Research in Flanders - Thematic Paper - Innovating the Arts by Research in Flanders

Thematic Paper

Innovating the Arts

For this thematic paper we talked to: Ronald Bastiaens, Programme Coordinator Industrial Product Design, Howest University College West Flanders

Geneviève Marginet, Lecturer, LUCA School of Arts

Ann Bessemans, Researcher / Lecturer, PXL University College & Hasselt University

Lukas Pairon, Senior Research Fellow & Doctoral Researcher, Ghent University & University College Ghent

Iris Bouche, Artistic Coordinator Dance, Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp – Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp

Ann Petermans, PhD Assistent, Hasselt University

Remco Roes, PhD, Hasselt University

Eva Cardon, Lecturer, LUCA School of Arts © Zosia Poplawska

Frederik De Bleser, Researcher, Karel de Grote University College – Sint Lucas Antwerp

Johny Van de Vyver, Lecturer & Researcher Visual Communication, LUCA School of Arts

Carl De Keyzer, Lecturer, University College Ghent

Kristin Van den Buys, Research Coordinator, Erasmus University Brussels – Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel

Anita Evenepoel, Lecturer, Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp

Annelies Van Parys, Composer, Erasmus University Brussels – Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel

Tina Gillen-Brincour, Researcher, Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp – Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp

Bert Willems, Head of Research, PXL University College & Hasselt University

Jasmien Herssens, Lecturer, Hasselt University

Catherine Willems, Lecturer, University College Ghent - School of Arts

Marc Lambaerts, Manager FabLabLeuven, University of Leuven

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Innovating the Arts

Interdisciplinary collaboration as an asset Introduction: Arts for a Better World Fundamental scientific research is not the only way to tackle today’s social challenges such as they are set out in the Horizon 2020 project, the European Commission’s ground-breaking research and innovation programme that started two years ago in 2014 and will go on until 2020. Research into the arts also offers a whole range of possible solutions. But it does more than that. It’s actively helping to improve the world we live in. In this dossier, therefore, we will be focusing on the contribution research into the arts is making in four distinct domains: sustainability, health, diversity and beauty. A few particular research projects and interviews will provide an overview of the current status quo in artistic research in Flanders.

Innovation, cross-disciplinary synergistic collaboration Innovation ... It’s a buzz word for many researchers. Because, after all, everyone is eager to innovate and be innovative. Innovation isn’t completely new either. On the contrary, even: for centuries philosophers of the likes of Socrates, Kant, Marx and Nietzsche have written about an inspiring urge for innovation and an eternal yearning for new beginnings, for radical change. So the desire to renew seems to be inherent to man and humanity itself. Innovation often comes to the fore in places where people of different disciplines encounter each other, which means inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration might well encourage people’s innovative spirit. Therefore, if an organisation or research institute would like to act as a catalyst for innovation, it should facilitate actions that enable their researchers to look across disciplines and form synergistic collaborative relationships. Such actions might on the one hand make use of researchers and students’ own individual mindsets, and on the other, consider organisational questions in education and research infrastructures. Collaborating in an interdisciplinary way requires an open, but healthily critical attitude,

allowing the new to integrate with the old in order to arrive at innovating visions and paradigms.

Research into the arts, symbiosis of process and product Research about the arts generally departs from disciplines like art studies, art history and sometimes from the domains of sociology, psychology and other related perspectives. But research into or by the arts - also called artistic research - is a more recent occurrence, and unique in its set-up: it is the result of proper scientific research, with an artistic product at the end of it. That way, making art becomes an inherent part of the research process, which in turn is part of the artwork itself. Process and product are very closely intertwined. Annelies Van Parys is a classical composer at the Erasmus University College Brussels’ Koninklijk Conservatorium (Royal Conservatory) and creates contemporary classical opera. She is very enthusiastic about the artistic research inherent to her role as creating artist. In her creative process, she looks for innovation and constantly seeks out areas of friction and breaking points with other disciplines. ‘Because music tells things the abstract way, it often needs to resort to other disciplines to be able to tell a more or less unambiguous story,’ she explains. ‘Musical theatre, for example, is multidisciplinary in its set-up already: it consists of music and theatre at the same time. The balance between the two is very important as well. The theatrical part determines what the content of the piece will be, but the music dictates the form, so you could say it’s the driving force behind the performance, really. Whenever I start on a new piece, I always begin with thoroughly researching the form in itself and I always try to re-invent it.’ Van Parys used to be part of the artistic research scene, though she moved on due to her preference for her work as a creating artist, but her account shows that an open and investigative mindset is of crucial importance to innovative musical theatre.

