Roundtable #3 On Gathering & Conviviality in Design and Art Research
[Introduction to the roundtable will follow]
Peter Zuiderwijk (Moderator)
Peter Zuiderwijk is a The Hague-based designer that specialises in research-based design. Together with Karin Mientjes he runs the collaborative work-structure Collective Works. They take a collaborative approach to design, working with people from all walks of life to create projects that are relevant to a specific environment.
Collective Works gives equal weight to various aspects of multidisciplinary participative design, from the process of observation and analysis to its final form of execution. Most work, either commissioned or self-initiated, relates to socio-spatial questions. Collaborative answers, questions and insights are embedded in activist campaigns, analytical reflections, situational identity branding, spatial proposals or social interventions. In doing so, it is the intention of Collective Works to develop strategies in a broader perspective, with projects that supersede the traditional field of graphic design.
Peter Zuiderwijk (Moderator)
Peter Zuiderwijk is a The Hague-based designer that specialises in research-based design. Together with Karin Mientjes he runs the collaborative work-structure Collective Works. They take a collaborative approach to design, working with people from all walks of life to create projects that are relevant to a specific environment.
Collective Works gives equal weight to various aspects of multidisciplinary participative design, from the process of observation and analysis to its final form of execution. Most work, either commissioned or self-initiated, relates to socio-spatial questions. Collaborative answers, questions and insights are embedded in activist campaigns, analytical reflections, situational identity branding, spatial proposals or social interventions. In doing so, it is the intention of Collective Works to develop strategies in a broader perspective, with projects that supersede the traditional field of graphic design.
Andrea Stultiens
Blue Brothers, collective modes of investigation and situated ambitions.
Since 2008 Ugandan elder Kaddu Wasswa (1933) and I collaborate in efforts to develop knowledge production with and around grass roots (photo) archives in Uganda. This led to several publications and exhibitions. It also led to misunderstandings and friction, perhaps not surprising given our very different backgrounds and subject positions. In my brief contribution to the round table I will make an effort to unpack these conditions and what they result in, based on our most recent publication: Able & Willing. This fully made in Uganda publication is also the first in s series addressing the relationship between archives and museums within the particularly stuated context of Uganda. The title of the series, ‘Blue Brothers’, is based on a poem written by Kaddu Wasswa.
Andrea Stultiens
Blue Brothers, collective modes of investigation and situated ambitions.
Since 2008 Ugandan elder Kaddu Wasswa (1933) and I collaborate in efforts to develop knowledge production with and around grass roots (photo) archives in Uganda. This led to several publications and exhibitions. It also led to misunderstandings and friction, perhaps not surprising given our very different backgrounds and subject positions. In my brief contribution to the round table I will make an effort to unpack these conditions and what they result in, based on our most recent publication: Able & Willing. This fully made in Uganda publication is also the first in s series addressing the relationship between archives and museums within the particularly stuated context of Uganda. The title of the series, ‘Blue Brothers’, is based on a poem written by Kaddu Wasswa.
Common Ground Practice
They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home
Common Ground Practice is a collaboration between Georgina Pantazopoulou (Greece) and Ilaria Palmieri (Italy). They met during their Master’s studies at the Interior Architecture department of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK).
At the moment of their encounter they were engaging with participatory practices in the spatial realm to contest hostile domestic living conditions, developing specific research tools to engage with a different vision of architecture in working in refugee centers and patriarchal domestic environments. Once they completed their studies they felt the necessity to develop those practices. With Common Ground Practice they hosted participatory workshops at De Voorkamer in Utrecht, at the AZC ( Asylum seekers’ centers) Den Helder and Leersum, at the Milano Design Week 2024. They are co-authored and editor of the publication project They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home which will be published at the beginning of 2025 with the support of Stimuleringsfonds.
Common Ground Practice
They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home
Common Ground Practice is a collaboration between Georgina Pantazopoulou (Greece) and Ilaria Palmieri (Italy). They met during their Master’s studies at the Interior Architecture department of the Royal Academy of Art (KABK).
At the moment of their encounter they were engaging with participatory practices in the spatial realm to contest hostile domestic living conditions, developing specific research tools to engage with a different vision of architecture in working in refugee centers and patriarchal domestic environments. Once they completed their studies they felt the necessity to develop those practices. With Common Ground Practice they hosted participatory workshops at De Voorkamer in Utrecht, at the AZC ( Asylum seekers’ centers) Den Helder and Leersum, at the Milano Design Week 2024. They are co-authored and editor of the publication project They asked me to design a house, I asked them to design a home which will be published at the beginning of 2025 with the support of Stimuleringsfonds.
