Future Makers at Dutch Design Week

This year, Future Makers presents itself as part of the virtual ArtEZ exhibition at the Dutch Design Week. Theme of this year’s DDW is “The New Intimacy”. Here we present the research projects Going Circular Going Cellulose and Designing for Precarious Citizens.

The ArtEZ presentation at the Dutch Design Week 2020 shows some results of our education and research programme which are related to the changing intimate relationships between bodies, objects and spaces. Relationships that may make people vulnerable or might empower them.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses the question in what kind of future we want to live together. The most important policy measure taken in this context is a distance rule (varying from 1 to 2 meters in European countries) between people. What does (physical) distance mean for our intimate relationships that are desirable and necessary, both in the private and public environment. The New Intimacy not only questions the relationship between people, but also the relationship between human bodies and the spaces and objects surrounding them.

What does this changing intimate relationship mean for the way we would like or are forced to engage with each other? Can our engagement or collaboration be empowered by deleting physical boarders in a global virtual/online space? But also, how do you deal with loneliness and how do we relate to each other and our environment, both directly and indirectly in this new situation of social distancing?

Visit our virtual exhibition and the 3D viewing rooms here.