COVERSTORY
The Art of Exhibition
DIALOGUE
Mishka Henner’s drive for societal change
NOT YOU
How Simon Dogger’s products make impact April 2021 № 76
Each morning I wake up because of my alarm, which is birdsong. A few months ago I changed my alarm from “BEEP BEEP BEEP” to tweeting birds. Since then, it feels like I am waking up in nature. Imagine, waking up with the sun shining through your window, hearing the calm sound of tweeting birds sitting on your roof. A star t of the day, ever yone is wishing for. It gives us a quite safe feeling, and says that it is time to be awake and aler t. One small change in my daily routine, made me have this calm feeling ever y morning, again and again. Sound has an big impact on us, humans. Sound passes through and around us all the time. It warns us, it triggers memories, it evokes emotions and we use it to communicate. Such a small change already yields so much. Imagine if we star ted listening to each other much better in this day and age. What would that accomplish? What would we really hear? You do not just want to hear the words that the other person is saying, but above all you want to understand the other person’s whole message. Listening is how you develop understanding, strengthen ties and show you care. Keep your ears open and listen!
Lonneke Orij Chairman of ID
Contents
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REC UR R I N G
B.A.B.E+
16 ID PAG ES
Upcoming events
S PECI A L
Milkshake
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COV E RSTORY
The Art of Exhibition
D I A LOG U E
Mishka Henner
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B E H I N D TH E PAG ES
Becoming a visual thinker
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ID EX PO
Heartrate monitors as orchestral conductors
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F EAT U R E
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Resonance between brain and mind to create better products
38 A DV ERTO R IA L
The Art of Merchandising
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CU LI NA I RY
Not just a plate
S U STA I N A B I LI T Y
Bye bye, white walls
I D PAG ES
Listen up!
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ED G E
Sexuality through the eyes of a sex toys designer
34 46 NOT YOU
I spy with my little eye...
F EATU R E
A nose for design F EATU RE
Have a sniff!
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REC URRING
Hutspot
turn the page | April 2021
When I was fourteen, my brother and I gave my mother a blender for Mother’s Day. I am not sure if it was ever used much –fortunately, my sense for the right present has evolved over the years. However, one of the things my mother loved to make, especially on tropical summer days, was milkshakes. My brother and I would be in the backyard when she would come over with long drink glasses filled with a pastel-coloured liquid. As a result of my love for the beverage, she once showed me how to make it. “So, you can make them yourself.” Read: “So, I do not have to make them anymore...” Jokes aside, I love you mom. The recipe did not prove to be difficult. Yet the thing that stuck with me was the fact that milkshakes are made from a remarkable combination: fruit, vanilla or strawberry ice cream, milk and sugar. Put it all together and it creates something wonderful. Similarly, our senses individually are exceptional instruments. Merged they shape the way we interact with our surroundings. This issue of Turn The Page, themed “Milkshake”, explores those senses and how designers and other professionals try to trigger them.
E ditorial
Take for example the story of Simon Dogger, as described in Not You, about design for the visually impaired. Or the Coverstory, “The Art of Exhibition”, which explores the design process of museum exhibitions with a surprisingly restricting twist. Additionally, one of our features will teach you how to buy good wine. Let’s be honest, who does not like good wine? We have had the privilege to talk to and work with many inspirational people for this edition and are excited to share their ideas, illustrations, designs and more. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their openness and passion. Now, it is time to let your senses be amazed. Let us dive in.
Frank van Beek Chairman
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APPS
BOOKS EYE ON DESIGN
BLOGS EVENTS by Annabel Schipper
The website of the online magazine, Eye on Design, is really a joy to scroll through. Besides their website, they also have an Instagram page where they share all kinds of inspiring ar ticles and designs. The focus of the magazine is mainly on graphic design. However, they cover a lot of different themes, from mental health to music and politics. Are you stuck in your design process? Visit their Instagram or website and get inspired!
) www.eyeondesign.aiga.org
Are you looking for a new podcast? Then this unusual podcast is definitely wor th listening to! In each episode, Tim Hinman discusses cer tain types of sound. The topics that are discussed, are ver y diverse and innovative. An episode can be about the sound of a cer tain city but also about the sounds inside your brain. You will get the answers to questions like - what is the histor y of the sound and how do we listen to this sound?