Leonie Brandner
Cosmopoiesis of mandragora
The Mediterranean-growing mandragora is a medicinal plant and one of the best-recorded gynaecological herbal substances across history. In Ancient Greece, it was used as an aphrodisiac, a sleeping aid and as a narcotic in surgeries, to induce labour and expel stillbirths. But the mandragora is much more than simply medicinal – the plant gets mysteriously depicted in drawings as half-human-half-plant. The stories that emerged over 3000 years around the enigmatic human-plant grew into a fairy-tale and even a belief known as the ‘Alraunglaube’ (eng. mandragora belief). The belief stimulated a blackmarket, was used in the hunt on witches as evidence of magic and was most potent where the plant itself never even grew: on the North side of the Alps. But by the start of the 19th century, the knowledge of the plant and its story vanished into obscurity.
The research Leonie Brandner conducted around the mandragora has taken on two forms: as a book titled Three Becomes Two Becomes One Becomes None - cosmopoiesis of mandragoras published by Onomatopee and as a sung performance for fifty singers and one actress in collaboration with the opera singer Nina Guo titled If Only.
Whereas the book is personal as much as historical research of the mandragora plant both as a plant and in narratives around Europe and Asia, the performance is a contemporary interpretation of the mandragora’s many myths, a homage to a magical plant in sung form
Leonie Brandner
Cosmopoiesis of mandragora
The Mediterranean-growing mandragora is a medicinal plant and one of the best-recorded gynaecological herbal substances across history. In Ancient Greece, it was used as an aphrodisiac, a sleeping aid and as a narcotic in surgeries, to induce labour and expel stillbirths. But the mandragora is much more than simply medicinal – the plant gets mysteriously depicted in drawings as half-human-half-plant. The stories that emerged over 3000 years around the enigmatic human-plant grew into a fairy-tale and even a belief known as the ‘Alraunglaube’ (eng. mandragora belief). The belief stimulated a blackmarket, was used in the hunt on witches as evidence of magic and was most potent where the plant itself never even grew: on the North side of the Alps. But by the start of the 19th century, the knowledge of the plant and its story vanished into obscurity.
The research Leonie Brandner conducted around the mandragora has taken on two forms: as a book titled Three Becomes Two Becomes One Becomes None - cosmopoiesis of mandragoras published by Onomatopee and as a sung performance for fifty singers and one actress in collaboration with the opera singer Nina Guo titled If Only.
Whereas the book is personal as much as historical research of the mandragora plant both as a plant and in narratives around Europe and Asia, the performance is a contemporary interpretation of the mandragora’s many myths, a homage to a magical plant in sung form
Rising Lai
Participatory Design In Dementia Care
Rising Lai is a Taiwanese designer-researcher specialising in universal design, inclusivity, and social justice. With a background in MA industrial design at the KABK, Lai's work spans assistive products, educational tools, and installations.
Currently pursuing a PhD with the HOMEDEM project, Lai's research focuses on innovative, participatory approaches to engaging people with dementia in meal decision-making. Through group discussions, photos, tastings, and interviews, Lai explores how collaborative methods enhance autonomy and person-centred care in dementia.
Rising Lai
Participatory Design In Dementia Care
Rising Lai is a Taiwanese designer-researcher specialising in universal design, inclusivity, and social justice. With a background in MA industrial design at the KABK, Lai's work spans assistive products, educational tools, and installations.
Currently pursuing a PhD with the HOMEDEM project, Lai's research focuses on innovative, participatory approaches to engaging people with dementia in meal decision-making. Through group discussions, photos, tastings, and interviews, Lai explores how collaborative methods enhance autonomy and person-centred care in dementia.
Pangaea
Patatrac, have you also become a We?
Pangaea is a collective based in The Hague (NL) initiated by Elisa Piazzi and Johannes Equizi. They address social and environmental issues by combining self-publishing, architecture, speculative, and game design. Collectivity and co-creation are investigated both as methodologies as well as research topics.
Pangaea’s first project, Patatrac, have you also become a We?, is a publication that explores the complexities of collaboration through conversations with various collectives. It reflects their desire to understand what it truly means to work together in a world increasingly shaped by individualism. With this dialogical research Pangaea aims at creating a terrain to stimulate exchange of knowledge and experiences.
Pangaea
Patatrac, have you also become a We?
Pangaea is a collective based in The Hague (NL) initiated by Elisa Piazzi and Johannes Equizi. They address social and environmental issues by combining self-publishing, architecture, speculative, and game design. Collectivity and co-creation are investigated both as methodologies as well as research topics.
Pangaea’s first project, Patatrac, have you also become a We?, is a publication that explores the complexities of collaboration through conversations with various collectives. It reflects their desire to understand what it truly means to work together in a world increasingly shaped by individualism. With this dialogical research Pangaea aims at creating a terrain to stimulate exchange of knowledge and experiences.
