Research at the Rietveld Academie and the Sandberg Instituut is research that opens the possibilities of imagination. This means that questioning dominant paradigms becomes embedded in the way we approach learning, making and creating. Imagination that is not limited to the way things are but rather to the possibilities of what could be. We conceive of the academy as a place for interdisciplinary research and cross-pollination that exceeds the confines of conventional academic disciplines.
This perspective on research is grounded in a broad and encompassing practice that challenges conventional ways in which knowledges are produced. Drawing on critical pedagogy, critical making and emancipatory research, we give space to an environment that opens itself for different ways of producing and approaching knowledge. We believe in emancipatory research that does not require endorsement from institutions either academic or from civil society but research that operates independently and across disciplines driven by the needs of broad developments. No longer bound by canonical practices that dictate what is proper knowledge, we open ourselves up for the possibilities of the uncharted, those paths that have not yet been forged and do not yet have a space of institutional representation. This intentional subversion of canonical knowledge should not be confused with chaotic or non-rigorous research practices. On the contrary, we purposefully foster rigorous research from an emancipatory perspective based on principles of openness, empowerment, accountability and reciprocity.
In our search for new forms of engagement with research we work through de-centering and dislocating the traditional sources of knowledge to give way to what has always been relegated to the periphery. Knowledge, then, not as a top/down resource that is transmitted through authoritative practices but as part of shared experiences where the emphasis is put in searching together rather than in uncritical dominance.
Presentations and conversation by Agustina Woodgate, experts from the DLR (The German Aerospace Center) and students from Cologne International School of Design (KISD) and Parsons The New School.
A lecture on the impossibilities of algorithmic translation. "Amorino Latente/ Latent Cupid” revolves around the translation of art and its emotional impact through algorithmic and computational processes.
Presentations and conversation with Marjolijn Bol, Julia Ills (Bio Design Lab) and Clementine Edwards (The Material Kinship Reader). Moderated by the Material Research Group.
Climate Imaginaries at Sea: artistic research residency project with Müge Yılmaz and LOOM. Tasting with Brackish.
Tour of conservation studios followed by a workshop at NICAS (The Netherlands Institute for Conservation+Art+Science+) and the Atelier Building of the Rijksmuseum
Join us in commemorating and celebrating the work of Rob Schröder, visionary documentary filmmaker and graphic designer, co-initiator of the activist design collective Wild Plakken, co-founder the Sandberg Instituut, and tutor at Sandberg Design, Shadow Channel and Resolution.
Elioa Steffen & Szymon Adamczak arę doing a workshop with the Book Binding Workshop and Sandberg Design, facilitated by IPOP and Materiality Research Group.
During their talk IPOP will share insights from their Queer Feedback Sessions—an artistic pedagogical research project exploring theories and methodologies for queering performance feedback while supporting the development of LGBTQ+ artists.
This workshop brings together the students of the TXT bachelor department, the Garden Department and other living organisms in a collective site of material research to engage with material practices weaving together human and other-than-human knowledges.
Tom Vandeputte will reflect on the concept of critique and its relation to the idea of an exit from an untenable situation, followed by a discussion with Marija Cetinić.
The Climate Imaginaries at Sea coalition is excited to invite you to our upcoming festival in Amsterdam. An event for artistic and participatory research practices that speculate possible futures in and around water. Join us for an exciting week-long exploration with two exhibitions, an open studio day programme, the launch of the second issue of the Making Waves zine, a closing concert and more.
We are delighted to invite you to the launch of the publication of Plot(ting) on April 17th from 14:30 to 19:00, hosted at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Fedlev Building, Room FL101.
The Philosophy Seminars of the spring-summer semester will focus on George Bataille’s writings on animals and animality. Over the course of three seminars, convened by Tom Vandeputte, we will discuss Bataille’s famous texts and lectures on the figuration of the human and the animal in the Lascaux cave paintings; the place of the animal in his theory of religion and the sacred; and the ethical and political implications of his brief essay The Friendship Between Man and Beast, addressing the subjugation and liberation of animal life. Besides Bataille’s philosophical reflections, we will also discuss his notes for an unrealised film, found among his papers at the time of his death. The seminar series is open to all, but registration is necessary and a commitment to attending all three seminars is appreciated.