) www.bang-olufsen.com/en/stories/podcast
S O U N D M AT T E R S 6
BABE +
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While studying histor y, Kassia St. Clair researched eighteenth-centur y women’s fashion, par ticularly what women were wearing to masquerade balls at the time. She noticed that a cer tain colour language was used. Colour had much more meaning in those days, which intrigued her. This inspired her to write the book: The Secret Lives Of Colour. She shares her knowledge about the fascinating histor y of seventy-five colours and how they are woven into our culture. After reading this book, you will think twice about the colours you use!
THE SECRET LI V ES OF COLOUR C R E AT I V E T Y PES Some of you may wonder, what kind of designer am I? You can take all sor ts of tests to find out, but these are usually quite boring. Adobe Create has developed a great alternative! Through 15 slightly abstract questions you will find out what kind of creative personality type you relate to the most. The test is a great experience, because in between the questions cool 3d animation videos are played, based on your answer to the question. Star t the test and find out what your creative personality is!
) www.mycreativetype.com
In Tilburg, there is a new creative complex called Doloris. Doloris lends itself to an unforget table day. You can star t with get ting lost in the surrealistic ar t maze, the Meta Maze. When you have found the end after for ty mysterious rooms, you can treat yourself to a nice drink at their gigantic rooftop bar. Hungr y for more? Then finish the day with a delicious, shared dining menu.
) www.doloris.nl
DOLORIS 7
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WEPRESENT You are probably familiar with the website WeTransfer. While sending your files, an ar ticle always appears. You can read this to pass time. These ar ticles come from their online magazine WePresent. WePresent tells stories that all have to do with creativity. Design, music, podcasts, photography, you name it.
) www.wepresent.wetransfer.com
Yotam Ot tolenghi, whose refreshing cookbooks are hugely popular, has published another cookbook. He wrote Flavour together with Ixtra Belfrage. Ot tolenghi mainly uses Middle -Eastern cuisine in his recipes, but in this book, you will also find many other continents. Belfrage grew up in Brazil, Mexico and Italy and she loves mixing flavours and cuisine. The cooperation of both cooks results in exciting combinations!
F L AV O U R SCENTS IN COLOUR The Mauritshuis in The Hague gives a new twist to their painting exhibitions. A painting helps us to imagine what something looked like at the time, but what did it smell like? At the Fleeting - Scents in Colour exhibition, you will be taken inside the paintings through an extra dimension, namely scent. You will, for example, find out what the Amsterdam canals smelled like four hundred years ago. Yum!
) www.mauritshuis.nl/en/discover/exhibitions/ vervlogen-in-geuren-en-kleuren/
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turn the page | April 2021
SPEC IAL PAGE
by Megan Seker
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COVERSTO RY
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COVE RSTORY
turn the page | April 2021
It is May 24th, 2016 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Two teenagers are about to pull the prank of their lives. They sneakily leave a pair of glasses on the floor of an exhibition hall. The result was just as they had hoped.
People flock around it, taking pictures of the pair of glasses, assuming it is part of the exhibition. It is interesting how anything can become art in a museum. No one would have looked twice at the glasses if they had been dropped on the sidewalk. But that made us wonder, what goes on behind the walls of an art exhibition? Creating such a unique experience entails more than meets the eye. As we found out, designing an exhibition is an art in itself!
by Nanko Hefting and Liza Oomens | special thanks to Jacob de Baan
The experience of visiting an exhibition starts way before the entrance of the museum hall. You might find out about
The exhibition experience
a new exhibition through a poster on the side of the road, a flyer in a tourist office, or on the site of the museum. After visiting the exhibition, your experience is not complete just yet. You can browse the museum shop to find a little gift as a reminder of your visit, or you can sit down at the museum café with a cup of coffee to discuss what you have just seen. From the entry tickets and floorplan of the museum to the packaging of the gifts in the shop, every element has been well thought out. You might not have realised it, but all these elements have contributed to your exhibition experience. 1
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COVERSTO RY
Teamwork makes the dream work
It is not just a few people who come up with an idea for an exhibition and figure it out themselves. The creation of an art exhibition involves many different departments, each with its own specialisation. Well in advance, a budget needs to be established and artworks need to be picked out. This often involves contact with other museums about loaning arrangements. The department of Education consists of art historians who determine which story is told and what information is presented to the visitors.
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April 2021 | turn the page
“Who says you need walls?”
The designer’s perspective
So, it has already been decided what is going to be exhibited, but not yet how it will be done. This is where the exhibition designers come in. Within the requirements from all the different departments, there is still a lot of room for the exhibition designers to unleash their creativity. Do you paint the wall a colour that complements the artwork, or do you let the artwork speak for
itself? You can place a single artwork on a wall or create a connection between the works by clustering them. The walls can be placed in such a way that the visitor is guided along the works in a certain order, or in a way that allows the visitor to walk around freely. Who says you need walls? A painting can also hang from the ceiling, baring its back for all the world to see. Why not display a painting the way it was conceived, on an easel?
