A table that takes its point of departure in Michel Foucault’s ideas on power and knowledge, reflecting power as an interrelational instance that shifts amongst and between actors rather than something that one party holds over another. The image of a table reflects a site at which the production and reproduction of hegemonic norms and hierarchies become manifested, however this table shifts its balance point depending on the actions and interactions of the actors interacting with its position. Due to the fact that we are born into a pre-constructed context in which ‘equality’ or ‘neutrality’ exist only as subjective imaginaries, if even, the balance point of the table is shifted one percent in its passive state.

A bench that takes its point of departure in Michel Foucault’s ideas on power, knowledge and discourse, reflecting power as an interrelational instance that constantly shifts amongst and between actors. The image of a public space bench is adopted as a reflection of the code of conduct we perform socially as we practice affirmative and unfavourable social and cultural profiling in relation to other peoples class, perceived race and ethnicity, gender, age and so on. In order to sit next to someone on the bench, the user is forced to either genuinely interact, or apparently withhold.

A chair which takes its point of departure in Judith Butler’s concepts of gender performativity, and thereby the idea that we construct and are constructed by the norms and discourse that surrounds us, even to the extent of performing those norms as ritualized acts. By infusing the terms of gender performativity into the ordinary object of a chair, not only visually, but also through the action of use, this object seeks to force the receiver to stop and reflect, rather than recognize and reproduce. Being forced into the one hegemonic position of ‘male’ re-acquaints the user with an imposed encounter with reflecting authoritativeness and superiority. Being forced into the one inferior position of ‘female’ re-acquaints the user with reflecting a subordinate closed position.

A stool which takes its point of departure in Judith Butler’s concepts of gender performativity, and the idea that we construct and are constructed by the norms and discourse that surrounds us. Within these norms, we are forced to choose between the seemingly objective categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’, both physically dictated by the medical industry, and socially enforced by culture. Androgyny and bisexuality are seen as uncompleted liminal positions, simply being a consequence of ‘a lack of choice’ between the established ‘natural’ categories. Therefore, this stool provokes the user to contemplate the unconstructive and harmful necessity of physical and social choice by forcing them into that exact amplified distinction. In order to sit on the stool at all, one must choose one of the two hegemonic options that it offers.

A workshop given in the framework of the Parallel Press Room, a platform for personal expressions of political realities articulated through a process of de- and rebuilding individual imaginaries. Workshop held at the Köln International School of Design in Cologne, Germany.

A dissolving book that seeks to instigate an alternative discourse within the context of the integration debate in Western Europe. The social intervention ‘Monumentalizing Monumentalism’ gathered six people living in The Netherlands, originally from Denmark, Germany, France, Columbia, Turkey and Holland, confronting them with their individual nationalist sentiments, or lack there of. The participants were involved in debating how to define and monumentalize an alternative discursive approach to the discussion of immigration and national belonging, a discussion that has currently become cyclical by its own polarizing nature. Following the debate, a text was formed based on the alternative discourse negotiated and defined, and this text was printed incessantly in a book, once on each page. The book was distributed to individuals with the command to rip out the pages and distribute them. In this way, the pages were ripped out one by one, distributing the knowledge, and diminishing the book as an object. The intention with the debate, the book, and the deconstruction of the book itself, was to create a discourse monument. The act of constructing an alternative discourse through interaction and dialogue, followed by the deed of embodying this discourse in written word, and then finally bringing back individual action and exchange, symbolically represents the process of an alternative discourse being monumentalized. The monument therefore, lies not in the book itself, but in the production and reproduction of discourse surrounding it.

A never-ending book which describes and embodies the concept of ‘the finished object of the uncompleted’, an approach to design praxis that encourages the completion of artefacts, which in turn host interpretative and often multiple positions of ‘open meaning’. The text is written in such a way that the reader can pick up and start reading any page, and continue reading endlessly. Within the ceaseless reading flow the text transforms subtly, taking the reader through multiple positions and perspectives on the same concerns.

A text that questions the power and potential of the designer as an actor. Inspired by Marx’s thoughts on Commodity Fetishism from a post-structuralist perspective, it encourages the re-negotiation of the role of the designer, and proposes that the designer not just produce objects, but also produce knowledge. The pre-manifesto is written in barcode as a comment towards the reduction of design and designers to merely being products, and is scanable with any barcode scanner in Code 128.