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ÂŠ Carl De Keyser

Sustainability -4-

Arts for a more sustainable world Ecology is one of today’s major challenges and Flemish research into the arts is paying much attention to the theme, approaching it from all kinds of unique angles, including the creation of a critical picture of what is at stake. In that sense, art plays an important part as a wake-up call and trigger to raise awareness for sustainability. Sustainability is after all closely related to what materials and methods are used, and material development is a research discipline in itself that can significantly contribute to improving sustainability on the whole. In terms of processes, too, we can opt for sustainable methods, less toxic for ourselves and the environment around us.

A plea for a broad sustainability framework Head of Research at the MAD Faculty of PXL University College and lecturer at Hasselt University Bert Willems explains, ‘Research into the arts needs to strike the balance between the research requirements of the academic world and those of the field of artistry.’ ‘At PXL we teach graphic design, jewellery design and liberal arts. Scientific research goes on in two domains, organised in an interdisciplinary way. FRAME focuses on visual thinking. MANUFrACTURE on the other hand, tries to create a bond between culture, economics and sustainability. We work with a very broad definition of “sustainability” and look at social, artistic, economic and environmental

aspects of it. The social aspects of sustainability, for instance, are about the relevance of linking the making process of the work with its production process. Knowledge is lost if the link between those two is severed. Artistic sustainability wants to tackle today’s trend of mass production and mass consumption. Astute consumers make conscious choices and appreciate the fact that what they buy, is made in an honest way. When we talk about the economic aspects of sustainability, we are mainly thinking about how economically relevant the products we make are. We focus in the first place on useful objects and jewellery that exude meaning to consumers directly. The ecological aspects we take on board are transportation costs, for example, which go down drastically once things are produced locally.’

PXL University College’s research projects pay much attention to developing images and visual thinking. Willems elaborates, ‘For every PhD research project it’s essential for the artist or designer to develop a fresh look on images, in the broad sense of the word. It can be about drawings and other image material, but it can also involve installations, spaces, jewellery and other products. The new look students develop in this way, grows within their personal research and will indirectly also cause a new look to form within our society as a whole. That’s the way innovation comes into being, essentially. PXL University College’s organisational structure, with research domains not strictly coupled with scientific disciplines, also stimulates innovation. This makes sure new insights emerging in one discipline don’t stay put, -5-

but flow freely between multiple disciplines. The crossovers created that way stimulate innovation.’

Open innovation in the queue The University of Leuven’s FabLab, a library of machinery accessible for everyone with design ideas, is the territory of exactly such a fresh look on innovation. People are free to use the equipment at the lab, on condition that they share what they know and learn. This creates a wide range of possibilities, 3D printing being one of the most well-known. ‘Whenever possible, we do 3D printing always with sustainable materials like polylactic acid, a bio-degradable product from corn or sugar cane,’ says Mark Lambaerts, who also has his own look on innovation. ‘The added value of the FabLab lies in the fact that we build open innovation every day. Everyone can come to our lab, whether they’re academics or just people living down the street, whether they’re designers or artists, young or old. The more people visit us, the greater the chance of innovation. It’s purely about numbers, really. You can’t “push” innovation, you can’t make it happen. It just develops on its own in a free context where people get together and talk to each other. The FabLab in Leuven is working overtime, and this sometimes leads to long queues. You could say that’s a disadvantage, but I think the power of the FabLab lies in those queues, actually, because they’re the perfect breeding ground for spontaneous interaction and that can lead to innovative breakthroughs. We’re very interested in that kind of organic process, so we’re starting a project about innovation research. For example, it’s generally assumed

that art leads to innovation, but we want to investigate if that’s really the case and what aspects play a role in it. We’re building a studio space at the moment where artists, young entrepreneurs, students and technically-minded people can work together. The project fits into the story of innovation management which examines how processes that lead to new ideas, processes and products can be catalysed further.’