We are proud to announce the launch of the Sandberg Instituut Graduation Exhibition 2023 Publication, titled Perpetual Stew (2024), the second in a new series of publications organized by Public Sandberg which began last year with The Salmon of Knowledge (2023). Perpetual Stew compiles the writing of 18 incredible authors who were invited to conduct interviews with and ruminate on the works of our nearly 60 graduates, from 7 departments.
A series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema.
This three-part program aims to explore anxieties surrounding human-animal relations, as depicted in 20th-century genre-fiction movies. We will watch and discuss three films together, each selected to represent specific anxieties expressed through cinema, either directly or metaphorically.
To kick off the year 2024, we are happy to invite you to join us for the book launch of 'The City as Anthology: Movements at the Margins of Public Space' by Mariken Overdijk on 13 January at 3pm, at Zone2Source, Amstelpark, Glass Pavilion.
A programme by Flavia Dzodan, head of the Research group on Algorithmic Cultures
Research Café is a series of lectures on methodology, open to all students, staff, tutors, and alumni of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut.
Curves of Inquiry is a Gerrit Rietveld Academie initiative that showcases the findings of nine artist-researchers who completed a fellowships trajectory in the previous academic year. Each of these projects is carried out in close collaboration with a department of the Rietveld Academie or Sandberg Instituut to foster relationships between educational programs, research activities, and societal issues.
Unionizing the Speculative is an informal gathering that invites precarious cultural workers whose value of labor is likely to be challenged under the influence of generative AI. Participants will explore the collective strategy of advocacy through Speculoos biscuits containing AI-generated images.
Müge Yılmaz’s work and research presents speculative narratives on the future distilled through feminist science fiction. Over the academic year, Müge will be working with the students from TXT and Architectural Design, while conducting her own research into salt. These activities are part of the Climate Imaginaries at Sea project. On October 5th, Müge will introduce her research project on salt.
On October 5 LASP hosts a lecture by Müge Yilmaz on salt. Before the lecture, from 11.00 to 13.00, you have the opportunity to attend a workshop by the Brackish Collective in the kitchen of the Sandberg Instituut. Working with halophytes and other salt-resistant plants - all which grow in the dunes and coastal areas of The Netherlands - this workshop will be an experimental tasting and attempt at collaborative sensorial mapping involving ten plants, ranging from sea asparagus and dune roses to sea purslane, sea buckthorn and red clover, amongst others.
"I am going to be your last teacher. Not because I'll be the greatest teacher you may ever encounter, but because from me you will learn how to learn. When you learn how to learn, you will realize that there are no teachers, that there are only people learning and people learning how to facilitate learning." – Moshé Feldenkrais
Apply for the international exchange project, WASALIWA, a collaboration of Framer Framed, the Sandberg Instituut and the Oceania Arts Centre in Fiji. We are looking for Amsterdam based artists to explore the ecological history and future of the Pacific Islands through a series of workshops 5, 6, 7, and 8 June 2023. Send in your motivation statement before 26 May to apply!
Join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema.
Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.
Auditorium, 3rd Floor, Sandberg BC Building.
A workshop on how to apply algorithmic image creation with deep learning techniques for artists and creatives.
Workshop by: Enrique Gutiérrez
Hosted by: the Artificial Intelligence Research Cell at Sandberg Instituut
The ARIAS coalition Climate Imaginaries at Sea invites you to Studio Encounters on Water, a two-day event filled with workshops, presentations, talks and pod reading sessions where you can learn more about what we’ve done, where we are going and how you can be part of it.
An open call for the research group Art and Spatial Praxis run by Patricia de Vries with Liza Print.
Deadline: April 13, 2023
Public Sandberg presents its monthly series of talks—PUBLIC SEWER—where guests are invited to speak about the strange things building up in the margins of their creative practices.
IN SEARCH OF MONEY seeks to unravel how art and design within capitalism are driven by money. We will consider if culture, like people, is inevitably cast in a role of extremes - money-making machine or oppressed victim.
