Working Environments — Investigating Nature in the Workplace

When God created man he imbued him with the ability to create and gave him the Garden of Eden as a home.

In this thesis I would like to explore what is commonly known as ‘work–life balance’ and how it has evolved over past, present and future from the standpoint of the garden.

The Garden is used in this thesis in the sense of a designed landscape of mediation between nature and culture, since it embodies different levels of human control over wilderness. It will serve as an angle through which to study the worker and his environment.

Professions in the creative industry have historically boasted several key figures that proudly proclaim their love for nature. However Graphic Design appears to be lacking in this regard. It has traditionally been a practice that takes place indoors; it is a field that doesn’t possess any real need for nature as it serves as a vessel for culture, which has often been positioned as nature’s antithesis.

Could the Graphic Designer’s workplace ever be in nature? Does becoming a Graphic Designer demand a sacrifice of life outdoors? Does it entail negative consequences for the general wellbeing of the designer—and more broadly, for the general wellbeing of the planet?

De deepfake als een nieuwe manifestatie van een nep-identiteit

Voor deze scriptie is er onderzoek gedaan naar theorieën omtrent identiteit. Hierbij is de focus gelegd op het fenomeen van online (nep) identiteiten, het creëren van deze identiteit en de gevolgen hiervan. De komst van sociale media en bijbehorende nepprofielen laten een hedendaagse wereld zien waarin mensen zich gemakkelijker dan ooit, op een andere manier voor kunnen doen dan ze in werkelijkheid zijn. Door onderzoek te doen naar deze conventionele manieren van het creëren van een (online)nep-identiteit, ontdekken we waarom nepprofielen wel of niet werken. Daarnaast kijken we naar een nieuw verschijnsel dat gebruikt kan worden als vorm van een online nep-identiteit; de deepfake. In de media zien we vooral voorbeelden van deepfakes die vragen oproepen over de gevaren hiervan, en of de betrouwbaarheid van informatie in gevaar komt omdat gemanipuleerd beeldmateriaal niet meer van echt te onderscheiden is. Denk hierbij aan wereldleiders die speeches oplezen van mensen met geheel andere (politieke) ideeën en bedoelingen. We zullen speculeren welke impact deze techniek heeft op de door onszelf gecreëerde identiteit “The Bloodthirsty”. In het geval van onze professionele darter zullen we gaan kijken tot hoe ver het mogelijk is om deze (geloofwaardig) online te belichamen. Later zal duidelijk worden of de identiteit sterk genoeg is om ook offline te overleven.

Insights into Outdoor Experiences

After hitting a low point in my study I decided to take some time off and make a big bicycle trip through the forests of Sweden and Denmark. Despite all the challenges I faced during this trip it sincerely lifted my spirits. This made me wonder what it actually was that the trip offered me that I missed in my daily life. I decided to analyze my own adventure by comparing it to similar experiences of others. Afterwards I reinforced my findings with already written texts and research. Does an outdoor experience contain something that can increase the quality of our lives?

The success of my trip lies in the feeling of control it gave me. Our modern lives are filled with anxieties, that are difficult to get a grip on. My outdoor experience countered this feeling of helplessness. The overcoming of the mental and physical challenges I had to face during my journey boosted my confidence immensely. I named this experience and similar experiences, real experiences. These are experiences that seem scary and challenging at first but end up to be full of learning, joy and personal growth.

The Pillars of Christianity and Capitalism

The origins of this thesis can be found in Ouderkerk aan den IJssel, a small religious town situated in the Dutch Bible Belt. It is the town where I grew up and lived for two decades. I always felt completely out of place within the religious and social structures the church created. I had trouble with the hierarchy, surveillance and restrictions that were telling me how to live, how to behave, and how to be as a person. After moving away from this environment I found the space to think about these things, which I did extensively over the past few years. This kind of liberation was necessary to realise how conflicting some power structures, hierarchies and ideologies are.

In this thesis I explore if capitalism can be considered as a by-product of Christianity and, if so, how these two are intertwined. I connect the core values of the Christian church directly to the core values of capitalism. My research isn’t only executed behind the computer or in a library, but also includes important conversations, reflections on experiences, insider knowledge and even entering sacred spaces. This research resulted in a, sometimes confronting, but remarkable analysis and reflection of our western capitalistic society.