Cross-sector role in the factories of the future The Industrial Product Design programme at Howest, University College West Flanders, is putting innovative and sustainable entrepreneurship at the top of its agenda. Programme co-ordinator Ronald Bastiaens explains, ‘Product designers aren’t material scientists or technology developers. They’re a bit like architects: they’re responsible for transferring technology to companies. We have given sustainability a place in our programme, on the one side with specific modules like materials science and ecological product making and on the other by inspiring and raising awareness among students through a broad sustainability framework that takes on topics like new business models, the North-South divide and aspects to do with transport and suppliers.’

With their projects, the Howest researchers have developed a tool called Play it forward that assists businesses wanting to change to a more sustainable course. Bastiaens also talks about the inspiring North-South project in the Philippines called Design for impact, which investigates how

waste materials can be given a new life. The local population turns old fishing nets, for instance, into new ropes for export to Europe. He continues, ‘Our baseline “recreating the industry” refers to the fact that we’d like to use our research as the link between education and business. Our challenge for the future is us wanting to take up an innovative role in what we call “tomorrow’s factories”, as defined by the government authorities in West Flanders, because, after all, product designers have a unique role to play in this, exactly because they can be cross-sectorially deployed in various domains.’

Wake-up call Sustainable materials and processes are not the only starting points for research, though. The status quo, raising awareness among the masses for the issue of climate change, has proven to be a topic for arty research too.

One such project within the realm of photography is Moments before the Flood. Carl De Keyser, of University College Ghent, explains a little bit more about his project: ‘The problem for my photographic research is about the risk of flooding on Europe’s coastlines as a result of climate change. I travelled along 5,000 European beaches for 18 months, taking photos, always with the fear of rising sea levels in the back of my head. Until now, the Old Continent’s 65,000km long coastline has been spared from natural disasters, which is why I wanted to put that potential threat into pictures. I started my trip in Finland, went through Sweden and Norway, all the way to Ireland, -6-

and then to Belgium, France and Southern Europe, down to the Black Sea. The project consists of photos, a travel blog, a film, a book and several exhibitions. The tension in the images is not one of impending doom, but actually of precisely the opposite: the fact that nothing is happening. I don’t really want to photograph the disaster, but the wait for it.’ The project was innovative because the current topic of climate change was viewed in a completely different way: from the threat it poses and the fear inevitably resulting from that. Technology played a crucial part during the preparations for the project and its execution as well: the photos have a resolution of 80 million pixels, which has produced hyper-realistic material; selecting the beaches that would feature in the photos and the preliminary research for the project were done with Google Earth, while the trip itself was planned using GPS co-ordinates.

No Time of Artesis Plantijn University College’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp ties in with this. The project involved four painters and one critic who want to link their artistic and art-critic activities to the problem of global warming and its consequences for man and the landscape around him. They departed from Naomi Klein’s recent book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate and have embedded their research in the pedagogical workings of the studio where teachers and students can participate. While they give students a positive impulse to position themselves as artists, the researchers also look at how the issue of climate change might affect

their visual work, and in so doing, would like to bring forth a wellfounded artistic statement. Researcher Tina Gillen-Brincour explains the project in a bit more detail: ‘Pat Harris, Bruno Van Dyck, Ellen De Meuter, Jeroen Laureyns and I have created a context that maps out all the artistic and art-critical positions and puts them in proportion to the general issue of climate change. During the next phase of the project, the artists will interact with the outside world through studio visits, guest lectures, excursions and landscape painting trips. The researchers will also investigate whether reading the book and the fact the project is going on actually have any influence on how their artistic activities develop. This way we will examine how intertwined research process and artistic product really are. The artistic output of our research will include, among other things, a group exhibition and an interactive bundle of stances and interpretations. With it, we want to help increase awareness of the problem of climate change. The artists are aiming for onlookers to develop a certain alertness and in that way, encourage them to care more about the climate. In that sense, they’re actually responding to the increasing international tendency of artists commenting and reflecting in an artistic way on current issues in society.’

‘Research into the arts needs to strike the balance between the research requirements of the academic world and those of the field of artistry.’ -7-

ÂŠ Rob Stevens

Health -8-

Arts for a healthier world The ever-growing group of elderly people is posing a real challenge for our society. How do we deal with it in an innovative way? Creative design helps to seek solutions that keep the elderly healthy for longer, so they can stay independent for longer too. Health means bodily and spiritual wellbeing going hand-in-hand and findings from the creative and technical realms are taking on more and more importance in this. Designers and artists are offering much-needed input, because after all, art and creative design keep us all healthy and well.

