Research at 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 institute as a place for interdisciplinary research and cross-pollination that exceeds the confines of conventional academic disciplines.
Sandberg Research enables different research cells to engage with research in their own specific methodology. The research cells at Sandberg are functioning as semi-autonomous research units and each have a specific and current topic.
Each research cell initiated by Sandberg Research is run by a senior researcher who formulates their own research goals and programming. Although there is a lot of freedom in the direction of the research, there are typically two types of activities: substantive research by the senior researcher, in which applied and autonomous research has a place and the education-related activities that introduce findings from the research into education.
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.
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.
"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
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.
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
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.
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.
A workshop by research fellow Wael el Allouche.
Keep your mind in the gutter.
Flavia Dzodan talks Godzilla & Kaiju & Philip Coyne talks Bigfoot and other green men
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
Join us for another screening and discussion on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.
17:30-20:00
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.
Eva Hoonhout
Tom Vandeputte
postgraduate, research, lecture series, publishing, CrD, PhD
Join us for the first in a series of screenings and discussions on ecology, environment and cinema. Open to students, staff and graduates.
Wed 27th October: Preservation & Protection
17:30 - 20:00
This session will examine notions of conservation, preservation, enclosure, homeostasis and ecosystemic thinking.
Room: TBA
Silent Running (1972) Directed by Douglas Trumbull, 89 Mins.
In a future Earth barren of all flora and fauna, the planet’s ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft. When word comes in that the pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed so that the spacecraft can be reused for commercial purposes, most of the crew of the Valley Forge rejoice at the prospect of going home. Not so for botanist Freeman Lowell who loves the forest and its creatures, so decides to take matters into his own hands to protect what he loves.
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Mood Keep (2018) directed by Alice dos Reis, 14 mins
The world population of captive axolotl has had enough of the aggressive electric lights of their aquariums. Communicating via wireless waves and watching anime telepathically, they decide to develop eyelids to shut their eyes, reclaim the agency of their bodies and encourage empathic communication. Alice dos Reis’ Mood Keep imagines this collective moment of rebellion and resistance of the endangered salamanders.
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For those that wish to participate, the screenings will be followed by a group discussion of the films and assigned reading (found here):
Please register to attend: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/green-screens-preservation-protection-tickets-194384598567
Wed 10th November: Pollution & Radiation
17:30 - 20:00
This session will examine notions of environmental degradation, ecological collapse, sites of exclusion and anxities of nature’s revenge.
Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971) ‘ゴジラ対ヘドラ’ Directed by Yoshimitsu Banno, 85 mins
An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to defeat this toxic menace.
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(Untitled) Human Mask (2014) by Pierre Huyghe, 20 mins
Huyghe’s film is shot in a location ravaged by the recent tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster at Fukushima. A singular inhabitant wanders through a gloomy interior wearing a traditional Japanese theater mask, a woman’s wig, a white shirt, and a dress resembling a school uniform. We soon realize it is a monkey, although the creature’s attentive, anxious attitude and body language suggest an ambiguous humanity.
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For those that wish to participate, the screenings will be followed by a group discussion of the films and assigned reading (found here).
Wed 23th November: Agency & Animism
17:30 - 20:00
This session will focus on non-human agencies, Animism, Supraorganisms and Ameridian Perspectivism.
Phase IV (1974) Directed by Saul Bass, 84 mins
After a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind and attempt to kill anything that gets in their way.
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Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come......? (1965) Directed by Paddy Russell, 57 mins
Henry Wilkes cultivates rare tropical plants as a hobby; with an attention to detail which is, perhaps, closer to an obsession. The length to which he goes to propagate and nurture new hybrids alarms his wife. Is there more going on in the greenhouse than could safely be exhibited at the next Battersea Flower Show?
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For those that wish to participate, the screenings will be followed by a group discussion of the films and assigned reading (found here).
Wed 15th December: Extraction and Exploitation
17:30 - 20:00
This session will focus on capitalist extraction, the exploitation of natural resources, as well as the exploitation of human labour and human bodies in these processes.
The Wages of Fear (1953) Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, 153 mins
In the South American jungle, supplies of nitroglycerine are needed at a remote oil field. The oil company pays four men to deliver the supplies in two trucks. A tense rivalry develops between the two sets of drivers on the rough remote roads where the slightest jolt can result in death.
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Under the North Sea, dir Federico Barni + Alberto Allica (2018), 18 min.
One kilometre underneath the North Yorkshire coast, salt miners and research scientists work side by side at the edge of the biosphere. A young woman finds a new future in the darkness of this extreme environment.
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For those that wish to participate, the screenings will be followed by a group discussion of the films and assigned reading (found here).