A series of five posters that deal with the challenge of how two, at the same time opposing and cyclically reacting perspectives, can be hosted within the same words and physical space of a single poster. Both perspectives receive the same space and attention, and only the active word on the poster remains visible at all times, emphasizing the reproductive nature of the two statements. By viewing the poster from the right, and then from the left, the two different perspectives appear. The content of the claims is inspired by some of the universal conflicts that seem to be produced and reproduced through their action-reactionary nature.

A newspaper that portrays a critical discussion concerning the forming of isolated realities and truths through the use of text, photography and illustration in newspapers. The content is based on articles about the conflict in Iraq from German Newspaper ‘Die Welt’. The work functions as both a newspaper and as a series of posters, which in sets of two posters question elements such as the relevance of the individual in war, the lack of importance that numbers of casualties come to have, and how conflicts easily become converted into technical aspects of military tactic and strategy. With contributions from Andrea Bayer, Mark Brehm and Sun Mee Martin.

A project that was concerned with critically investigating the relation between music and political communication. Seven experiments expressed the results of thinking together the interfaces of sound, image, text and space, contextualizing this intertwining within the construction of meaning in society, especially within the context of Western popular culture. From the conception of ‘audutive typography’ and ‘visual noise’, to re-gendering lyrics and dissecting the popstars of politics, the project displayed a process of de- and reconstructing ‘meaning’ through critical applied methods, making clear some of the larger political and social structures that are conveyed as ‘culture’.

A record with five songs based on pre-programmed music from a free music program, a non-professional singer, and the text ‘Lorem Ipsum’. In publishing and graphic design, Lorem Ipsum is the name given to commonly used placeholder text to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout. The Lorem Ipsum text is typically a nonsensical list of semi-Latin words, and is not intended to have meaning. Therefore, the compelling and seemingly authentic record reflects ‘empty lyrics’; both in a mirror of current popular song content, and in the common lack of attention paid to lyrics by listeners. In collaboration with Ogul Oz and Julia Wülfing.

The relation between a person and a weapon was the subject of enquiry and portrayal in this 4 kg book. As an intervention, people carrying guns on Ben Yehuda walking street in Jerusalem were requested to lay down their gun in order for the weapon to be photographed, and the people interviewed about themselves. It is highly illegal for an Israeli soldier to lay down his gun, and most people in this tense environment lack the trust to do so in general. In one entire day, three people agreed. In the book, one page displays the weapon in original size and significant detail, and the opposite page displays a particularly personal detail about the individual. This was done in order to grasp the ambiguous incommensurability of the perception of the person with the weapon, and the perception of the person without. The book embodies the size and weight of an M16 as a visual and haptic sense and reference for the reader. In collaboration with Georg Molterer.

A poster and book installation that offers a critical comment towards the American army’s use of strikingly similar looking cluster bombs and aid packages in Afghanistan. As shown one-to-one on the poster, the bomb and the aid package have a similar colour and size. Both elements were dropped from airplanes. In average, ten percent of cluster bombs did not explode right away when hitting the ground. Consequently, civilians in Afghanistan were confusing the explosive devices for aid packages, leading to an un-documented amount of injuries and casualties. In order to receive the message of the poster by reading the small text, or the content of the books thrown on the ground in public space, the audience must go close to the poster or pick up and rip open the packaged booklets, thereby being confronted with the potential of the fatal mistake.

A poster that exists only in the hypothetical, occurring only for a certain moment from a certain perspective. The poster reflects the battle between political and commercial ‘power’, as both try to manifest their influence as the highest cultural authority. The argument on the front poster states ‘Pop is Stronger than Anything’ and the back poster states ‘Nothing is Stronger than Politics’. However, both arguments are surpassed when the posters are viewed from the front, and only the statement ‘Nothing is Stronger than Anything’ remains.

A series of posters that explores the embodiment of a prospective versatile ‘reading’ of communication exemplified on the issue of how knowledge is produced in correlation with the construction of history. The first poster makes visible the role of subjectivity within the forming of ‘truth’ in individual and collective history, and draws attention to the responsibility of the individual actor in perceiving and manifesting a collective truth. The poster is constructed as a stereogram made out of simple text, which means that when the receiver manages to view the text on the poster cross-eyed, a three dimensional image appears out of the two dimensional poster. The small text that fills the poster repeatedly reads ‘Negotiated History’, and when the receiver focuses intensely on the text, the word ‘Truth’ appears, referring to the subjective truth defined on the base of the negotiation of history. The second poster results from the consideration of how seemingly ordinary words significantly change meaning within the forming of recent history, whilst nevertheless remaining under the guise of sameness within our vocabulary. The image of ‘Free’ is taken up, illustrating how the synonym for autonomy is gradually defined, strategized, ideologized and institutiona-lized. The poster is constructed in such a way, that the words are turned more and more downwards, entailing that the receiver must bow down to the institutionalization of ‘Free’ in order to read all the text on the poster. In the third poster, the sentence ‘This time never again’ terminology-wise traces the repeated claim ‘Never Again’, which arises following each genocide, but also each time an individual re-makes a learned mistake. In this sense, the thought of how vital lessons from global to personal history appear and disappear depending on when they are framed as crucial or insignificant becomes perceptible. The poster is printed with distinctive ink that reacts momentarily to sunlight, and thereby the message transpires and fades away according to the circumstances surrounding it.