Getting older all at the same time With her research project and exhibition entitled (On)Voltooid Verleden Tijd (or Past (Im)Perfect), Eva Cardon of the LUCA School of Arts departs from the problem of ageing and dementia. The result is a captivating project with artists from various disciplines dealing with particular aspects of ageing and going into dialogue with one another. The issue of dementia and ageing is also employed to prompt much broader reflections about identity, layeredness and memory. So art plays a mediating role in this case, questioning certain social trends. The artistic research output is the experimental use of words and images: the layers resulting from the collaborations between

the authors and drawers created surprising results that go beyond the classic comic strip. They go from slide shows with spoken commentary to animated cartoons with text and drawings played in loops on six screens to arrive at new meanings. The words and images all tell a parallel story, overlapping and complementing each other. A decidedly fruitful example of cross-pollination.

She explains, ‘Housing for the elderly is a domain with plenty of challenges. The furnishings in the communal spaces of care homes like corridors and cafeterias are often quite sad looking, so they’re great places for us to start experimenting. The things we suggest tend to differ quite a lot as to complexity, but they do noticeably increase feelings of happiness among residents and quite a lot among staff too. An individual letterbox for dementia Architects for happiness sufferers and a personalised door that’s easy to recognise for their With Design for Life as its motto, own room, a camouflaged locked research group ArcK, part of exit door... These are only a few Hasselt University’s Department simple examples of things that of Architecture and Arts, does can make a very big difference. research into several areas. One Another experiment of ours of their most recent questions is deals with designing a garden how experience-oriented design pavilion for residents to do things can help people flourish in their surroundings. It’s also called design like gardening and cooking for human flourishing or design for that help them retain some autonomy. More autonomy and happiness. self-determination namely often go with more happiness as well. So in that sense, architecture and Postdoctoral researcher at Hasselt interior design can contribute in University Ann Petermans, is full a very real way to happiness. The of it: ‘Experience is a major term innovative power of the research in the world of interior design project then lies in the fact of its and architecture,’ she says. So she going beyond architecture’s classic advocates a large-scale translation functional-aesthetic value. The of all accrued knowledge about Hasselt University research team is the subject into relevant contexts also working together with other for our society, like hospitals and partners to build an international care homes. She wonders how network, bundling all existing architects and interior designers knowledge about wellbeing and could go a step further than mere happiness in architecture and experience, so as to contribute to design across boundaries and the feeling of happiness among the cultures.’ users of a space. -9-

Future footwear: creativity as a collective concept

design-technological angle. The starting point for her research was the fact that the most prevalent foot problems are often directly caused by wearing bad shoes. And apart from bad shoes affecting the body itself, the shoe-making industry also has a negative effect on the environment. Massive landfill sites consist, for example, of the remains of millions of shoes, made of biologically non-degradable materials.

friendly, and in that sense tell a sustainable and healthy story.

The project proves that, to create new models, designers can benefit from interdisciplinary research which combines traditional crafts and scientific methods, like biomechanical gait analysis, with industrial and high-tech production methods. The need for all this becomes clear when we think about the ever-growing mountain of discarded shoes and the increasing scarceness of natural So the primary aim of Willems’s resources. For a sustainable shoe research project was to design a shoe collection offering maximum economy to develop, we need to comfort for the feet with minimum choose hybrid economies that impact on the environment. Hence connect the conventional market with other forms of production, the name of the collection: Future where we think about pairing up Footwear, footwear for body and environment. Willems sets out from new technologies and healthy materials. At the moment, Willems the field research she did with two is trying to set up a skill centre for indigenous groups: the Kolhapuri the arts, i.e. a centre of expertise for in India who produce their own slippers or chappals and the Sami in students, researchers and businesses Lapland who make their own boots. to work together across subjects and domains. Catherine Willems works for School In her collection, Willems focuses of Arts of University College Ghent on modern barefoot shoes, tying in and wrote her PhD in collaboration with the current trend for minimal with Ghent University. She studied footwear. She has based her Incidentally, through the project, anthropology and shoe design and research on the cultural, functional Willems could get in touch with a explains a bit more about her PhD and biomechanical aspects involved non-Western vision of creativity. research project Future Footwear in the crafting and use of traditional ‘Many indigenous communities which brings together design, footwear within these two very don’t see creativity as an individual anthropology and biomechanics. different groups. She uses the results thing where makers can attribute For her PhD, she also worked of her studies to develop a toolbox the results of their activities closely together with leading to design her own collection, part of to themselves, let alone patent partners in the industry, such as which follows indigenous people’s them. They rather see it as their London-based Vivobarefoot and principles, though she also attempts community’s collective growth. Belgian company RSscan. Her to use 3D printing techniques in Tailor-made things are a given project is unique in its approach, the design of this type of shoes, and are proof of art and craft. as Willems’s artistic research based on a scan of the wearer’s foot. This is in stark contrast with mass looks at shoe design from an production, which they see as The Future Footwear designs are environmental, biomechanic and inferior.’ environmentally and anatomically - 10 -

