Conference May 19–21, 2012
P.O. Box 1272
3000 BG Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Call for EU applications
Application deadline: July 1, 2012
Information about contributors, workshops, and venues: www.prototypingfutures.net
Saturday, May 19: lectures, discussions, and the book launch of Sniff, Scrape, Crawl…
Sunday, May 20: workshops followed by a screening at WORM
Monday, May 21: workshop documentation and final wrap-up
Lectures on the 19th are free and open to the public.
Workshops are also free, but registration is required before May 12th as there is limited space.
For reservations, please send an e-mail to: [email protected]
“Prototyping Futures / Occupying the Present” is a three-day conference with workshops initiated by the Piet Zwart Institute, a centre for postgraduate studies and research in the fields of art and design. The event will gather scholars from diverse disciplines to explore strategies of resistance, intervention, and critical production in response to the crises of the present. Rather than foregrounding critique, the focus will be on experimental practices that work towards the production of alternative narratives and the imagination of different futures. The term “media” is at the center of the symposium’s conceptual frame and is interpreted in its broadest sense so as to encompass a variety of methodologies and approaches that materialize ideas through technological, spatial, ephemeral, and poetic forms.
Key to the conference is the notion and ethos of prototyping. Used in fields such as architecture, software programming, and design, the word has a range of meanings from simple working models to developmental processes. The prototype––in its etymological and theoretical senses––is an original form, an archetype. But it is also––in the applied fields of software development, design, and architecture––the alpha version, made to test a concept and with the expectation of flaws, bugs, kinks, and failures. Rather than hammering down prototyping to a single definition, this symposium seeks to embrace its tentative, iterative, and speculative qualities, with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.
The event will also be a participatory occasion through which to launch an alternative to the traditionally edited essay collection. Working with Active Archives and other multimedia, our aim is to create an online volume that documents and reflects upon on the various issues raised.
Contributors
Inke Arns, Bik Van der Pol, Karin de Jong of PrintRoom, Danja Vasiliev, Julian Oliver, Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr of Echo Park Film Center, Michael Murtaugh, Failed Architecture, Jan Jongert of 2012Architecten, Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE, Gordan Savičić, Florian Cramer of Creating 010
Event Editorial Team
Allison Carruth, Carolyn Guertin, Rita Raley, Renée Turner
The Piet Zwart Institute is an international postgraduate programme dedicated to study and research in the fields of art and design. It is a part of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University. As an educational programme and cultural centre, the notion of “making public” is core to our activities. These public moments are an important resource for students, faculty members and guests, serving as a bridge to the city, a framework for exploring timely and relevant issues, and building a community around areas of interests.
Call for EU Applications
The Piet Zwart Institute offers the following Master courses:
Master Fine Art
Master Interior Architecture & Retail Design
Master Media Design & Communication
Master Education in Arts
If you wish to apply for one of these Master courses, please see our application guidelines.
The application deadline is July 1, 2012.
Although the May 1st deadline for non-EU applicants has passed, we encourage you to apply next year.
