DISTANCE AND PROXIMITY
Recent events have made me realise that distance and proximity, and their interrelationships, could well be the essence of what our design practice is about. Many of the projects we work on are meant to provide an overview. Zooming out and removing visual noise is one way to create a new image, and thus a new understanding of a situation. But filtering is not the only tool we apply. Overview can also result from the contextualisation of a subject, or by deliberately adding noise to highlight its complexity. Within the studio we arrive at such a synopsis through the exchange of ideas and experiences. Being close is especially important for such conversations. Not by looking at each other – whether or not via camera, network and liquid crystals – but by looking together at work that is shaped in dialogue.
It feels contradictory, but to achieve critical distance one has to be close to the subject and the subjects. Especially since we work in an international environment, we have learned that locality and physicality – next to the universal principles of the design field – are essential components for our work to resonate with the different readerships. Any attempt at creating an overview can only succeed when the designs, through their materialisation, the levels of detail in information and visual translation, and their physical presence, make a direct connection with people across the globe.
DISSERTATION
Last April Joost Grootens successfully defended his dissertation ‘Blind Maps and Blue Dots: The blurring of the producer-user divide in the production of visual information’ to obtain the doctoral degree at Leiden University. During a five-year term in the PhDArts programme he investigated what contemporary mapmaking practices can reveal about the ever-evolving field of graphic design. Especially the adoption of digital modes of production has fundamentally altered the practices and the impact of this design discipline, and it changed the relationship between the producers and users of visual information. The project, in which academic and artistic forms of research were combined, discusses and visualizes the consequences of what could well be perceived as a paradigm shift. These fundamental changes resonate throughout the publication ‘Blind Maps and Blue Dots’ as it studies the tools, strategies and output of contemporary mapmaking practices – of both amateurs and technology companies – that have appropriated the technologies to design and publish visual information.
On occasion of the defence, SJG produced a limited-edition print run of the dissertation. One hundred books from this small series are now for sale at €50 per copy (including VAT). Additional costs for postage & packaging amount to €5 (NL), €10 (Europe), or €20 for the rest of the world. If you are interested, please send a mail to pr [at] joostgrootens.nl before August 8th. You may only order one book per person.
Ten copies are reserved for students at a reduced price of €25 (plus the aforementioned costs for postage & packaging). Please add the word STUDENT to the subject line of your email. The books will be randomly assigned if demand exceeds the number of copies available.
Later this year Lars Müller Publishers will present a commercial edition of ‘Blind Maps and Blue Dots’.
RECENT WORK
Formafatasma Cambio
The Italian designers Formafantasma initiated a long-term investigation into the timber industry: from global commercial forestry to local ecological activism, and from cellulose fibres to the manufacturing and distribution of wood products. Their project Cambio was planned to be exhibited at the Serpentine Galleries, London in the Spring of 2020, and has now been scheduled to reopen 29 September.
The catalogue ‘Formafantasma Cambio’ has already been published. It mirrors Formafantasma’s characteristic mixture of learning and practice, described by Serpentine’s directors Hans Ulrich Obrist and Bettina Korek as bridging ‘research-led projects and the wider design industry, offering insight into how design can be an agent of change and championing ecological responsibility.’
The catalogue contains a collection of essays, interviews, and images in which the main topic is approached from a variety of domains such as (natural) science, technology, nature conservation, policy, and philosophy, linked to role that design(research) can play in contributing to a sustainable, collective response.
The design of the catalogue is inspired by the typology of the botanical guidebook, but also the academic publication and the encyclopaedia. This is reflected in the density of information on the page, the choice of a serif typeface, the off-white paper and the gold-foiled title on a linen cover.
In accordance with the eclectic, inquisitive and highly contemporary contents of Cambio, the book design also questions its own formal components. The grid is flexible, the typeface (Or Lemmen) is fairly recent, and the coated and printed cover adds a certain lightness to the book. A photo series on the closing pages of the catalogue depicts an investigation on the paper chosen for the inside work (EOS 2.0). Microscopic scans were made to ascertain that no rare types of wood were used in the paper production.
The Academy of the Sublime
Artist Erik Odijk is best known for his large, extremely detailed drawings, often made on site, in which he captures fragments from nature. His photography and spatial installations deal with the same subject. A selection of his works in these three artistic disciplines has been brought together in the book ‘The Academy of the Sublime’. Loose sheets of paper have been folded together to create three separate sections dedicated to each of Odijk’s media, held together in a wrapper of green paper.