Indigenous actvism in the digital era

The original people of Brazil have a historical fight to legitimate and claim their right over their territory. I want to investigate the the natives from Brazil and their online activism from the 2010s ‘till today and, secondly, how the formation of Brazil affected the native’s territory and life. Questions like who has the right over the land and how can we repair the growing environmental deforestation will play a complementary role in the thesis. Moreover, I want to discover what role graphic design can play from the perspective of the original people.

The Power of the Norm

The result is the over-treatment of disease and medicalization and of non-medical concepts. The value-concept of normality is under the constant influence of subtle forms of manipulation by the media, politics, and the health care industry. Bodies have become political tools; to be granted access to all kinds of services and rights, one has to conform to the norm. These developments not only caused the marginalization of groups of people that have “deviant bodies,” but they also pose new ethical dilemmas.

Queering the Social Soup

Long-established rituals around food represent the current metabolic regime we are "living" in. All of organic life was spontaneously arose from the alleged primordial soup, intrinsically linking everything through this chemical broth, yet something went awry, and humans strayed from the kindred. Through diversified examples of metabolic systems, I would like to evoke a rekindling with the entirety through ingestion, digestion and discharge.

A tracing of metabolic processes on a venture to queer our relationship with more-than-human beings through the lens of ingestion and rewrite the social contract between animate and inanimate beings. Treating the universe as a soup —parts of which, through consumption we either assimilate or eject — in order to shift the mainstream perception of food rituals as generic survival mechanisms. Looking at food as much more than an energy source, it powers tentacular communication through its many forces and materialities.

Metabolic processes and ideology such as the primordial soup theory, cooking as the catalyzer of the nature —culture rift, comradeship, and going all the way to the microbe and fermentation. All aiming to bring about a new sense of how humans alter their surroundings by ways of interaction with active and passive forces.

Food is the medium of choice in this discourse as it is internalized through nearly all the senses. It creates a sensibility towards universal and local cycles where a dialogue may not seem legitimate. This dialogue is not represented in words, rather through a metabolic, spiritual and aesthetical gesture. The text works as an organism by mirroring the anthropic digestive tract and its distinctive processes.

Rhythm of Residing: Contemporary Music as a Tool for Self-knowledge

This thesis tells a story of an European-born person from African descent, me. I’m reflecting on the urgency of healing, dwelling, memorising and forgetting, concerning postcolonial thinking and self-government. I feel disconnected from the country my grandparents come from because I wasn’t born there plus I don’t speak the language.

How do I, born in Europe coming from African diaspora, deal with this process in the form of music? Is it even up to me to as a person of colour to find ways to improve postcolonial thinking? I’m researching artists that experiment with sound and visuals in order to create new narratives within post-colonialism. By analysing musical lyrics and looking at visuals, I could relate it to my knowledge in contemporary music.

Perhaps I could develop a clearer understanding of the country and the people I originally come from. Coming from a creative background moving more and more towards my musical needs, I question if music can be a greater part in the way we use the archive as we know it now as a tool for self-knowledge.

Formulas of Power

What ways are there to gain power? How does power relate to us, and what does this look like?

A research into visual aspects of power, attempting to bridge instinctive observations and research. In my thesis I am trying to find tendency and decipher formulas to achieve power.

The Phenomenon of Private Press. Printing as a form of resistnace and activism.

Private press has always represented a certain form of activism and the content produced in such environments has shaped their specific societal settings by establishing an important medium to reflect current moods. The voice of the citizens was in many cases suppressed and censored by authorities or entire governments. The sociopolitical context in which people found themselves resulted in resistance, taking various forms. However, when it comes to resisting private press initiatives turned out to be one of the most crucial and powerful means. The conditions under which these groups or individuals were producing, printing, and distributing their materials were oftentimes extreme across many countries, cultures, and systems. Examples run from a secret print house in a well in Georgia, through the internment camps in communist Poland where arrested oppositionist were able to assemble a printer from a piece of glass, rubber from shoe soles, and distilled ink from pens, to the squatters printing in various places in Europe with their stencil machines. This phenomenon show that harsh conditions were in fact not an insurmountable obstacle to create the platform of resistance but rather a stimulant and encouragement for bravery and persistence.

A Stroll With Pulsion

I’m a girl, I’m french, and I want to talk about love. “Of course!” you must be thinking right now.