Supporting walls, supporting care A child-friendly environment in hospital, that was the goal of University College Ghent’s Kindvriendelijk Ziekenhuis (Childfriendly Hospital) project. The added value of it lies in the collaboration between the Jan Palfijn General Hospital and Ghent University.

To collect all available knowledge and evidence in a scientific way, the project team set up a study in collaboration with the university’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, comprising the available literature as well as empirical research. Based on the results of both lines of investigation, the team then formulated a number of guidelines to serve as practical pointers for staff and interior design students of University College Ghent’s School of Arts. The aim of the project was to develop an allencompassing concept that also appealed to other departments to achieve the goal.

The result: the publication Dragende Muren (Supporting Walls) with guidelines about how interior design, art and nature can contribute to children’s wellbeing in hospitals. The hospital as a calming place pleasant for the senses and supportive of the medical activities going on inside. In short, the hospital as supporting healthcare environment. - 11 -

ÂŠ Cy Leong

Diversity - 12 -

way professional dancers respond to movement is questioned at its very basis when they encounter Being able to deal with diversity and fellow dancers who are physically what is different is a crucial skill in impaired. As an artistic manager our society, where traditional values and dance co-ordinator, Bouche are under increasing pressure. wanted to investigate how inclusion The research projects in the next dance could contribute to the part of this dossier undertake the development and education of explicit dialogue with other groups contemporary dancers. With or disciplines, causing crossthis project, the college’s dance pollination between knowledge programme wants to redefine the within their own domain and data view of the body in contemporary from other disciplines, between dance and adjust the programme to today and yesterday. The result of all these new insights. this is a world with more of an eye for diversity and the other, in both senses of the word. The project is being set up as we speak. Small-scale studies in the USA, UK and Netherlands Inclusion in dance have already shown dance has a positive effect on physically Iris Bouche, of the artistic dance management at the Royal Academy impaired people’s quality of life, in this case Parkinson sufferers. of Fine Arts of Artesis Plantijn The LABO Inclusion Dance University College Antwerp, has project brings dancers with and begun qualitative research into without impairments together inclusion in dance. LABO brings together dancers with and without in two groups, beginners and advanced dancers, each directed physical impairments and serves by experienced teachers. It also as an experimenting and learning develops a model that will be place for inclusion dance, a place where fundamental artistic research actively and intensively shared with the world of dance at large. A seeks out the essence of dance as a blog and other online media serve means of communication and the essence of creativity as the capacity as a visual account, to create a constant stream of information sent to solve problems. The inclusion into the world by those involved of dancers with and without impairments, then, is the trigger for in the project, while dancers and teachers gather experiences the artistic research. through interviews and participant observation, in their turn reduced The question everything is centred to a contemporary vision on around within this particular inclusion dance by the steering project is how dancers with and group. The whole will lead to a without physical impairments range of open lessons, showing can influence one another in a opportunities and other artistic physical way. The very natural output, including work placements - 13 -

and coaching trajectories, that convey new knowledge. In essence the research departs from the notion that all humans and arts are of equal value. It’s a project under development in which exclusive working methods will lead to a broader look on dance as a whole.

