A Recap of our Designalism Event
Insights and findings on the intermediate area of design and journalism
Last Wednesday, June 9th, ACED in collaboration with Beeld en Geluid Den Haag hosted Designalism: Design + Journalism. A live talk show portraying key figures at the intersection of design and journalism.
Through conversations by host IJsbrand van Veelen different guests including Angelique Spaninks (MU Hybrid Art House), Harald Dunnink (De Correspondent, HYMN & Momkai), Saskia van Stein (Design Academy Eindhoven), Simone Weimans (NOS Journaal & Met het Oog op Morgen), and Stijn Postema (University of Amsterdam) shared their perspectives on the intermediate area of design, art and journalism.
Also, international findings were brought in via pre recorded interviews with Robert Trafford (Forensic Architecture), Marisa Mazria Katz (Eyebeam) and Eliot Higgins (Bellingcat).
Furthermore the works of artists and designers such as Alice Wong, Cream on Chrome, Forensic Architecture, Maxime Benvenuto, Next Nature Network, Reporters Without Borders & DDB, Teatro di Nascosto and Yuri Veerman were shown.
Our first guest was Simone Weimans, presenter at NOS Journaal and Met het Oog op Morgen, who shared her view on todays journalism and established news media in the context of technological and ideological developments of the 21st century.
Another guest, Marisa Mazria Katz introduced us to a project supported by Eyebeam called Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State by journalist Ben Mauk and artist Matt Huynh, which won Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Journalism SXSW 2021. This fascinating piece investigated and presented the experiences of prisoners in re-education camps through a series of articles and Reeducated, a virtual-reality documentary that takes viewers inside one of Xinjiang’s detention camps.
In terms of projects, the viewers were shown an excerpt from Alice Wong’s US & THEM — a study of the stereotypes around Asian culture. The work is a montage incorporating a variety of visual and audio elements, ranging from historical images to popular culture like The Simpsons.
Another project presented during the evening was Maxime Benvenuto’s Political Atlas of Alibaba, which is an archive of photos and stories around Jack Ma and his meetings with international political figures. Ali-Atlas is an attempt to figure out what these meetings are about.
The entire talk show is available via our YouTube channel. Here you can look back the event, both as a whole and in separate fragments.