Workshop and Lecture Series by the Research Fellows of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut 2022/23
Public Sandberg presents Public Sewer 4: Graduation Book Launch Edition, where we will launch Sandberg Instituut’s Graduation Publication for 2022—titled The Salmon of Knowledge, the first in a new series of publications—featuring works of and essays about graduating students, and made in collaboration with Our Polite Society and photographers Sander van Wettum and Tom Philip Janssen.
February 15th @ Critical Studies Studio Space, 4pm-7pm
Hosted by Sandberg Research - Artificial Intelligence
What is the role of publishing within practice-based research? In research publications, more often than not media production—be it audiovisual or any other form of artistic practice that isn’t writing—is still seen as somehow inferior; mere support material.
Expanded publishing, or expanded outputs as we define it, is the research lens that tries to solve this question by going beyond both traditional and artistic publishing practices.
With THE VOID (a new research project set up by INC), over the past year, there has been tons of research and experimentation with audio-visual production and distribution. To do so, THE VOID team decided to approach the topic by starting the production of their own content, in collaboration with artists. Now, after the first year of experimentation, we are trying to collect different ideas and questions that arose during this time of research. To properly set up a research agenda, we believe it’s crucial to engage in conversations with other artists, researchers, and experts from within the field.
In setting up this event, THE VOID aims to gather and discuss the role of expanded publishing and its possible trajectories. The program will consist of two parts. First, we begin with the presentation of the multimedia research done by the artist collective timeis.capital, which is creating a repository for self-organized initiatives in the art world through different multimedia means such as video, audio and 3D footage. This presentation will be the starting point for a broader discussion on the role of publishing and archiving for practice-based research. How can publishing be expanded to non-text-based output as well? What does it mean open source publishing audiovisual projects? How can artistic researchers share transparent workflows without diminishing their labor? How we can make the language of practice-based research more understandable? How do we make a wide variety of conversations happen in audio-visual language? We would like to discuss these and many other topics together with a group of experts from various fields such as art research, education, publishing, archiving, and (new) media industries.
4pm-7pm @ Critical Studies theory room
Keep your mind in the gutter.™
This year, Critical Studies research fellow Olya Korsun organises a series of seminars to collectively map out and question the contours and layers of ecological imaginaries through the study of eco-critical theory and experimental/queer/world cinema. We will open up the second meeting with the question: «How can we even talk about imagination without reviving the spectre of human exceptionalism?»*
What if instead of imagining new worlds we could learn to imagine the existing ones differently and celebrate the coming-to-an-end of human/language/Western – centred imaginaries?
Guided by the lines from Federico Campagna and films by Ana Vaz, Renée Nader Messora, João Salaviza we will look at how worlds are built and left in ruins and how Magic can be transformed from incurable disease into a tool for world-making.
Open Call for a new kenniskring/ research group run by Flavia Dzodan - deadline extended to 23rd of November 00.00AM.
Invitation to: Fellows Exhibit - a symposium and exhibition by the research fellows 2021-2022.
Keep your mind in the gutter: S*an D. Henry-Smith talks Hunter x Hunter and Daniel de Paula talks DJ Screw.
Critical Studies auditorium, 4pm-7pm.
Research Cafe is an informal seminar series where you can learn more about various research methodologies from different senior researchers at Rietveld and Sandberg. These seminars are open to all students, staff, tutors, and alumni of Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut. Below you can find more information about each session. Preparation is not necessary. Please sign up via the form below. Per session we have space for 20 participants.
Location: Library Gerrit Rietveld Academie
A workshop by research fellow Wael el Allouche.
Jeroen Boomgaard has led LAPS (Research Institute for Art and Public Space) for 19 years of its existence and has established a strong foundation for artistic research at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut. For over 19 years he has facilitated and strengthened countless relationships between (international) educational institutions, artists, researchers, commissioners and developers, operating in the realms of artistic research and art in public space.
To commemorate Jeroen's achievements, we will say farewell with a symposium on some of the topics he has pursued throughout his career.
Keep your mind in the gutter.
Flavia Dzodan talks Godzilla & Kaiju & Philip Coyne talks Bigfoot and other green men
Professor Patricia de Vries will present her inaugural lecture at the start of the academic year 2022–2023. In this lecture, she will elaborate on the research area of LAPS, that will be expanded to ‘LAPS/The City’ in the coming years.