Van Gogh’s colours
When designing for a particular museum, you will need to find your creativity within the boundaries of the style of that museum. Having interviewed Jacob de Baan, we got a look inside the Van Gogh Museum through the eyes of the man who
COVE RSTORY
turn the page | April 2021
used to manage its branding. What can we say about the way they design an exhibition there? During the interview, Jacob proudly showed us the house style document he had created for the museum. It contained a list of colours, textures, shapes, fonts, and other kinds of guidelines to which everyone had to adhere. These elements were inspired by Van Gogh himself: the shapes and colours that he used in his paintings. If an exhibition designer wishes a wall to be blue, it will be one of Van Gogh’s favourite shades. On one hand, a colour chart like that can seem constraining. However, is it not special to use the same palette as Van Gogh? Besides adding meaning to the colours, it also helps to create unity throughout the entire museum.
Looking at the exhibitions that have been in the Van Gogh museum over the years, the colour scheme as well as the rest of the document’s guidelines did not constrain the designers in their creativity, but rather inspired them.
The joy of nature
An example of this creativity was a temporary exhibition about Hockney and Van Gogh: ‘The Joy of Nature’.
“Every corner was like a little surprise”
Every wall was in one solid colour, varying from white to shades of green, orange, yellow, and blue. Not only can you give the area beautiful contrasts, but it also allows you to create different atmospheres through the entire hall. No wall was left unused: from little pillars with a single painting on it to wall exhibiting more than twenty drawings, sketches and studies. Both examples having an overwhelming effect on the visitor. The walls were not just used to display art, they also served as means of separation, and more importantly 1
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COVERSTO RY
maybe, means of generating curiosity. Each area of the exhibition was flanked by walls, but never completely. Every corner was like a little surprise, an invitation for the visitor to explore. Almost every wall had text on them, either in white or in dark grey. Some walls just showed the names of paintings or drawings. Others had entire stories printed on them. It might sound
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a bit peculiar to use a whole wall for a story of barely 100 words, but it gives both variation and, in a way, makes the story an exhibited piece of art itself. Speaking about text, there is a huge creative opportunity here as well. Some words were big, some were small, some were not painted, but cut out of thick material and glued to the wall, giving it depth.
In the service of the artist
Your exhibition hall is as much a blank canvas as the paintings you will be showing once were. Have the confidence that your work matches those of the masters, even if your name is not on the wall. And most of all, never forget who the exhibition actually belongs to: the artist. Maybe that is the most important thing to keep in mind. As a designer for
COVE RSTORY
turn the page | April 2021
a museum, you work as part of a larger team that works almost completely behind the scenes. This means you will never be seen. Because the work you create is not for you, about you, or in your name. However important it is to choose the right colours, the right fonts, the right lighting, it will always be in the service of the artist whose artworks are on display. 3
Inspired by The arrival of spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 by David Hockney. “Good artists don’t borrow, they steal.” - David Hockney, 2018.
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Bye, bye,
Bye, bye,
walls
walls
S U STA IN A BILIT Y
April 2021 | turn the page
Last month, I decided my room could use some more colour. So, I went to the hardware store and found myself in front of a familiar wall: the one with all the colour samples. by Julie Leclercq and Eva Le Navenec
Inspired to make paint yourself? Grab a bowl! For the binding you will need 150 grams of flower, 150 mL of cold water, 200 millilitres of warm water and 2.5 tablespoons of salt. While mixing these ingredients you can add the natural pigment until it has the desired colour.
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Being indecisive, I grabbed plenty of samples to reconsider at home. Seeing the samples taped on my wall, I started to wonder how these colours are made. A recognisable process, have you ever stopped to wonder how these colours are created? Humans have always been intrigued by the colours of nature.