Typography for partially-sighted children and children with dyslexia © Ann Bessemans

Arts for a more open and diverse world

Ann Bessemans, who is affiliated to PXL University College and Hasselt University, discovered a new classification system for letters and along the way a range of fonts that went down well among partially-sighted and dyslexic children. Thanks to her PhD entitled Typeface for Children with Visual Impairment, Bessemans secured two grants from Microsoft Clear Type & Advanced Reading Technologies USA. Her dissertation is a major contribution to the world

of international typeface design, as it offers a better scientific argument for her new font. The study yielded interesting information that will enable font designers to better meet the needs of visually impaired readers and readers in general. Letters with serifs are noticeably better for beginner-readers than those without, although the latter category is often used in text books for young readers. Also the socalled vertical rhythm of typeface pattern lines plays an important part.

focusing on typographic legibility research with a scientific basis and output. READSEARCH offers a unique environment for font designers, scientists, students and other stakeholders to come together through small research groups and courses.

only important factor in violent situations.

‘There’s not a lot of research about the social impact of music,’ he explains. ‘Of course there have been related research projects about the impact of music on the Bessemans’s close involvement in development of human beings in a COST-Action about reading and general, in domains like psychology, studying in a digital age where educational science and neurology, the value of digital documents is but there hasn’t been any systematic on the rise and the importance of research about the impact of paper syllabi decreases ever more, music on improving individuals’ also shows her commitment to living circumstances.’ Pairon is stretching typography to a broader investigating a number of particular context. ‘Europe isn’t doing very Bessemans considers herself to be groups in the Congolese capital of well in terms of using screens for a designing researcher. Together Kinshasa, including witch children, with her team, she developed a new studying right now, so the education whose families accused them of typeface that takes into account system will soon start needing the witchcraft when they were between things like legibility and rhythm, tools to support students properly 6 and 10 years old, after which but also reading comfort and other, with this in the right way. And they ended up alone on the streets. rather subjective factors. ‘If you the knowledge we have gathered If they encounter music on their want to know something, measure with our legibility research could path, they sometimes go through it, so objective parameters are contribute to this,’ she explains. an identity change, learn to play an very important,’ she says. ‘But as a instrument and become musicians, designer, I prefer to go that extra which can lead to better wellbeing step further, so I include subjective The social impact of making music and empowerment. So Pairon is criteria like design and zeitgeist in examining in what way music can the process as well.’ Though she be an instrument to strengthen collaborates with people working personal skills, like listening and in the hard sciences, there is still debating, learning to deal with a long way to go before the gap complex situations in a flexible between Masters in Graphic Design way and viewing reality as one, and Masters in the traditional consistent whole. sciences is closed. The knowledge acquired in both domains should be integrated even more to be able Lukas Pairon is doing his PhD at to make innovative leaps in reading Ghent University and researches the Apart from his own research project, Pairon is also involved in and legibility research, which at role of music in violent contexts. setting up the Ghent University / the moment hardly involves actual Despite people themselves saying University College Ghent research typeface designers. The majority of music saved them, he’s rather platform SIMM, which stands for them currently don’t know about critical about this: he suspects Social Impact of Making Music. reading and legibility research at music can play a positive role, but The platform is innovative in all. This prompted Bessemans to he thinks it’s definitely not the set up READSEARCH, a platform the sense that it brings together - 14 -

people from various disciplines and will facilitate the set-up of several multidisciplinary guidance commissions for a range of research projects in the domain. Pairon is hoping researchers and musicians will find their way to the platform, so knowledge in the domain can continue to grow.

Designing for more

to improve design methodologies. ‘Blind people are naturally more geared towards multi-sensory experiences,’ she says. ‘And experiencing architecture is more than what we see alone, it’s also multi-sensory. Insights from blind people have enabled us to create innovative looks and concepts for design. At the moment, the staff in centres for children and young people with visual impairments use the results of our research to design things themselves, so all users benefit from them. That makes our work socially relevant and I find that utterly fantastic.’