Join us on Monday 23 May 2022 from 16.00-18.30 at Rietveld Academie's Theory Stairs for presentations and discussions on the imagination of the end times in art, design, architecture, and philosophy.
Please join us in the Rietveld/Sandberg library next week, Tuesday 17 May—for a playful writing workshop focused engaging with language, material, categorisation and storytelling—hosted by Toni Brell and Naomi Credé.
@ 5:30 PM, join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.
Please join us on Thursday, April 28, from 17.00-18.30, for brief presentations by the recipients of the "Ecological Imagination” stipends. Each of the four recipients will share and discuss a sample of their research in progress, prompting a collective discussion on the study of ecological crisis, environmental justice, and planetary futures.
@5:30 PM, join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.
lecture & workshop series by the 2022 Research Fellows of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and Sandberg Instituut
@ 5:30 PM, join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.
@5:30 PM, join us for an evening of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff, graduates and friends.
16:00-18:00 @ Theory Stairs
A public lecture hosted by Femke Herregraven with keynote speaker, dr. Rodrigo Ochigame.
Join us for another screening and discussion on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.
17:30-20:00
17:00-19:00 @ Auditorium 3rd floor BC, Sandberg Instituut
A process-presentation by PhD affiliates in works and words
A radio broadcast marathon concluding with the pre-launch of BLACK REVELRY: In Honor of "The Sugar Shack"
Join us for another screening and discussion on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.
17:30-20:00
A symposium and exhibition of the Research Fellows of 2020-2021
The Research Cafe is a space to support research projects led by students at Sandberg Instituut. Each session revolves around a specific theme and text related to Artificial Intelligence that we use as a starting point for discussions on the topic. The idea behind the research cafe is to discuss different approaches and understandings to the session’s theme. It is meant as a moment to share “unfinished thinking”. That is, a process of exploring and expanding the possibilities of open-ended research.
Join us for the first in a series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.
On Wednesday 22nd we welcome you to the first Sandberg Research event In Search of Lost Time, hosted by Gabrielle Kennedy. During the sympsium, invited guests Thierry Geoffroy and Toby Sterling alongside alumni David Womack, Johan Deletang, Andrea Gonzalez, Juliette Lépineau, Simpson Tse and Jelia Veldeman will present their research in order to explore the meaning of time in art and journalism. The symposium takes place at Theory Stairs at 4pm.
Title: Navigation, Gutter, Bleed: Movement and the Visual
Date: Tuesday May 18th
Time: 14.00-17.00 CET
Location: location tbc via mail
Description: movement workshop
Title: Mind the Body, Move Matter
Date: Monday, April 26 2021
Time: Practice-based session 1: 10.00-12.00hrs | Practice-based session 2: 14:00-16:00hrs
Location: GYM Gerrit Rietveld Academie.
Participation: Reservation only, max. 15 participants each session. Reserve a spot through eventbrite links below. Note it's for students of Rietveld/Sandberg/Personnel only.
Title: Ghosts in the family
Date: 22nd of April
Time: 10:00-15:00 CET
Location: 616BC, Sandberg Instituut
Title: Solar Design
Date: 21st of April
Time: 17.00-18.00 CET
Title: MAGICAL MYSTERY HEIST, a guest lecture by Frederico Campagna
Date: 14th of April
Time: 19.00-20.00 CET
Title: Black Revelry: Feeling with The Sugar Shack
Date: April 13th at 7pm
Time: 19.00-20.30 CET
Title: Ship space against civic space
Date: 12th of April
Time: 11.00-12.00 CET
Dear Students and Staff, you are very welcome to join the online launch for the book IN/Search RE/Search!
The research fellowships are a Sandberg/Rietveld initiative to pursue different knowledge practices involving topics such as Artificial Intelligence, The City and New Materials. From both Rietveld and Sandberg a few candidates are selected to research one of the topics and share their project with the students and the community. This fellowship symposium is an ONLINE EVENT open to all Rietveld and Sandberg students. The programme and live stream link will be shared prior to the event.
On 28th of September 2020 Yael Davids publicly defended her research concluding the first Creator Doctus (CrD) trajectory. She was awarded the first CrD degree!