The ‘stateless plug-in’ is a browser extension that intervenes in digital territory, transforming the issue of stateless people into a multifaceted digital mapping of existing knowledge and information on the Internet. By interconnecting an extensive range of positions on statelessness in an unanticipated way, the stateless plug-in generates an unpredicted non-linear and dynamic storyline with space for unanticipated thoughts and connections. The project offers a critical comment towards the lack of attention on the issue by intervening in existing digital territory, and by beseeching the users attention through the infiltration of their usual browsing behaviour. The browser extension can be downloaded for free and installed in Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Google Chrome. For more information see www.statelessplugin.net

A book that dissects the story of a young Israeli man who fled his country in order to avoid his draft as a combat soldier in Palestine, returning to imprisonment by the Israeli army four years later. The book is based on a four-hour interview, and illustrates the personal conflict of feeling proud of a pacifist choice, but equally guilty for not fulfilling the requirements of a ‘good Israeli citizen’. The form emphasizes the individual negotiation process of positioning ones sense of national belonging to society, as he shifts back and forth between feeling pride and guilt within the interview. In order to read the text, the reader must destroy the containers that conceal the confidential sentiments of confusion, thereby destroying the objects undemanding holisticness.

A charter that defines and claims the legitimacy of an additional cultural Identity category. A Temporary Embassy was established in order to investigate hybridity as a starting point for cultural identity, inviting an open audience to participate in the process of negotiating and defining the boundaries of a new identity category, and claiming its legitimacy. This occurrence served as the base for the writing of a charter that argues the perspective that cultural identities should not be based on static, predefined categories such as nationality or religion, but rather on the concept that every individual has a momentarily shifting sense of cultural belonging. This shifting between different, and perhaps seemingly opposing categories, should therefore be acknowledged as legitimate, and even constructive. The charter expresses, both in form and content, the numerous fragments of identity that every individual possesses, and the unfeasibility of attempting to define these in equal segments.

Florian Conradi / contact@florianconradi.de
MA Integrated Design, Köln International School of Design, Cologne,DE
MFA in Design, Sandberg Institute, Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, NL
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, IL
BA in Design (Diplom), University of Applied Sciences Mainz, DE

Michelle Christensen / contact@michellechristensen.dk
MA Integrated Design, Köln International School of Design, Cologne, DE
MSc in Gender Studies, Amsterdam University, NL
MA in Conflict Studies, Utrecht University, NL
BA in International Development Studies, Roskilde University, DK

Projects Developed in Collaboration/ Association with (amongst others): Mediafonds, Amsterdam; Onomatopee, Eindhoven; Röda Sten Kultur-förening, Gothenburg; Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University; Institute for Network Cultures, Amsterdam; Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam; University of Applied Sciences, Cologne; Köln International School of Design, Cologne; University of Applied Sciences, Mainz; Bezalel University of Art and Design, Jerusalem; Faculty of Law, Makarere University, Kampala; University of Amsterdam; Sandberg Institute, Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

A gallery established in Tel Aviv as an investigative social experiment. This undertaking was an enquiry into the experience and perception of art, and aspired to equally challenge the artist, audience and curator to deal with the social relations between artist, audience, artwork, space, time, and context of presentation. Firm regulations were established in order to provide a framework in which social interfaces and individual confrontations could be encountered. The gallery strived to incite critical discussions, confront hegemonic perceptions, to bring vital subjects into consciousness, to keep an intimate level in order to create an intense situation, and to raise personal questions for anybody who was involved. The results were documented in statistical overviews of visitors, artists and personal individual experiences, as well as in a catalogue. The catalogue is an emotional compilation of the decisions, dialogues, incidents and encounters that occurred within the project. The experiment was conducted in collaboration with Georg Molterer.