The Department of Energy [DOE] investigates how the river as natural occurrence influences the human environment both physical and cultural. Providing for fresh water, infrastructure, trade routes, borders and hydroelectricity, the river has become vital to the human environment. Water currents are worshipped through various religions and mythological narratives, varying from all around the globe.

The Department of Energy translates the physical places of the river valleys into audio experiences, supplemented with background and contextual understanding. The design takes an editorial approach, supplementing the audio experience – that liberates the river from its physical limitations – with background information on the local environment, tradition, nature, folklore, and mythological. The project resulted in an ever emerging visual identity and the Aghavrick Acid compact disck album that was released on the 10th of July 2020.

Department of Energy Identity Archive

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ The Department of Energy
→ @the_doe_________
→ DOE001: Aghavrick Acid Album
→ DOE: SoundCloud

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Corona Civica – Bachelor Thesis, 2019.

Visual communication (often unconsciously) heavily relies on symbolism. My bachelor thesis is a dichotomous exploration of symbolic language that investigates; (1) the transition from origin and physical application towards visual representation, and (2) the shift in meaning of symbolism. The research is conducted through the case study of the laurel wreath, a symbol internationally applied to represent victory, unity and peace.

The origin of the laurel wreath can be found in Greek mythology, in a story in which Apollo’s undesired love results in a transformation, followed by the total destruction of his concubine. It is in the Roman tradition that the laurel wreath acquires the status of Corona Civica – the civil crown – an honour that can only be achieved through military conquest. The origin of meaning aims at a specific interpretation of victory, namely through destruction or domination of the other.

Nevertheless, the same visual rhetoric is applied for peace keeping organisations such as the United Nations, anarchists counter movements like Anonymous, fascist, nationalists but certainly also commercial driven companies like Fred Perry. Napoleon himself preferred the civil crown over the crown of Charlemagne during his coronation in 1804, and Beyoncé reminds us of this rhetoric in her 2018’s music video of Apes**t.


The continuous aim to create open accessible work resulted in an experiment in which the entire design of the publication is generated by an online css script. The thesis is completely accessible online through Github, where the publication can be generated via the print command. (please consider that the prototype has been created to function on chrome and may result into error if used on another browser)

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ Github
→ Apes**t
→ Download
→ KABK: Graphic Design Thesis Archive
→ Graphic Design Thesis Collection 2019

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Even the simplest and most ordinary of user objects represent the cultural environment in which it is shaped, used, desired and created. The elements composing the object – visual appearance, method of production and materiality – can be understood as signifier and representation of cultural values. This is the language of the object.

Research plates, workdrawings and process.

The designed (research-) plates enhance contemporary aesthetics and function as ornamental fragments to exposes utilities as cultural representations. Epigrams are blended into the native typography of the object, namely the production labels. These labels form the DNA of the object, its origin, country of production, copyright ownership and material components. The labels are repurposed to supplement a narrative that guides towards an understanding of the language of objects.



Special thanks to Silvio Lorusso, Jan Robert Leegte and Thomas Buxo for guiding the project.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ Kopytoff, Igor 'The Cultural Biography of Things'. 1986.
→ Hardings, A. 'Introduction: Biographies of Things'.
→ Flemming, K. 'The one edge razor: A vivid medium of creativity and meaning'.
→ Latour, B. 'Technology is society made durable'. 1991.
→ Bridges, Thomas 'The adventures of a bank-note'. 1759 – 1775.
→ Norman, D. 'The Design of Everyday Things'. 2013
→ Are.na: Contemporary Ornament (link to visual research)

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Pirate libraries aim to share publications with the ideology to make knowledge accessible to all. The internet itself has been created with the intention of sharing information and therewith have the exceptional potential to obliviate (physical-) borders and transform the ownership of knowledge into an obsolete concept. The Pirate Reader: on Mobility is an attempt to join and support that effort and ideology in provocation against the privatisation of intelligence.

The material concerning the topic of mobility, in ownership of the Royal Library in The Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) – accessible only due request and solely to be inspected at the reading halls of the Royal Library itself – was collected and scanned manually and reorganised as one. The collection of sources, publishers and various authors are distilled into one publication on Mobility, shared through online and open source platform Github and in printed format on Lulu (and downloadable through the webpage), fully typeset in Liberation Mono, a typeface designed by Steve Matteson, registered within the Open Font License.

Special thanks to Thomas Buxo for guiding the project.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ Github
→ Lulu: The Pirate Reader on mobility
→ SIL Open Font License (OFL)
→ Liberation Mono
→ www.aaaaarg.fail
→ aaaaarg (Monoskop)
→ The Internet Archive
→ Koninklijke Bibliotheek

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The Anthroposcent is the branding proposal for a fragrance based on the exquisite minerals of the new geological epoch proposed as the Anthropocene – an era in which mankind is to be considered the most influential aspect of environmental change. The project is an embodiment of research into the topic of the Anthropocene and uses contemporary commercial (visual-) language to engage into a teasing meaningful flirt with ethics of the industry. It aims at the connection between luxurious products and scarcity of natural ingredients, and is reaching out within its own intonation for ways to communicate a message of social, political and environmental relevancy.

Bottle design (3D print & Render)

Special thanks goes out to Hamish Gardner, Alec Mezzetti and The Beautiful Meme for the support and guidance of the project.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ Welcome To the Anthropocene
→ Rock solid evidence of Anthropocene seen in 208 minerals
→ Marks of the Anthropocene
→ Global Floodmap
→ Manifest for the Anthropos [Bachelor of Design thesis by Jordy Ringeling, 2017]
→ RRUFF: Mineral database
→ The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age
→ Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today

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Known as paradise by tour guides and travellers, known for human right violations by Amnesty International. Popular holiday destinations such as Indonesia often provides a landscape of conflict. This project dives into this duality by a forensic attempt to restage the traces of a crime against humanity. Commissioned by Amnesty International, in collaboration with Frank Hemmekam, we located the crime scene of one of Amnnesty International’s priority cases and recreated the scene using a 3D modelling software. The tour through the crime scene is supplemented by a tour-guide maintaining the friction between tourism and terror.

This project was part of Models for Humanity commissioned by Amnesty International, executed in collaboration with Frank Hemmekam and guided by Lauren Alexander & Niels Schrader.

LINKS & FURTHER READING:
→ Amnesty International
→ Indonesia: Investigate police’s use of lethal force against Papuans in Deiyai
→ Amnesty International Report 2017/18
→ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
→ Forensic Evidence Handbook
→ VPRO: Tegenlicht – digitale burgerdetectives
→ Bellingcat - Truth in a Post-Truth World
→ Up to 17 people, including 6 children, shot by the Indonesian police and security forces in Deiyai, 1 killed
→ Security forces allegedly shot 17 Papuans, one dead
→ Oneibo’s victims shot by live ammunition
→ 50 jaar Amnesty International Nederland
→ Models for Humanity
→ KABK: Graphic Design & Amnesty International

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