Reinterpreting Design HeritageReinterpreting Design Heritage

During the event, the four speakers will touch on issues concerning how to unlock design heritage and the importance of digitisation. They offer an insight into the current application of design and digital culture archives that are organised in a decentralised way. What does it mean to look back at design history, how does that work in the existing landscape of collections, and how does it influence contemporary design practice?

Design and digital culture contribute significantly to the way in which Dutch society defines, manifests and advances itself. In order to fulfil the social role assigned to them, the design disciplines must have access to a kind of 'collective memory' that is properly preserved, managed and accessible. For this purpose, the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture (NADD) was established in 2020: a partnership of more than 40 Dutch institutions focused on Dutch design heritage.

NADD is working on this much-needed consultable memory for the design and digital culture sector. It combines the knowledge and strength of heritage institutions, museums, educational and cultural institutions, knowledge institutes, designers, governments and other partners. The network also lays a solid foundation for sharing insights and experiences and for jointly developing new knowledge. The network is based on the connecting capacity of the individual partners and the specialist knowledge of the various actors. Network members pull together when necessary and respect and utilise the strengths of independent members when possible. In addition, NADD is committed to making visible and strengthening the existing programming and public activities of all network partners; where necessary, the network contributes by developing new or additional programmes.

Designer

Bas van Beek trained at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. His work offers a critique of market mechanisms, branding, poor conceptualism and uncritical designer cults. He studies archive materials, restoring, adjusting and digitising designs that were often unrealised or unpublished. He was the head of the designLAB department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2009-2013) and currently teaches the industrial design master's course at the Royal Academy in The Hague. In 2019, he was awarded the Stokroos Stipend for Ceramics.

Programme Manager Network Archives Design and Digital Culture

Brigitte Jansen is a graphic designer and project manager in the cultural sector. In addition to her own design studio, Jansen has been working as programme manager of the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture since the beginning of 2020. In her work, she argues for the importance of using heritage. She therefore emphasises how important it is for museums and archives to open up their collections.

Designer

Toon Koehorst is a designer, editor and curator. Together with Jannetje in 't Veld he runs an editorial design practice in Rotterdam. They produce books, exhibitions, concepts and research for museums, publishers and other institutes. Toon is a tutor at the Information Design Master at Design Academy Eindhoven and visiting lecturer at several academies.

Director Van Abbemuseum

Charles Esche is director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; professor of contemporary art and curating at Central Saint Martins, UAL, London and co-director of Afterall Journal and Books. He teaches on the Exhibition Studies MRes course at CSM, and at Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.

Outwith the museum, he (co) curated Power and Other Things, Europalia, BOZAR, Brussels 1017; Art Turns, Word Turns; Museum MACAN, Jakarta 2017; Le Musée Égaré, Kunsthall Oslo 2017 and Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse 2016; Jakarta Biennale 2015; 31st Sao Paulo Bienal, 2014, U3 Triennale, Ljubljana, 2011; RIWAQ Biennale, Palestine, 2007 and 2009; Istanbul Biennale, 2005; Gwangju Biennale, 2002 amongst other international exhibitions. He is chair of CASCO, Utrecht. He received the 2012 Princess Margriet Award and the 2014 CCS Bard College Prize for Curatorial Excellence.