The focus of Yael Davids’ research A Daily Practice is on somatic learning and consists of three phases. The research, supervised by the Van Abbemuseum and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, is inspired by the work of Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais developed a method for people to change bodily habits from within. This method has played an important role in Davids’ artistic practice in the last years.
Publication IN/Search RE/Search, edited by Gabrielle Kennedy, designed by Haller Brunm and published by Valiz with Gerrit Rietveld Academie / Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, features works by various Sandberg & Rietveld alumni and students. The publication explores how:
Eva Hoonhout
Tom Vandeputte
postgraduate, research, lecture series, publishing, CrD, PhD
Presentations and conversation with Marjolijn Bol, Julia Ills (Bio Design Lab) and Clementine Edwards (The Material Kinship Reader). Moderated by the Material Research Group.
Wednesday 27 November
18:00
Library, FedLev building
RSVP: mark.redele@sandberg.nl
The Materiality Research Group is hosting a presentation followed by a conversation where three guests will offer different perspectives on collective sites of material inquiry such as material archives and libraries, material preservation and conservation practices and possibilities of kinship in the material world.
Participants in the conversation include:
- Julia Ihls (HfG) – Researcher, designer and managing director of the Bio Design Lab, Karlsruhe.
- Marjolijn Bol(KNAW, UU) – Art historian and researcher with a focus on art, materials and making.
- Clem Edwards – Artist, researcher, jeweler, and co-editor of The Material Kinship Reader.
Julia Ihls
Julia Ihls is an interdisciplinary researcher and designer at the intersection of (natural) philosophy, media theory and spatial staging. After studying art and media science (M.A.) in Konstanz and Cork, as well as scenography/media art (Dipl.) in Karlsruhe, she worked as a copywriter for the ZKM Karlsruhe, among others. Since April 2021, she is head of the Bio Design Lab at the HfG Karlsruhe, where – in addition to teaching and curating – she researches new (bio)materials and convivialism.
In her media-based dissertation project ‘Labmospheres’ at the Chair of Architecture and Design at the Technical University of Munich, she is investigating transdisciplinary laboratory structures based on international case studies. Building on this, she conceived and realized the TUM Bioregional Design Lab, which functions as an evolutionary platform for networking and collaboration with local partners using local resources.
Marjolijn Bol
Marjolijn Bol is Associate Professor in Technical Art History and PI of the ERC Project Dynamics of the Durable. Trained as an art historian, her research intersects with historical studies of craft, heritage, knowledge, and the environment with a special focus on performative methods (reconstruction) and written sources on art technology. In 2014, Marjolijn received a Veni grant for her research on the history of imitation materials in the arts. Her current ERC research project investigates a long-term history of durability in art from the perspective of artisans and patrons, see our project website for more information. In 2018 she established the ArtLab at Utrecht University, a cross-disciplinary space for research and teaching from the perspective of making and materials, hosted by the Department of History and Art History. It has since become a space for bringing together research and teaching activities devoted to technical studies, digital methodologies, citizen science, and with a special focus on cultural heritage, with a focus on learning by making.
Marjolijn is a member of De Jonge Akademie of the KNAW and the Utrecht Young Academy. Two recent publications include The Varnish and the Glaze (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and The Matter of Mimesis , co-edited with E.C. Spary (Brill, 2023). She on the editorial boards of Studies in Art & Materiality (Brill), a peer-reviewed book series dedicated to innovative scholarship about the relation between art, materials, and making and of Art Matters, an international journal for Technical Art History.
Clem Edwards
Clem Edwards is a Rotterdam-based artist whose practice moves between language and sculpture. Their work enacts material, experiential and affective residues of daily life. Holding space for enchantment, their work brings into conversation the possibility of the glittering dream castle and the deep knowing that the Disney story cannot exist without the labour, gender and land conditions that produced it. In 2022, miniatures were the focus of their Gerrit Rietveld Academy fellowship and they published The Material Kinship Reader (Onomatopee, 2022, co-edited by Kris Dittel).
Materiality Research Group
This presentation and conversation is part of a series of activities concocted by the Materiality Research Group (Anja Groten and Márk Redele), and kindly funded by CoECI. The Materiality Research Group revisits the role of workshops and their pedagogies, asking how material comes to matter in the face of contemporary social and ecological challenges.
