Universiteit Leiden

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Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA)

Making Matters. Collective Material Practices in Critical Times

The NWO-funded research project Critical Making engages with practices that cross the disciplinary boundaries of art, design, engineering and technological making, and (artistic) social intervention.

The project is a collaboration between several educational and art institutions, represented by members who together form a working group: Leiden University (Prof. dr. Janneke Wesseling, main applicant), Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam (dr. Florian Cramer, co-applicant), het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam (Klaas Kuitenbrouwer), de Waag Society (Lucas Evers), and West Den Haag (Marie-José Sondeijker).

Recently, the title of the project has been changed into Making Matters. The emphasis is on collective material practices that transgress the classical opposition between theory and practice, or thinking and making. These practices actively engage with our catastrophic times and generate collaborations that connect social, technological and cultural concerns. They show a potential to develop a comprhensive approach to art, science and technology, driven by the necessity to fundamentally reimagine the relationship of humans to the world.

Making Matters is also the title of two conferences organized by the working group, one in 2018 and one to take place in November 2020. The outcomes of the two conferences will be presented in a book with the working title Making Matters. New material practices beyond the opposition of thinking and making. It will be a cross-media publication, connecting textual and image contributions, as well as rich media content.
 

  • Janneke Wesseling Professor Emeritus Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts
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