69 turn the page | July 2019
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it
COVERSTORY 50 years of IDE FEATURE Are we living in a simulation? INTERVIEW Hans Dirken 69 | JULY 2019
Celebration is a means of sharing a special occasion with friends and relatives. So when the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering reaches it 50th anniversar y, ID is celebrating too. A lot has happened since IDE was first acknowledged as a course and ID has been there for the ride almost from the beginning. Even though 50 years is relatively young in the scope of the Delft University of Technology, a jubilee like this is a huge accomplishment in itself. Ever since Februar y 7th this year, the jubilee has been all around us and now it has reached Turn The Page! In reference to the founding year of 1969, a special editorial committee was formed to direct the 69th edition of the magazine, which you are now holding in your hands. With 68 pages, this is the thickest Turn The Page by a margin and I hope you will appreciate the effor t put into it. It has been an ambitious project, but if there is one thing IDE and ID have proven the last 50 years, it is that no challenge is too big. Congratulations!
Siward Vloemans, Chairman ID
TA B L E O F 32 Interview ENA VOÛTE
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DESIGN EVERYWHERE
Coverstory 50 YEARS OF IDE
12 Feature LITTLE BIT OF EMPATHY
14 What if WE BUILD AN ARTIFICIAL PLANET
16 Feature HOROLOGY
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B.A.B.E.
38 21 Interview HANS DIRKEN
26 Feature ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY
28 Story behind GIBSON LES PAUL
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FACULTY ANNOUNCEMENT
Feature POWER OF THE PRESS
CONTE NTS
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ID PAGES
44 Versus UTOPIA VS. DYSTOPIA
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CUBE ADVERTORIAL
48 Opinion INTERNET MANIA
50 Feature ARE WE LIVING IN A SIMULATION?
52 Feature LOOKING THROUGH PINK GLASSES
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BEST PICTURE
56 Feature A DESIGNERS VIEW
59 Feature VOYAGER
60 Feature KEEPING UP WITH A COMPLEX WORLD
62 Feature FUTURE FORECAST
64 Feature OUTSIDE IN
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GADGETS
EDITORIAL
IJsber t Bekooy Secretar y
Douwe Hardon Treasurer
Gabi Verstappen Lay-out
Lidewij Muurling Editor in Chief
Wies van Wetten Chairman
Timothy Puglia Acquisition
Zola Zwer ver External Affairs
Romée Postma Publicity
Siward Vloemans Qualitate Qua
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EDITORIAL
This edition is a special one, as it is the faculty’s 50th birthday. Because of this noteworthy jubilee, this 69th issue of Turn The Page is extra heavy, with (a whopping 68 pages in total). To go back to IDE’s roots, we interviewed one of its founding fathers: Hans Dirken. He, he tells vividly about how it all started, his experiences and how it evolved to the way it is now. To learn from old products, we went into the Henri Baudet Institute, a place where old designed products are stored inside the IDE faculty. There, we found some interesting products and reviewed those. Of course, looking back is not the only thing that matters. Our dean Ena Voûte talks about IDE and its students. When combining all these different aspects of IDE, you can form your own perspective of it. Next to putting the IDE faculty in perspective, there are of course other things that look different in another point of view. For example, modern-day academics are discussing the topic of living in a simulation. Can this really be true? Since technology has evolved so much, it can create such a vivid perception of reality that we cannot tell it apar t with real life anymore. Not only in simulations, but also in real life, people have always fantasized about the per fect way of living: a utopian lifestyle. People have not only been interested in a utopian
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way of living, but also in a dystopian world, in what can go wrong. Can we compare the two or is it just a matter of mindset? Just like we can set our mind to a good old fashioned brainstorm. With brainstorming, you let your mind roam free and you are allowed to say any thing that pops up. There is no such thing as a bad idea. This is also what children in 1900 1919 did when they tried to predict the future. TAnd those predictions actually proved to be quite accurate. But not all future predictions are accurate, asit predicting the future is one of the hardest things to do, since you never know what kind of unpredictable things might happen that changes events. You can put any thing in perspective, and see it in a different light and maybe come to new insights. We can learn from the past, for example from ancient my thology from different par ts of the world and see how it influenced the things we now take for granted. We can learn from the present, to do things better in the future. Lastly,And we can look ahead to the future to use what we have learned in the past to in our advantage. This not just applies to for IDE, but to for a lot of other things in life. I hope this special edition of Turn The Page inspires you to look at things from a different point of view ever y now and then. 3
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COVERSTORY
YEARS OF
In fifty years, our faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) has developed from a small study in the attic of Architecture, to a large, self-contained institute. In 2019 we celebrate the golden jubilee of IDE and take a moment to reflect on how important our faculty has gotten. This jubilee themed Turn The Page want to reflect on what has happened these past fifty years and how IDE got to where it is now. Perhaps you will recognize some names from the lecture halls in our faculty... text by Lidewij Muurling | illustrations by Meike Huisman
COVERSTORY
1965 Wim Crouwel, a leading graphic designer at the time, is added to the team. Bernd Schierbeek, a mechanical engineer, is appointed as the first official professor. 1946 Although we may say we star ted in 1969, the preparations took place before that. Mar t Stam and Andries Copier make the first plans to star t an education track on industrial design at the Technische Hogeschool Delft (the technical university of applied sciences Delft). It is Joost van der Grinten who eventually really shapes the study. At the time he was an intern at Philips.
