Program

The first part is focused on designers who are addressing omissions in the archive. We’ll discuss the role of counter- and community-archives. Designer, author, and educator Basma Hamdy shares her research on Egyptian design archives; the Grafis Nusantara collective (based in Jakarta) and members of the Syrian Design Archive (based in Damascus and Belgium) each explain their motivations and processes for collecting and cataloging Indonesian and Syrian graphic ephemera, respectively.

In part two, we look at the tools and tactics used by graphic designers to critically intervene, reframe and interpret the archive. Designer and curator Tabea Nixdorff unpacks her critical approach to archives via the Feminist Design Strategies installation currently on display at Het Nieuwe Instituut; Remco van Bladel, co-founder of Archival Consciousness, explains how linked-data aggregation can help diversify the archival database; Alice Wong shares her work-in-progress as media artist in residence at Open Archive 3.0 where she and Simon Tse are engaging in the creative reuse of archival materials.

There will be a general discuss and an opportunity for Q&A with the audience.

Inaugural lecture Alice Twemlow

This event has been organized to complement the inaugural lecture by Alice Twemlow, Professor by Special Appointment in the Wim Crouwel Chair of History, Theory and Sociology of Graphic Design and Visual Culture at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam.

Disquieting Histories: Notes on Silence in the Graphic Design Archive

Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Dr. Alice Twemlow

University of Amsterdam Aula, Singel 411, Amsterdam

Thursday 1 December, 16:30 - 18:30 hrs