Design Commissions
Together with Bart van Merode, Roel Huisman shaped the spatial design of the Speculative Design Archive exhibition.
Speculatief Design Archief
Het Nieuwe Instituut is using a temporary archive to speculate on the importance of a Dutch design and digital culture archive. On the basis of thought-provoking examples, the Speculative Design Archive explores the form and meaning that a collection of this kind might assume in the future. The installation follows the entire archivisation process, throwing light on every aspect: from collecting, classifying and describing items, to the reconstruction of provenance, determination of value and discussion of importance. Various archives are shown in the exhibition from organisations such as V2_ and Droog, companies like Vlisco and Artifort, and a variety of designers including Wim Gilles, Kho Liang Ie, Cubic3 Design, Lust, Geert Lap and Hella Jongerius.
In Belgium, exhibition design as well as stage design falls under the heading 'scenography', points out Roel Huisman, who regularly works as a theatre designer. "In both cases, it's a question of conveying a storyline to a public in a fixed time and space," he says. The key question for the Speculative Design Archive exhibition was: should an archive be created for Dutch design and, if so, how should it look and what criteria it should satisfy? "We started out not by showing a collection, but by making the archivisation process visible," Huisman explains. The result is a large structure that fills the main gallery of Het Nieuwe Instituut like an enormous filing cabinet.
"We stacked the various stages of the archivisation process," says Huisman. "Right at the top, in the attic, there's the material as you find it, stored in boxes, crates and cupboards. Beneath that is a space where the material is sorted and evaluated. We have conceived this space as a laboratory where the material collected is examined: what should be kept and how? Right at the bottom, on the ground floor, stories are presented that have been distilled from existing archives in various ways." Huisman is pleased with the result: "We have been able to elaborate and spatially implement the idea of a filing cabinet in which visitors make their own way through the archivisation process."
Roel Huisman
Roel Huisman graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2000 as an interior product designer, subsequently tackling other disciplines including architecture and scenography. He assisted Jan Versweyveld on various Toneelgroep Amsterdam productions directed by Ivo van Hove, designed interior products and worked on a project for urban renewal in Amsterdam. He is currently developing products and working as an interior designer and scenographer for De Theatercompagnie, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Het Nationale Toneel, De Rotterdamse Schouwburg and others. In 2009, Roel Huisman was awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize for his work as a designer.