You are invited for the launch of The Critical Makers Reader published by the Institute of Network Cultures and edited by Loes Bogers and Letizia Chiappini.
During the Critical Making evening #2 Loes Bogers and Letizia Chiappini will launch the long awaited Critical Makers Reader: (Un)learning Technology with presentations of Anja Groten, Deanna Herst and Wim Nijenhuis. The Critical Makers Reader brings together questions and reflections that arise “at the intersections of maker culture, critically applied research methodologies, interdisciplinary collaborative practice and emancipatory pedagogies and the commons.”
The evening is moderated by Lucas Evers.
There are limited places available for this evening. Admission is free. Register here.
English is spoken during this event.
Critical Making
Critical Making evenings happen in the context of NWO supported project Bridging art, design and technology though Critical Making, a collaboration between Anja Groten, Shailoh Philips, Pia Louwerens, Dani Ploeger and Janneke Wesseling (PhD’Arts, Leiden University, Royal Academy of Fine Arts) Florian Cramer (Willem De Kooning Academy), Marie-Jose Sondijker (West Den Haag), Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Het Nieuwe Instituut) and Lucas Evers (Waag).
Bridging art, design and technology through critical making aims to understand how art, design and technology can fullfill a critical and reflexive role in society, including the possibility of revealing and challenging power relations. The project asks whether aesthetics can play a role beyond the superficial aesthetics of consumer culture and most important can Critical Making be truly critical by overcoming the industry logic of techno-optimistic makeability?
About Loes Bogers
Loes Bogers works as a researcher at the Visual Methodologies Collective based at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, where she also coordinates and teaches the interdisciplinary semester course Makers Lab: Making as Research. Loes is the co-founder of arts-based feminist research group the Body Recovery Unit, and core member of the Hackers & Designers collective in Amsterdam.
About Letizia Chiappini
Letizia Chiappini is an urban sociologist and PhD candidate at the University of Milano Bicocca and the University of Amsterdam. Her PhD project focuses on the concept of urban platforms, investigating hyped phenomena such as the ‘sharing economy’ and ‘maker movement’ in Amsterdam and Milan. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht.
About Anja Groten
Anja Groten is a designer, educator, and community organiser investigating collaborative processes of design. In 2013 Anja co-founded the initiative Hackers & Designers, attempting to break down the barriers between the two fields by enforcing a common vocabulary through education, hacks, and collaboration. Since 2018 Anja is a PhD Arts candidate and researcher at the consortium ‘Bridging Art, Design and Technology through Critical Making’.
About Deanna Herst
Deanna Herst is senior research lecturer and a PhD candidate at Willem de Kooning Academy / University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam. After graduating as an art historian with a thesis on photography (MA, Utrecht University), her current interests lie in art and design in the context of technology and open design. Most recently she has been developing her dissertation on authorship in open design and participatory aesthetics, a topic that she has published and lectured on internationally.
About Wim Nijenhuis
Wim Nijenhuis is an architect, writer, and Associate Professor Emeritus in Theory in Art. Wim’s work has featured prominently in the domain of architectural theory and history, with articles and books published such as The Diabolical Highway (2007) and The Riddle of the Real City (2017). His current research concerns the theory of making in architecture and its role in architectural practice. His focus is on the concepts of creativity and matter. Under what conditions can matter be an active participant in creative processes? Currently he is finishing his book The Response of Matter, due to be published next year by ArtEZ Press.