Even if Rilke would judge me too young to talk about love, I am gonna take the risk and introduce you to Pulsion, a psychic drive or an instinctual urge that provokes a carnal desire for someone other than your partner. Opposite to Eros who is very faithful and regular, Pulsion, is ungraspable. Through its strong aesthetic full of artifice, Pulsion can appear in a multitude of forms. To answer my questions around the cultural representations and connotation of a sexual attraction outside an exclusive relationship, Pulsion is inviting us to follow his meandering walk around several different gardens, as a performative reflexion.

Illusive Sauce and Invisible Flights

They said that anadromous fish, like salmon, trout or cá linh migrate from one body of water to the other to reproduce.

It started almost like a horror movie themed with Holocaust, yet this time with scattering bodies of fish instead of human, big and small, buried half under the sand and half above the water. The smell of rotten marine animals, heavily fuming all over Ha Tinh, Vietnam, would intoxicate any citizen who dared to take a bite of these deadly creatures. Yet as the fish dissolved into the ground they collided with the bodies of many human beings, buried there fifty years ago when the city of Hue was heavily massacred. In 2019, 39 Vietnamese people from the same town were given the chance to live yet they chose to die, not in their own land but somewhere far away. Illegally. The three different narratives, separated by time and space, eventually came together as one: the sum of an overly stressed piece of land. The flux that was established through these different time-space events revealed the inner structure of violence and crimes. Their consequences, once had been triggered, continue to transform, penetrate, and influence as they sail through and overlap one another.

Meanwhile in Iceland, 2010, a volcano erupted like a real catastrophe. It has covered the sky of Europe in dark ashes. It has in fact, paralyzed Europe.

“For the first time, Europe turned into a real physical space that has been measured through tangible spatial and temporal coordinates.”

Flight industries were stagnated. Other dependencies? Convulsed. For 8 days, Europe seemed to have come to an end. But far away in the crowd, in the myriad of those vexed tempers, a tiny voice set forth a demand: “Test the planes! Test the planes! We need to fly!” and at an ineffable speed, the world hasted back to its norms. The norms of fumes, toxics, chemicals and plastics!

“The Earth is evil. We don’t need to grieve it.”

The Earth is 75% water. Its atmosphere are majorly nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide. A slight disruption to this ratio, in a matter of time, would throw us all into chaos. But these elements are not what we consume. What we consume is fish sauce—something delicious, something exotic, something fun! However, sauce is water: it is nitrogen, oxygen as well as carbon dioxide. It is the omnipresence that runs the factories, drives the cars, flies the airplanes. It is also the tsunami, the earthquake and the hurricane. It is a fluid that is embedded in the flux. And once it tumbles, it crumbles the world.

“The Earth is evil.” We ate a sauce and it made disasters! But what compassion there is for us when we are forever ruled by the language of the old? When our dogmatic system is indestructible? Can we even speak about our wrong doing? Let us not speak, let us “taste”.

Even if Rilke would judge me too young to talk about love, I am gonna take the risk and introduce you to Pulsion, a psychic drive or an instinctual urge that provokes a carnal desire for someone other than your partner. Opposite to Eros who is very faithful and regular, Pulsion, is ungraspable. Through its strong aesthetic full of artifice, Pulsion can appear in a multitude of forms. To answer my questions around the cultural representations and connotation of a sexual attraction outside an exclusive relationship, Pulsion is inviting us to follow his meandering walk around several different gardens, as a performative reflexion.

The Alchemical Recipe for Data Transmutation

The Alchemical arts, technology and the historical art of memory are connected in more ways that one could possibly imagine. Daily, we store and recollect information and imagery inside the architecture of our minds and transform the worth according to our inner hierarchical file system.¹ The structure in which we store memory has been explored by many throughout history, especially by those interested in the occult. Combining the alchemy of the mind and computing terms, I wish to explore the space in which memory is stored through the eyes of the contemporary artist. The exploration dives both in the physical and the digital, for many of the memory system, such as ‘The Theatre of the World’ by Robert Fludd, are based on an architectural structure surrounding logic and order, very much like the modern algorithm. In this thesis, I will research the deeper connection between the transmutation ² of value within the Alchemical arts in correlation to memory and the methods of archiving and data storage in the digital realm, questioning if modern tools such as the algorithm and the hard drive could be the contemporary alchemical ingredients that together create the recipe for the transmutation of data.