Learning from a diverse set of users to achieve inclusive architecture is good for everyone, it’s what designing for more wants to be. Herssens has a few good examples: kitchen worktops adjustable in height, cooker plates installed in a row, adjustable lighting, ideal structural organisation, etc. All of these make kitchens easier to use for the blind or partially sighted Architect Jasmien Herssens among us, but also for other groups lectures at Hasselt University of users, like children and people and investigates multi-sensory who are less mobile. Doors that experience in architecture. With swing in two directions make life her research she hopes to achieve easier for many target groups and inclusive design, also called universal users as well. She calls it: stretching design or design for all. Apart the fit. ‘At UD woonlabo we let from the functional and practical people experience how we can requirements architecture and improve their quality of life in a interior design must fulfil, she is noticeable way, just by changing a also very convinced of the growing few design things.’ importance of social values, like health, liveability, diversity and sustainability. For her projects, The Health & Care community, Herssens works together with impaired people whose experiences which is being implemented across all the faculties at Hasselt she utilises as a form of expertise - 15 -

University, wants to help provide a basis for the importance of social values in architecture and other domains,’ she continues. ‘The community consists of people from all kinds of different disciplines, like law, mobility, medicine, and so on, who get the opportunity to look at their own working context from a different angle. I, for instance, learned a lot from psychology, so I can now look at my own area of interest within architecture in a different way. By collaborating on an interdisciplinary basis, we can develop new innovative concepts and solutions for existing problems.’

Building bridges between disciplines: opportunities and challenges Researchers in many different disciplines tell us that crosspollination comes about whenever people of entirely different domains get together and begin collaborating. Whether they do this in a formal or informal way, is no matter. While we are reading this, the interdisciplinary research forums and platforms are springing up all over the place, like mushrooms, sharing, circulating and growing knowledge. New horizons are in sight; but new opportunities mean new challenges too...

A way to synergy Progress in science is a longterm thing. It means learning from our successes and failures; it means learning by going the road with others. A context where everything is directed only towards successful end products won’t necessarily contribute to innovation, then. Indeed, education must focus on stimulating constructive reasoning, critical questioning and cultivating an open mind in order to set up collaborations that create synergies. Subsidising authorities can be catalysts for such synergies by encouraging trans- and interdisciplinary approaches in their calls for projects.

A brainstorming boost

Computers as creative partners

Bringing people together and using certain methodologies to do new things... brainstorming often forms the basis for new and innovating ideas, concepts and projects. Johny Van de Vyver and Ingwio D’Hespeel, of the Lucida project at LUCA School of Arts, a research project in collaboration with the University of Leuven, the Centre for User Experience Research also in Leuven, the University of Antwerp, iMinds and Bits of Love, tie in with this by making an online tool to provide support during the development of an idea. The central focus of the project is to speed up the association process and to broaden users’ frameworks of thought.

Collaborations and brainstorming sessions often yield gigantic amounts of data. NodeBox, a project of Karel de Grote University College in Antwerp, is looking into the issue. PhD student Frederik De Bleser explains to us what his project is about: ‘NodeBox is a software package for data visualisation and generative design that works with visual modules connecting different functionalities without users needing to do any computer programming. NodeBox employs computers as production tools and creative partners.’

‘Lucida works like a mind map that automatically gives extra key words associated with the search terms entered into the tool. To do this, it uses a detailed association database from the University of Leuven and the Wikipedia one,’ explains Johny Van de Vyver who is involved in the project. ‘We hope the end product of our project will provide added value for all kinds of users, not only for creative designers, but also for artists and scientists.’

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De Bleser continues, ‘Originally we designed NodeBox to let computers take care of the layout for large brochures and catalogues. It didn’t only do the layout of the pages, but also came up with its own suggestions for shape, colour and font. Though now the project goes much further. The innovative added value of the software lies in the fact that NodeBox enables computers to do generative design. In a very user-friendly way.’

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Beauty

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ÂŠ Remco Roes

Arts for a more beautiful world

The sublime Beauty is a subjective thing. That’s quite obvious from Remco Roes’s research at Hasselt University. Roes namely approaches artistic research from its inherent idiosyncrasy and from the fact that the domain of aesthetics does not in first instance belong to language, but rather to the silent images coming from the world. ‘The challenge is to use descriptive language that clarifies without distorting the topic it describes,’ he says. Using his own artistic activities, Roes is trying to create a kind of fundamental space, in a context where the traditional community places in society have lost a large portion of their former, often religious, value. Roes’s PhD is based on a unique methodology: through the voices of a scientist, artist, lecturer and onlooker, he lets the different perspectives explored during the project speak. The imaginary

characters develop their own dialectic, showing us each from A beautiful world is a world that not their own angle, the very diverse only reflects beauty and aesthetics, requirements of an artistic but often peace and quiet too. doctorate, while on top of this, they Flemish research into the arts explore the need for an attentive approaches even these topics in surrender to the senses as a true an innovative way, for instance by expanding on them philosophically, source of fundamental or beautiful knowledge. but also by developing new methods and design techniques, or innovative materials that are aesthetic in a certain way. Mad about textiles

From philosophy to reality with Anita Evenepoel, self-taught when it comes to design, jewellery, costumes and textiles. Evenepoel is a well-known name in the world of fabric design, also internationally, and teaches in several places, including Artesis Plantijn University College Antwerp. Her work is characterised by materials science and her great urge to experiment.