SUSTAINABILIT Y
Centuries ago, they found a way of capturing these by collecting pigments. A pigment is a coloured material, often available as a powder. Some pigments are acquired from plants, called organic pigments. On the other hand, there are inorganic, metallic and industrial pigments. The difference between a dye and a pigment is the solubility in a liquid. A pigment needs a binder to be able to dissolve and form a paint. We can do a lot more with pigments besides painting. Therefore, it is a great source for your creative hobbies. Making paint of natural pigments is a way of encouraging sustainability. There are plenty of pigments to utilize. Most of these pigments are probably already in your kitchen! Pepper powder, turmeric, mint and coffee are some examples, but it does not stop there. Perhaps you can think back to the many stains you made in your clothes as a child. Despite disappointing your mother, those stains now appear to have been very instructive. Apart from being a creative and surprising process, painting with natural pigments is less polluting than synthetic paint. Synthetic paint releases volatile organic compounds during the drying process. In addition, the natural pigments give you a great opportunity to provide stuff with a second life. You can now confer that old shirt with dirty stains into a fresh colour and make the stains invisible. Now we are at home so frequently, we have the time to easily pick up new projects. Then, why not only make those projects not fun but also sustainable. Do not grieve if you have already thrown away that old shirt. We have some great ideas to get you inspired. Besides giving a wall a new colour or throwing your artistic touch on a canvas, there are other ways to bring colour into your life. For example, you can brighten up boring flowerpots. You can go crazy and dip your white socks in all kinds of colours. Or paint your feelings on a tote bag to stroll through the park. Enjoy your morning coffee twice (as a drink and as a painting) and give away a thoughtful gift. Hopefully, this will get you started this spring! 3
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N OT YOU
April 2021 | turn the page
I
SPY
LITTLE
WITH
EYE
... AND I SEE: A SMILE!
Blind designer and artist Simon Dogger translates visible human emotions to vibrations for the visualy impaired. His projects show that the importance of creating awareness can not be overseen. by Megan Seker and Koen Weber | special thanks Simon Dogger
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NOT YOU
turn the page | April 2021
What is your favourite ice-cream flavour? Strawberry, chocolate, maybe banana? We all associate these flavours with a colour: pink for strawberry, brown for chocolate and so on. What if your raspberry flavoured ice-cream was green and your vanilla scoop was purple? Would you enjoy them just as much? Imagine having to live without this colour referencing ability for the pick of your flavours. That is exactly what visually impaired designer Simon Dogger did. He gave his audience a blindfold and a black ice-cream during one of his lectures, to enable them to taste without visual bias. The world – to us ‘able-bodied’ people – is a very visual place, especially through the eyes of artists or designers. But imagine designing without sight. Seems kind of challenging does it not? For designer Simon Dogger this is his reality. Simon lost his sight while attending the Design Academy in Eindhoven but did not let this be an obstacle to return. In fact, his loss of sight became an opportunity.
“Could you make some more eye contact?”
One man party
Mr. Dogger described an event to us that took place due to his disability: he attended birthday parties and social events like he did before the loss of his eyesight. But instead of chatting away all evening, he noticed that every initial conversation he had when just entering the room, stopped after about 45 minutes. Is it me? Am I boring, or scary? Nevertheless, Simon did not simply accept this new series of events. Instead, he got curious as to why this happened. He took a friend to the very next party who sat behind Simon. “What do you notice?” was the question to his companion. They observed that the conversations stalled due to a lack of eye contact. People in the room did not feel invited enough to start a conversation. Human nature, we suppose, but also something that sounds kind of ridiculous: asking a blind person to make more eye contact in order to make us feel more welcomed… This inspired to develop the Emotion Whisperer. A device that scans the face of the person we are chatting with and allows the user to “feel” their emotion through vibrations. Although the idea is still in its infancy, the thought behind it is inspiring. Designing not for the sake of making something beautiful, but for a need of change and convenience. Intrinsic motivation is a very strong thing. To see the discomfort or loneliness more as an opportunity, a project, a desire, requires courage. The Emotion Whisperer does not only touch people that fit the target group, but also the general public that feel slightly ‘caught’ by demanding this eye contact from blind people. 1
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April 2021 | turn the page
How inclusive are we?
Thereby, Simon nudges to a change that has been going on for quite some time now: inclusivity. By wanting to include everyone, we expect everybody to fit the characterizations we deem correct: a healthy body, good academic results as well as social and emotional involvement. Dogger holds up the mirror and shows us that inclusivity is not as obvious as we might think. Another problem lies in the design of public spaces. Asking people for help to instruct them through a public space, creates an uneven power balance between caretaker and caregiver. You feel inferior when you ask for help. Luckily, we live in a highly inclusive country, so everyone can find their way in public spaces on their own… Right? Wrong. The Netherlands is one of the least inclusive countries in Europe. In terms of sanitary facilities for people in wheelchairs, the Netherlands is far behind, with only a small percentage of public spaces supporting disabilities. “The Dutch polder culture counteracts inclusivity,” as Simon puts it. Polder culture results in making compromises, and that is exactly what you do not need for better inclusivity. To make a public space more inclusive, we should “just do it” without weighing in too many other factors.