1. A hierarchical file system is how drives, folders, and files are displayed on an operating system. In a hierarchical file system, the drives, folders, and files are displayed in groups, which allows the user to see only the files they’re interested in seeing.
2. The action of changing or the state of being changed into another form.

Het zelf als esthetisch object

Ze wees naar het kopje: Processing of self as an aesthetic object ‘herken je jezelf hier in?’. Het was een van de vele kopjes die in het cognitieve-gedragsmodel voor Body Dysmorphic Disorder voorkwam. Nu begreep ik pas hoe absurd de manier is waarop ik mijn uiterlijk beoordeel.

Ik ben geen object, ik ben niet levenloos.

Meanwhile in Iceland, 2010, a volcano erupted like a real catastrophe. It has covered the sky of Europe in dark ashes. It has in fact, paralyzed Europe.

Schoonheid wordt toegekend door de mens, het is niet iets wat op zichzelf staat. Maar hoe besluiten we of iets over schoonheid beschikt? Of iemand voldoet aan het ideaal of hier juist van afwijkt? Schoonheid lijkt gepresenteerd alsof het meetbaar is. Wat is het effect van deze meetbare schoonheid op ons zelfbeeld?

Via omzwervingen langs onder anderen imperfecte paprika’s, verschuivingen van schoonheidsnormen en hedendaagse ontwikkelingen zoals het normaliseren van plastische chirurgie heb ik een beeld geprobeerd te schetsen omtrent deze vraagstukken. Door het onderzoeken en beschrijven van deze observaties en mijn persoonlijke ervaringen ben ik dichter bij een antwoord gekomen.

Green; Towards a Guidebook for Ecocritical Graphic Design

What are the aesthetics of ‘green’? I am here to answer that question and to hold graphic designers accountable for addressing, visually and conceptually, the nuances of the ecological crisis. Visual culture has neglected the issue for a long time and that has resulted in a lethal lack of public attention and discourse *. Neglect in a form of literal neglect, not touching the issue, as well as neglect in the form of repetition, in allowing it to become a static visual of green nature, femininity and non-human-culture. A static visual that predominantly appeals to a certain type of person. Which in turn causes it to appeal less to other types of people... The fear of being stereotyped is a force to be reckoned with! And I have grown bitter.

Since 2018 when Greta Thunberg and her protest sign, black on white “Skolstrejk för klimatet”, started gaining momentum, the climate crisis has become a hot topic. Since then practices and projects related to the issue have popped up all over the field of graphic design. A new generation has managed to get out of the rut, and seems to be aiming to keep it cool.

Hopeful devotion.

What does this hopeful devotion enlist? And how should it be continued? How can I start an argument about it in order to shape it? What should I be aware of when dealing with this issue as an environmentally responsible graphic designer, moving forward?

I am facing my bitterness so I can move on with my life.

1. I am well aware that there are a billion more factors, but I will claim that this “neglect” or oversight has been impactful in determining the [low] level of public interest. The power of graphic design should not be underestimated!

Ontwerp is de uitnodiging, muziek het feestje

Een zoektocht naar de rol van grafisch ontwerp in het digitale landschap van muziekstreaming

Als (hobby) muzikant ben ik altijd al geobsedeerd geweest door de kracht van muziek. Over de laatste decennia heeft de wereld van muziek zich razendsnel ontwikkeld, en muziek is nu toegankelijk in a kwestie van seconden. Mijn passie voor muziek gaat verder dan fan zijn of de melodieën en ritmes, maar omsluit ook alles wat de muziek versterkt. Een van de grootste aantrekkingskrachten in grafisch ontwerp was en is voor mij de wereld van bands met een do-it-yourself mentaliteit en het image wat ze presenteren in een digitale wereld. Zo lang als ik mij kan herinneren heb ik in mijn leven muziek opgezocht, geluisterd en verzameld.

Vóór de komst van internet richtte de discussie over democratisering van de muziekindustrie zich op het onderscheid tussen doe-het-zelf-labels, onafhankelijke platenlabels en grote platenmaatschappijen. Met het internet en digital streaming platforms zoals Spotify en Apple Music in de 21ste eeuw is het landschap van muziek maken getransformeerd. Met een paar klikken vind je suggesties, gecureerde playlists of dat ene obscure nummer waarvan je de vinyl nergens meer kon vinden. Hoe hebben streamingdiensten onze relatie met muziek veranderd? Hoe is muziek verandert met de opkomst van streaming diensten? In deze thesis onderzoek ik wat deze veranderingen betekenen voor zowel muzikant als ontwerper.