1969 On the seventh of Februar y, the Technische Hogeschool finally gets official approval from the government to star t IDE as a new field of study. This means that the study is now independent, causing the amount of applications to increase considerably.
1962
1972 It becomes clear that industrial design differs to architecture in the way it researches and uses the relationships between people and products. Psychologist Hans Dirken is appointed to do research on ergonomics. Historian Henri Baudet develops a course in the study for the cultural histor y of design and the social and economic aspects of the use of products. The first research to happen inside the faculty, was the typological development of the telephone.
Joost van der Grinten is appointed as a professor and with that star ts realizing an industrial design education. At first this was a track in the architecture depar tment.
1973
1964
A debate is going on whether the faculty should focus on commercial design or on design for world improvement. This year, the bachelors is officially divided into a four pillar model: construction, product ergonomics, design 1
Emile Truijen, who star ted one of the first design studios in the Netherlands, joins van der Grinten in developing the course.
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Wim Groeneboom and Wim Rietveld star t teaching courses at the faculty. 1978
1971 The faculty moves into a new building, at the Ezelsveldlaan. This is where there are fifty freshman for the first time and where the first engineer, Norber t Roozenburg, graduates. During this time Emile Truijen star ts to reform the track. Designer Aat Marinissen is recruited to work at the faculty.
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COVERSTORY
and business. Gerard van Eijk is appointed as the first business professor of IDE. Hans Dirken is appointed as rector magnificus of the Technische Hogeschool. The faculty moves to a building at the Jaffalaan and at the Drebbelweg a couple of drawing rooms from the ship building study are made available. Ootje Oxenaar, who designed the notes for the Dutch “gulden”, becomes professor of visual presentation. A lot of teachers are also recruited from big companies like Philips and Van Berkel. 1979 The hundredth ID engineer graduates! There is clearly a big interest in the study from students and companies, which results in a lot of appointments of new teachers and professors. 1980 Wim Crouwel becomes a professor of industrial design. From the 80s, there is more focus on sustainable products, mostly due to the appointment of Han Brezet and Ab Stevels as professors in this area.
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1986 Jan Buijs, working at TNO, and Jan Jacobs, who is head designer at Gispen, become professors of industrial design. 1994 From now on students have to make two impor tant choices during their studies: between product development or innovation management and between practice or research. 1997 The IDE faculty merges with the faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which resulted in the big faculty of “Ontwerpen, Constructie en Productie (OCP)” or design, construction and production. 1999 The four divisions of the bachelors are reorganised into three depar tments. 2004 The merge with Mechanical Engineering is turned around again, as there is not really any cooperation going on.
The faculty moves to its current building at the Landbergstraat, which was an old workplace before its transformation into an educational building 2006 Three new masters, that we still know today, are formed: Design for Interaction (DfI), Integrated Product Design (IPD) and Strategic Product Design (SPD).
