalling and understanding. In addition to film and animation festivals, scientists, social organizations and educational partners are involved in the distribution strategy.

Klootviolen in het publieke domein – 75B Rotterdam
With the project Klootviolen in het publieke domein (Scumbags in the public domain), 75B advocates for more space for an investigative and artistically driven approach to the design of traditional communications. Klootviolen represents a method of muddling along and messing about, and a contrarian attitude. In parallel with an exhibition of its own work at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, 75B is developing autonomous and experimental communication for the public space. These autonomous communications are displayed in traditional communication media in the city, disseminated through press releases and on 75B’s social media. The aim is to expose a wide audience to deviating communication images and, as a result, enrich the range of communication in public spaces. 75B demonstrates that an artistic approach in communication can be seen and appreciated by a wide audience and can therefore be of interest to cultural institutions, precisely in order to distinguish themselves from the others.

Library of Unruly Fashion Practices – Hanka van der Voet
With the Library of Unruly Fashion Practices project, writer and researcher Hanka van der Voet is working to create a website and platform. With a focus on anti-capitalist, queer, feminist and decolonial perspectives, Van der Voet’s aim with the new library project is to bring additional perspectives to the fashion industry. In addition, critical fashion practitioner Tjerre Lucas Bijker has been commissioned to produce a small publication and a series of garments that explore the tension between fashion, commodification and queer activism. The project shows the political layer involved in quoting and referencing and the potential erasure and exclusion of groups it can result in. What can we learn from hidden and untold stories from archives and libraries about positive and sustainable ways of working on fashion?

Common Ground Practice – They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home
The project They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home by Georgina Pantazopoulou and Ilaria Palmieri (Common Ground Practice) comes from a long-running research study into the design of living space. The publication offers a critical look at the design of the domestic environment and aims to establish new design principles for it, from an intersectional feminist perspective. The publication is filled collectively with dialogues, essays (including visual essays) and real-life examples from different generations of designers, artists and architects. The book is being illustrated by Georgina Pantazopoulou, and Caterina Santullo is designing a font. In addition, Common Ground Practice is developing an interactive programme of presentations and workshops at various locations in the Netherlands to test and put into practice the contents of the book.

Click here for all the projects selected in Design in 2023.

numbers

Of the 58 subsidy applications taken into consideration, 35 are receiving grants. This brings the percentage of applications receiving grants to 60.3%. The budget available for this round was € 450,000.