Met mijn broer Pim ‘Sebastian Kamae’ de Jonge, 22, als study case, ga ik op zoek naar wat voor rol grafisch ontwerp kan spelen in het promoten van kleinere, professionele muzikanten op digitale platformen. Daarnaast werken we samen aan zijn nieuwe album ‘Enjoy the Ride’ en kijken we wat er komt kijken bij de release van een ontworpen, conceptuele plaat in de praktijk.

In een zoektocht naar een potentiële niche voor grafisch werk na mijn afstuderen probeer ik in deze thesis een overzicht te maken van de verschillende spelers en technieken die er bij de promotie van artiesten op deze platforms komt kijken. Het is een poging om tips, tricks en kennis te bundelen en dit toe te passen in het werk dat ik maak en de diensten die ik mijn potentiële klanten graag zou willen leveren. Muziek en mijn grafische werk staan me nader aan het hart en ik hoop in deze thesis een interessante kijk te bieden op een niche in ons werk als ontwerpers en mijn kennis bij te dragen. Ontwerp is de uitnodiging, de muziek het feestje.

Chalga – The Music in Bulgarian Life

Chalga is a Bulgarian music genre, a mixture of Balkan rhythm and oriental embellishments. Being the most popular music genre in the country, it was intriguing what is it really and why the feelings towards it are so mixed. Where did it come from and where is it going?

Listening to songs and watching videos, reading academic papers on Balkan music and talking to various artists, academics and casual listeners, I noticed how well chalga represents the needs of Bulgarian society. In a humorous way, it reflects excessive wealth, enjoyment and eroticism that people crave but are ashamed to admit. Chalga ties into a much deeper problem of disturbed national identity, where it serves as a vent to release all that pressure.

How Not To Have To Explain Yourself

K-Pop is a current popular music form that derives from South Korea, which has been expanding its fame to the global scope for a while now. It represents many aspects of globalisation: you get to enjoy something that is on the other side of the world, you are able to enjoy it from home on your screens and it creates a sense of unity with fan culture throughout people residing in different continents. But at the same time, it reflects ambiguities of globalisations too: the existing social hierarchies and senseless acts of representations are repeated through K-Pop. From regressive views on gender to evident misogyny, to imperialistic mentality, to extreme competitiveness of the industry that turns ambition of people into profitable devices. This thesis aims to contextualise and understand how K-Pop operates and what it represents to the global audience of today. Ultimately, an attempt to get rid of these views and mentalities will suggest how not to have to explain yourself to others, the latter being the title of my thesis.

Disconnection and Ephemerality

An Immersion in the Panta Rhei of Liquid Modernity

Around me, I have started to perceive and co-experience a kind of uprooting. A growing niche of people in Western society seems to get disconnected and detached from fixed values in life. Stable, life long relationships, jobs and residencies are swapped for temporary ones.

The speed with which we make connections and break them just as easily signifies this era. Philosopher and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman refers to it as Liquid Modernity, as its inhabitants are light and liquid. This thesis discusses the root of this shift (meritocratic thinking and neoliberalism) and some of the ways of being that it affects (domestic tendencies, sense of identity and sexual orientation).

Through desk research and a visit into the life of someone embodying the symptoms of Liquid Modernity, I am hoping to find out if we really are light and liquid and if so, what are the mental and material repercussions of living life in such a manner?

Were lychens grow the air is clean

Everything we are and everything we have is a gift and has to be given away in turn. — Léon Bourgeois

Lichens are symbiotic organisms deriving from the mutually beneficial association of two (sometimes three) individuals: a plant and a fungus. There are not two that are alike. The fungus provides the structure, mineral salts and water for the algae, this in return keeps the fungus alive with organic compounds produced by its photosynthesis. If you find some you are probably breathing clean air: lichens are very sensitive to sulphur dioxide pollution.

Likewise collaborations between humans seem to depend on a similarly fragile balance between mutual interest and the right environmental conditions as in cultural and political landscape.