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COVERSTORY
201 9
This brings us to the 50th anniversar y of the faculty IDE. It has been a long way since the early beginnings in 1946 and the faculty has gone through many changes in those years. Even now we keep growing, as is of course necessar y to keep educating up to date designers. Think about the bachelor programme that has been renewed and will begin next year. This study has come for th out of a gap in the market of engineers. To continue to be able to fulfill the needs of consumers and society, it is impor tant to keep evolving the programme, like we have been doing for the past fifty years. Before you know it, we will be celebrating a hundred years of IDE and, who knows, we might be totally different from the faculty we are today. 3
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DESIGN EVERY WHERE
IDE BIC YCLE PA R K I N G Jan and Arie work in the bicycle parking just outside of the IDE faculty. You can recognize them by their orange safety vests. The two-storey bicycle garage offers parking spaces for hundreds of bicycles. Enough space for all student bikes, right? Unfortunately due to some poor design decisions, the second story of the bicycle garage could not be used for some period of time. Difficulties of the staircases led to a parking shortage. All bikes needed to be parked elsewhere. Now that the top floor of the parking is in use students still tend to park their bikes in the wrong place. Luckily Jan and Arie are there to guide you in the right direction. 3 by Zola Zwerver
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DESIGN EVE RY WHERE
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ID PAGES
SPRING TRIP A group of thir ty ID members travelled to Turin during this year’s Spring Trip. They stayed in a deser ted, former olympic village and visited the national car museum, design agencies & companies and they even went to Milan for one day!
IDE BUSINESS FAIR During the 19th edition of the IDE Business Fair, students had the chance to get involved with over 30 design related companies. Inspiring cases, speeddates and the two-day fair brought the IDE professional life right to the main hall of the faculty.
K AFEEST 2: JUNGLE For the second time this year, ID Kafee opened its doors until 02:00 to IDE students and friends for another unforgettable par ty. With a proper jungle setting, on-point outfits and live saxophone tunes, this one would be unlike any Kafeest before.
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ID PAGES
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ID PAGES
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43
GADGE TS
Gadgets by IJsbert Bekooy
AIRBAR 2-in-1 laptops are ver y popular, but you do not have to buy one to enjoy the advantages of a touch screen. AirBar transforms any laptop screen into a touch screen via a standard USB connection. No need for additional software, ever y thing works right out of the box. We were actually surprised how well it works, both on Windows and Mac! The AirBar is so flat you will not even notice it while working. One thing to know is that you will need a USB-A por t on the right, or you will need to use a extender cable.
Price: $100,) air.bar
NEMUIX This smar t design enables you to keep reading while it is dark. The light is so thin you can keep it in your book as bookmark. By connecting the two contacts, the light switches on and the bookmark is put in an upright position. Place it on top between pages and you are in for a long stor y. The per fect bookmark for reading while travelling.
Price: $10 ) www.nemuix.com
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July 2019 | turn the page
COLOPHON
Of ficial body of ID Volume 18 / Issue 69 - June 2019 Turn The page is issued four times a year.
PICO Have you ever wanted to recreate a colour you have seen somewhere? With Pico you van simply scan the colour and it will simply return the RGB value. It is extremely accurate; you can test your eyes at the website and there is a big chance that Pico can tell the difference better than you. At around the size of a thumb, Pico can be carried around with no problem. The price is a little high for students, but this is the per fect gift for any graphic designer.
Contact 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 8000 Copies
Price: $118,) palette.com/pico
Press Quantes - Rijswijk T TP Thanks Hans Dirken Ena VoĂťte Hans Suijkerbuijk Ingrid Vos Marc de Kool Henk Jan Oudenampsen Job Jansweijer Jan & Arie Photos in adver torial by: Wang Ziling, Yusuke Kuwabara, Friedman Benda, Erez Nevi Pana, Alan Boom Subscribe/ad Members of ID receive Turn The Page free of charge. A yearly subscription costs â‚Ź 9,50 (4 issues) Want a subscription or publish an adver t? Please contac t turnthepage-svid@tudelf t.nl Copyright The commit tee has strived to own the copyrights of the included tex ts and images. However, if you believe you own the rights to a piece that has been used, we request you to contac t us. Nothing from this issue can be reproduced. The commit tee claims the right to shor ten, alter or refuse submit ted pieces. The Communication depar tment of the IDE facult y and the Alumni Association have contributed to this Turn The Page.
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69 turn the page | July 2019
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it
COVERSTORY 50 years of IDE FEATURE Are we living in a simulation? INTERVIEW Hans Dirken 69 | JULY 2019