She likes working with synthetic materials, like polyamide, polyester and neoprene, because of their unique characteristics, the possibility to print on both sides and the fact that they be moulded - 19 -

permanently with heat. For her designs, Evenepoel always departs from the material itself, exploring the limits of what she can do with it. ‘Before you can turn a concept into reality, you have to play with the material first and leave room for imagination and accident. Exploring the material, you can achieve new concepts. I also tell my students in my masterclasses.’

‘I love synthetic fabrics myself,’ she continues. ‘And I’m completely intrigued by the evolution that’s going on with nanotechnology. These days, they’re producing nanofibres so thin the fabrics they weave with them feel like silk. I also like working with dye-sublimation printing, a refined printing technique that allows tailored work. For my project examining embossing techniques, I formulated my own process that allows me to design my own moulds with relatively cheap materials, so I can create absolutely unique pieces. Experimenting and researching are in my genes. I just love pushing fabrics to their limits and using them in a different way than the one they were meant for originally. That way I gain new insights and I never get tired of what I do every day.’

Light as a basis Geneviève Marginet did a project about light and colour with the aim of better integrating light in the curriculum of the programme Interior Design at LUCA School of Arts. Her research resulted, amongst other things, in the light cabinet, a light studio for students and lecturers to experiment with the science and experience of light, colour and space.

‘There’s a decided gap between architects and end users when it comes to knowing about light,’ she says. ‘So we’re hoping to close the gap a bit by integrating light into the curriculum at the college. Light and colour are crucial, after all, when you’re designing an interior; they trigger certain feelings and affect our health and wellbeing. That’s why we teach our students to translate the natural lighting plan for an - 20 -

indoor context. Natural light is very dynamic, so the intensity and colour of it change constantly and drive our biological rhythm. Light is very important, so it’s the basis of every interior. It influences our perception of things, how we observe things, how we feel, it enables us to mislead, conduct, guide, emphasise, confirm and frame. It plays an explicit role in how we experience the beauty of interiors and objects.’

Beauty in music

a separate page for every composer and work, describing and explaining Another art discipline linked to specific, practical technical and beauty is obviously music. The interpretational challenges. Certain Koninklijk Conservatorium works, for example, need their Brussel (The Royal Conservatory own self-made instruments, and of Brussels) is making less famous the website provides the necessary sheet music accessible through instructions for this. Original notes the innovation project Living by the composers are also available Scores Learn and other schemes. on the site. And we developed an Percussionists Tom De Cock and innovative tool to support the actual Vincent Caers created a platform to practising process, a bit like your bundle practically oriented research everyday metronome.’ The Living about contemporary compositions. Scores Learn project is innovative The first implementation phase in its very set-up: complicated went down well with the Flemish sheet music is made available and conservatories and contemporary knowledge is shared so others can music ensemble Ictus, so the project build on it.’ will be introduced and widened internationally.

Kristin Van den Buys of the Brussels Erasmus University College’s Koninklijk Conservatorium is supervising the project and explains a little further: ‘Musicologists and musicians have very different ways of approaching music. Musicians look at music rather in terms of its history. Making contemporary and complicated sheet music accessible, reawakens dormant beauty and makes wonderful renderings of it possible. The idea of Living Scores Learn is to make complicated contemporary music accessible for musicians. We set up a website with - 21 -

For centuries philosophers of the likes of Socrates, Kant, Marx and Nietzsche have written about an inspiring urge for innovation and an eternal yearning for new beginnings, for radical change.

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Author: Anje Claeys

The thematic papers are published by Research in Flanders, a project run by Flanders Knowledge Area.

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Editions 1. Materials Science 2. Urban Planning 3. Industrial Design 4. Research in Times of Crisis 5. World War I 6. Food 7. Big Data 8. Healthy Ageing 9. Innovating the Arts - 23 -