I started to see many advantages in collaboration as a working method after noticing that most of my* projects I am satisfied with are fruit of the latter. By aiming to define the fragile essence of collaboration I wonder how it coexist with increasing rivalry.

What ways of learning does collaboration generate? Can it become a safe space for creating work that is immune to competition? And finally, were do we learn to collaborate?

I comb my hair with a fork

The valuable essence of fairy tales against the prejudices of adulthood.

“There is no such a thing as The Fairy tale. There are Fairy tales. When we see them we know them; we sense that they are. I congratulate writers for bringing our ageless anxieties and hopes once more to light through the hypnotic and clinical lens that is fairy tales”.
Jack Zipes.

When you look up the definition of fairy tale you will find many descriptions and definitions, vague and wrong, all opinionated. The truth is that fairy tales are hard to put in a box, they have existed for centuries and have taken thousands of different forms. They have this thing, this aura that allows them to be told repeatedly for generations. Magic polymorphic, any teller can make them his own. To me, it is enough to be fascinated by them…. But I am an adult now, and adults are not sensitive to fairy tales in general, because they think they’re “not meant for them”...As I grew up, I have trouble sharing my interests.

I’m misunderstood. “I knew it, of course, she loves fairies and elves because she wears pink lol». I am not taken seriously. “Clara, fairy tales are not serious matter, they are for children.” I can read their eyes.

Well, are they really? I don’t know if people would read the story of Little Red Riding Hood to their offspring if they knew that the little girl is proposed to “sleep” with the wolf, eat her granny, drink her blood…which happens to be the first version of the story! Fairy tales bring hope, imagination, moral and self-reflection, but also show misogynistic behavior, gender discrimination and child abuse. They are insightful yet terrific. Are they really for children then? Or are they for adults? What makes them childish and why do I think they’re not? I was told that life is not a fairy tale. I’ll show you reader, that in fact, it is.

Beeldvorming door Beeldvormers

Hoeveel invloed beeld heeft op sociale regelgeving en wat is de positie van een beeldmaker? Om een mijzelf als beeldmaker en hiermee ook anderen een beter perspectief te bieden en om te kijken of er is als een neutraal of tijdloos beeld. Vrijheid bestaat ook binnen onvrijheid, die ervaring van vrijheid is bijna niet vast te houden.

Ook niet in beeld. Ik heb via interviews en het analyseren van archief materiaal mezelf een breder beeld proberen te geven en nieuwe linken met bestaande theorie te leggen.

Welke rol speelt beeld in het creëren van onvrijheid binnen vrijheid rondom de de positie van de vrouw in het werkveld?

Je hebt verschillend beeld, met verschillende functies. Ik ben hoopvol dat vrijheid op vele manieren ervaren kan worden en dat er betere manieren zijn om dit te proberen vorm te geven.

Een aantal vragen die ik nog heb zijn. In hoe verre beïnvloed dat terug kijken dan ook het kijken naar de toekomst? kunnen wij beeld maken wat daadwerkelijk tijdloos is, of losstaat van een sociale regelgeving? En kunnen we beeld maken wat ons verlost van sociale regel geving?

Kicking Sandcastles and Burning Effigies

Destruction has 4 phases, each of them I experienced during my experiment. It starts with MEANING, the phase the destruction gains a conceptual meaning.

Phase two is EXITEMENT. During this phase, adrenaline will kick in and the fun begins. You have to be carefull not to get carried away at this point.

The third phase is POWER. This is the point that the destruction will show it’s potential and it’s danger. If used properly, this power can change the world.

Lastly, the fourth phase is RELAXATION. Your muscles start to relax, your brain is at ease and you feel relieved. A weight has been lifted off your shoulders. The world is now a better place.

a Leaf, a Tree, a Screen

This artistic research discovers different representations of nature through the works and thoughts of several artists, writers and filmmakers that have put nature in a contemporary context of computer-generated imagery. Contextualising with myths and stories, our quest to understand the phenomena of nature, leading back in history and time, yet finding ourselves until today questioning our relationship with nature. Reminding us of the importance of going back to nature and the untouched, healing the nostalgia within us, while nature is slowly fading in each successive leap in technology.

