Unlinked (Works)
Unlinked
Dislocations, disappearances and deprecations.
This year’s graduation show of the Piet Zwart Institute’s Master of Media Design & Communication (Lens-Based & Networked) perhaps reflects a shift in popular culture. Whereas no self-respecting media self-help book or newspaper article published in the last decade missed using ‘linked’ or ‘stay connected’ in the text several times, a more recent rash of articles and runaway best-sellers feature words such as ‘introvert’ or ‘silence’. Have we reached a consensual moment where we might all agree it has become urgently necessary to critically look at how the words ‘social’ and ‘media’ might be used together? Is it becoming increasingly pressing to explore how contemporary media forms pervasive networks of both communication and mis-communication? To look at how media can foster community yet also create isolation and foster loneliness?
Each project reflects a unique research trajectory over two years: each artist has developed a unique media language through which they have researched particular topics and then – through a cycle of studio-based practice and critical reflection – have created the artworks and research projects you will find in this show: works about dislocation, disappearance & deprecation.
Thanks to TENT curator: Willie Stehouwer
The art of documentation
The Art of Documentation was developed throughout the year with 1st-yr. students documenting 2nd-yr. projects by Annet Dekker.
In a society of fierce competition between creative entrepreneurs, artists are asked, or forced, to be more and more visible. Not only do they need to appear at openings, talk to potential clients and present uplifting 15-minute statements on (online) platforms, they also need to create convincing documentation of their work. But what is documentation, what does it mean to document your own or someone else's artwork? Documentation can take many forms and its goals are likewise diverse: from publicity promos and teasers to detailed explanations of all the works components for preservation purposes, or providing insight in creation processes and research trajectories.
Keeping to the 'standard' of contemporary presentations, within one hour, nine documents are shown to present the diversity and potentiality of documentation.
Politics of Craft
Politics of Craft was developed in the Thematic Seminar by Florian Cramer.
William Morris' "News from Nowhere", a key text of the Arts and Crafts movement, contains a surprisingly up-to-date critique of capitalist globalization and the precarious state of artists' labour. It is, paradoxically enough, an avant-garde text of an otherwise nostalgic movement.
Eleven first-year students of the Master Media Design will show their interpretations of "News from Nowhere" in the form of eleven media projects. The show will be accompanied with lectures and discussions.
Finissage
The Unlinked exhibition ends with a graduation catalogue launch, a concert by Niek Hilkmann and a performance by Nan Wang.
Niek Hilkmann
Before Niek Hilkmann started performing as Niek Hilkmann he was constantly thinking about cool stage names. This turned out to be quite time-consuming, which is why he finally decided to acknowledge his birth-name. Since this happy occasion Niek was able to make a lot more catchy and dance-able electro-acoustic pop-music than before. Some themes that are discussed in his songs are compulsive disorders, Trixie (his dead dog), sexy palindromes and junkyard sales. At the finissage he will tell you all about it, together with a little band of merry misfits. Fun for all and all for fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzD53OQZ5WE
Nan Wang
The performance will be an audio-visual experience generated with dust collected in my living room, and bedroom. I use dust as visual elements as well as instrument of sound. This performance will be an experimental of explore the possibility of connect images, sound and micro-physical material together. Through projecting the image of dust, and minimal electronic soundscape to reveal the ambiguous narrative behind dust.