“Through a snowball effect, you could reach the change you aimed for.”
What we can take from this occurrence is that we are more or less ‘blind sighted’ when it comes to problems that do not affect ourselves. Those who can walk will never think twice about some stairs and those who can see never wonder how their social lives would be if they could not. Which is okay. You will never know what you miss, until it is no longer there. However, the underlying message to us as designers is to take your target group seriously. To not make assumptions based on what you imagine, but to learn and interact with the people you design for.
Making impact
As designers, could we make the world more inclusive? Surely, but we should not over-estimate ourselves. You do not have to ‘change the world’ and as Simon puts it: “you probably will not”. If you want to do that, being a politician would be more effective. We can however send a message into society through design. Products like Simon’s, address a problem which might induce more awareness to the subject. Through a snowball effect, you could reach the change you aimed for.
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So, is the contribution of designers merely destined for awareness? Or can we design products to benefit inclusivity that will actually be implemented. When designing a product for such a niche as the visually impaired, you might feel like you are not addressing enough people. The interest seems too little to implement your product. However, products that seem fit for a certain target group, could also be useful to others.
NOT YOU
For instance the Emotion Whisperer, which is designed to ‘feel’ the other person’s emotions. This ‘emotional guide’ so to say, may also be helpful to people with autism or simply men that cannot read the signs of their girlfriends. In this way, designing for a niche could be just as ‘world changing’. The world of design and its possibilities are endless, so a good start could be to take our own experiences, obstacles and desires as inspiration. 3 Curious to see more of Simon’s world? Check out his other projects at ) SimonDogger.nl
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H UTSPOT
April 2021 | turn the page
HUTS POT Do you ever get that sinking feeling in your stomach when you are looking up at the sky or a tall building while walking? Woah! You are disoriented and unsure of where your next step will land. In this issue, Hutspot features a collection of artworks where nothing is as it seems, making you question reality. by Liza Oomens
Confusing curves
This work will make you do a double take. What looks like a wavy cut-out turns out to be a curving surface. Is the right figure in front, or the left one? Erin O’Keefe, photographer and architect, plays with our spatial perception. She places abstract sculptures in confusing compositions and captures them into two-dimensional photographs. Find more on her Instagram page @erinokeefeart.
) www.erinokeefe.com
Click to create
Purin Panichphant, an artist and designer, uses code creatively. He made interactive patterns that change by pressing keys and clicking. These black-and-white diagonal lines transform into a unique and maze-like structure. On his site, you can find more interactive patterns and the code he wrote.
) www.purin.co/Experiments-with-P5-js
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COLOFON
turn the page | April 2021
Of ficial body of ID Volume 22 / Issue 76 April 2021 Turn The page is issued four times a year. Contac t ID study association Landbergstraat 15 2628 CE Delf t +31 (0)15 2783012 www.studieverenigingid.nl Comments, questions, compliments and remarks can be sent to: turnthepage-svid@tudelf t.nl Issues 7000 Copies Press Opmeer papier pixels projec ten T TP Thanks Marc de Kool, Henk Jan Oudenampsen, Lisa Kleisen, Jacob de Baan, Simon Dogger, Ilja Ber trand, Chen Chou, Mishka Henner, Ar thur van Brug, Jurgen Elenbaas,
Infinite space
The name of this installation, ISOMATRIX, is a combination of two words. A ‘matrix’ is a mathematical framework, and ‘isometric’ relates to the axes of the three-dimensional world. The mirrors, photographic prints, frames and neon lights create a disorienting illusion of infinite space. This art installation by Marleen Sleeuwits can hopefully be visited soon once the Kunsthal in Rotterdam re-opens.
Bram Pullen, Paul Wentges, Juwe van Vliet, Jeroen van der Liende, Marco van Leeuwen, Rob Jansen, Fien ten Dam, Herman Hef ting, Christi Wagemakers Subscribe/ad Members of ID receive Turn The Page free of charge. A yearly subscription costs €9,50 (4 issues). Want a subscription or publish an advert?
) www.kunsthal.nl
Please contact turnthepage-svid@tudelft.nl Copyright The committee has strived to own the copyrights of the included texts and images. However, if you believe you own the rights to a piece that has been used, we request you to contact us. Nothing from this issue can be reproduced. The committee claims the right to shorten, alter or refuse submitted pieces. The Communication department of the IDE faculty and the Alumni Association have contributed to this Turn The Page.
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Who lives in the present, lives forever..