With the fast development of 3D technology we achieved the means and tools of recreating our own natural environment on screens and inevitably changed the way we interact and perceive nature. This prompted leap in technology has changed our relationship with nature at its core, introducing new perspectives of views. Replacing the stable and single point of view established by the linear through multiple perspectives ¹ and vertical time ², as 3D technologies are capable of twisting and manipulating reality, pausing time as a refuge of the eternal. With each alternating upswing in technology, we meet our perceived static nature shifting; we fear the distance between us and what is natural, expanding — soon to be out of reach. Paradoxically, with each upswing in technology, we have the means to crawl back into new natural environments, artificial, transformed, yet intangible.

• Multiple perspective: as a broad theme of possible views, representations and roles; We can adopt nature to this theme of holding multiple function and new ways of rethinking it.
• Vertical time: as a term breaking linear time and its concept of a certain past and a uncertain future; Vertical time holds time suspended, in free fall, floating, static and eternal.

What was that story again? — On Family Lexicons and Anecdotes

There is a thing that we’ve been saying in my family for a while now: every time that somebody wants to suggest something to do, the person says: ‘Ho pensato… !’ (I was thinking… !), and then we all start laughing. This started happening because my grandmother starts almost all of her speeches in her personal way of pronouncing ‘Ho pensato… !’

By taking family lexicons and anecdotes as its main subjects of investigation, my thesis is an attempt to dive into family traditions and memories, and understand what they represent and how they influence our upbringing and development of personal identity. I am interested in discerning the meaning and symbolism of these small stories, traits and habits in a broader context, trying to map out how they can affect our social interactions with a collectivity.

In my research I analyze the role of oral tradition and narratives as a vehicle to portray, preserve and hand down personal family heritage and history. I examine oral narratives as tools to pass on not only tradition, culture, habits and values, but also unhealed traumas, taboos, internal conflicts throughout generations.

The writing focuses on different aspects of the subject, such as: the performative quality of family stories, the ordinariness of these anecdotes, the family dynamics that these episodes bring to light, the iconicity that terms and stories acquire with time, the openness to manipulation that oral narratives have.

The thesis, which presents itself as a collage of personal experiences and external references (such as conversations with my close ones), aims to unravel the relationship between personal and collective memories and situations.

Brainchild of Humanity

In my thesis I investigate the empathic relationship between humans and robot/interfaces. I have always been fascinated by robots since I was a child, but, at the same time I did, and still do, find them them very unsettling. There is something about this non-human factor that captivates me and that drives me to dig into this subject.

I want to find out how can aesthetics assist in this process of designing empathy in lifeless machines. And what can I do, from the perspective of a designer, to make this process easier and faster? I have been approaching this subject in many different ways: I’ve been reading articles from the MIT social robots group and explored into Japan’s tradition of animism. In my study cases I focus especially on children’s social robots.

As a designer, I am a mediator in between these two worlds, exactly like I am this mediator in my stories: first I write in the position of humans, then I write in the position of a robot. This approach helped me exploring this topic in a more experimental and personal way and made me reflect on my own empathy towards the characters of the stories as well.

HOT MONSTER COMPOST

An investigation of fan-art depicting animal-human hybrid figures and explicitly sexualized monsters online.

These artworks display imaginative use of the animal- human hybrid figure, that often differs from the most common and normalized use, for example depicting a sexualized reptile pin-up instead of the more commonly represented enigmatic cat-lady. Besides, the popularity of these images alone, as reflected by the frequency of which they are made, commented on and shared, is reason enough to study them.

The fan-artists’ productivity is incredibly high, often for no reward other than the gratitude of their followers. I explore both the oppressive, othering and the emancipatory effects of representations of hybrid figures, as well as conditions under which the animal-human figure is positive.

I lean heavily on other critical thinkers in my text to give perspective to my research. Core examples are Mel Y. Chen and her book Animacies, Eve K. Sedgwick and her essay “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading”, Andrea Chu Long and her essay draft “Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans?” and Ursula K. Le Guin and her essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”.

I reached out to the artists and conducted interviews with Camille Cailloux (FlyingRotten on Twitter and Instagram), Darkoshen (DeviantArt) and Dracowhip (DeviantArt). I explore both the divide and overlap between the intent behind their images and how they are received and used by the audience. The crossinvestigation of illustrations, interviews and theory give an insight into how becoming an object by choice and through fantasy can be both desirable and necessary for alternative storytelling and new erotic experiences.