The object as a whole is big: 27x36 cm. This large format allows viewers to let their eyes wander in the mazes he constructs and appreciate the complexity of keeping things simple. This maxim actually defined the design of the publication. Sometimes the images are large, sometimes small as the work of the artist deals with time, concentration, scale and detail. The way they are loosely placed on the page invigorates this sensation of a hike through uncharted domains that are as aesthetically attractive as they appear to be gloomy.
Erik Odijk describes this dichotomy as follows: ‘The Sublime can help describe the current depression of the human condition, but also contribute to the formulation of a constructive response. The Sublime is about the experience of an individual who dares to confront and to engage with what is beyond their understanding and knowledge, and tries to make sense of it.’
The Grand Projet
Over the years, our long-standing collaborations with Kees Christiaanse, his studio KCAP, ETH Zurich and Future Cities Laboratory Singapore have resulted in a range of books on research projects in architecture and urban planning. The latest addition, ‘The Grand Projet. Understanding the Making and Impact of Urban Megaprojects’, couldn’t be more aptly named. Around 1.5 kg of material and 640 pages were needed to present the comparative research conducted by The Future Cities Lab on eight urban megaprojects: four in Asia (Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore) and four in Europe (Hamburg, Paris, Barcelona, London). We custom designed around 200 maps and diagrams for the book that was selected as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs 2019.
Rijksakademie on the Map
From 1870 onwards a remarkable range of high-ranking artists have been affiliated with the Rijksakademiein Amsterdam. In light of its 150th birthday, a project was initiated around 441 works of art in public space, situated in Amsterdam, all made by artists affiliated with the Rijksakademie. We designed a map that doesn’t just show the locations of art in public space, but also addresses the civic role that artists have played in city development. It tries to activate the works in the context of an important topical debate on monuments, urging all of us to question who or what these artworks represent (and do not represent).
Route Kunst
The Dutch Research Agenda is meant to provide a positive and structural contribution to the global knowledge society of tomorrow, in which new knowledge flows freely from researcher to user and where new questions from practice and society quickly and automatically find their way into new research. Route Kunst is one of the pathways in this national agenda, concentrating on the contribution that art and research can bring to innovation in the 21ste century. In collaboration with professor Janneke Wesseling(Leiden University), who represents Route Kunst, we worked on the design of a new website.
OTHER RECENT WORK
GERMAN AWARD
In ‘Architecture and Argument’ architecture critic Hans Ibelings analyses the work of Amsterdam-based Team V Architecture. The architectural projects particularly stand out due to Team V’s conviction in the intricate relationship between architectural appearance and argument. Form is not the result of free will or determinism, but rather the logical consequence of a complex debate about why and how a certain form can embody a project's values, solutions, and aspirations.
Last month, the book (published by Hatje Cantz Verlag) was chosen as one of 25 Most Beautiful German Books 2020. The jury of the Stiftung Buchkunst was impressed by the meticulous execution of the design, from the materialization of the cover to the subtle distinctions in paper between the critical introduction and the portfolio pages, and the use of a warm grey colour throughout the book. The jury report concludes: ‘Nothing is left to chance. Without causing any disruption, subtle navigational elements are placed right at the edges of the side and bottom margins of the page. The grey thread runs through to become visible in the stitching of the sections – a document of elaborate understatement.’
PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
Due to the current regulations around conferences, seminars and other public or educational gatherings, Joost Grootens has been forced to interrupt his lecturing practice. However, several recent lectures can still be viewed online:
The architecture of books
Lecture at The Berlage, Delft University of Technology
13 December, 2019
Complexity and contradiction in designing information
Lecture at Scuola Politecnico di Design, Milan
28 May, 2019
More matter, with less art
Lecture at Visual Knowledge conference, Aalto University, Helsinki
10 May, 2019
Or read one of these recent interviews:
‘The Doubleness of a Map’, interview by Natassa Pappa, published in:
Desired Landscapes: a magazine reading into cities, issue 03 (2020), 34-51.
‘Designers as Educators’, interview by Belle Phromchanya, published in:
Term Paper 02: Below Sea Level (2019), 8-45.
c-SITE #2 Topic: Sample (2019).
‘Interview Joost Grootens’, interview by Nadine Botha,
published on website Design Academy Eindhoven, 2020.