HYPERDISASTER

What started as a small local environmental movement for addressing climate injustice grew, and in one year became a global resistance to business as usual, while our planet’s decades are being counted. The people go to the streets, block roads and ask their governments to act immediately. These events sparked hope in millions but the governments just ignored them. The science is clear as day, yet the world seems to be paralysed in it’s addiction to consumerism. By studying disasters I learned about different aspects of human behavior in extreme circumstances. I synthesise my findings into a term Hyperdisaster. I explore what exactly it means and how I can use it to look at the changing landscape of civilisation.

The body as a political vehicle in Russia

This thesis examined the relatively recent emergence of body-protest art in Russia, which replaced a literary text. This shift can be nearly equally attributed to the cultural, socio-political and economic shifts after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Analyzing works of Petr Pavlensky and other activists as an example of a new movement in the Russian art and revealing particulars of using the body in political protesting discourse, I would like to answer the question: what led to the appearance of such a body representation in Russia?

Perhaps a secret of understanding actions of Pavlensky explained in his favourite phrase: “The history of art is the history of a clash of a man and power”, where the legacy of Michel Foucault is noticeable. I also examine historical significance of literature in the Russian society before considering changes.

Mass media propaganda creates a certain veil that does not let make correct assessment of the political situation in Russia. I hope that I will slightly reveal this veil in an attempt to demonstrate and clarify the picture in Russia without hiding anything from outsiders.

“Your power ends where my body begins, because you can never do more to me than I have done to myself.” (Marat Guelman, 2016)

• A. Monastyrsky, “Slogan 1977”, Moscow, 1977 “I do not complain and I like everything, despite the fact that I have never been here and do not know anything about these places.”

Meta-Weather

Through the usage of metaphors and visual metaphors a representation of meteorological phenomena has been created. This Thesis will focus not so much on the weather itself, but on the recreation of the weather in the imagination of individuals. The weather is deeply rooted in how humans understand and experience the world. It is one of the topics that for thousands of years has been left to religion to explain. Only during the past 300 years have we been able to better understand why these phenomena occur.

Only through the help of technology and human ingenuity and imagination have we reached this current point in time, where the sky has finally unraveled most of its secrets. Through the analysis of historical representations of these phenomena, I hope to unravel how we perceive contemporary- weather in the past and in the future.

“Weather is the key paradox of our time. Weather that is nice is often weather that is wrong. The nice is occurring in the immediate and individual, and the wrong is occurring systemwide” -Roni Horn (You Are the Weather, 1997)

Towards Mobility: Becoming Liquid Autonomy

This text considers the implications of mobility on the neoliberal subject, both living and working environments, suggesting that under globalised conditions of precarity, inequality, and lack, which ultimately is not sufficient anymore for designers to stay mobile and autonomous in the long run. We find ourselves physically and mentally liquid and flexible. It departs from looking at myself reflected in the window, where home decorations are permanently displayed. I explore ways that certain objects are ultimately directing the subject to search for social-construction, and to spend energy maintaining individual. I draw a parallel with the freelance designer today where the work has become liquid and hybrid by mobility, and in what aspects can they be oriented to maintain autonomy in relation to our behavior. I take a look at the subject through my own experiences and observations on different locations as I move, such as houses, parties, streets, and cafes and use them to provide historically and theoretically defined research to articulate my perception of the mobility. We might be exposed to the dangers that are veiled by neoliberalism through media, classification, rights and now security, behaviour, and identity. To maintain our autonomy, such structures needed to be built and the cooperative is a model to develop our autonomy in a hybrid and liquid world.

“Deep Surfaces”

In my bachelor thesis I focus on the concepts of surface as techne. I track the outset of the technical flatness back to the accessory used by the archaic accountants. I analyse how the re-invention of the surface for economy shaped the social structures of the first city-states. Next, I inspect the production process of the capitalist fetishised shine embodied in a polished car body. I speculate on how the linear movement of the conveyor belt’s surface as well as the catered sequences of the first film projections shifted the agency of a user. I present the haunting, zoomorphic surface of an oil film as the ultimate product of the ‘turbo-capitalism,’ as coined by Susan Schuppli. Finally, I focus on the concept of the vibrant surface within. I inquire about the crystalline surfaces of today’s screens, which resonate with conductive proteins in our bodies. Together, they extrude and transcend the flatness into the impenetrable architectures of power.