News

Research Awards 2019, the Winners!

Sun 14 Jul

About Research Awards

The WdKA Research Award was established by the Willem de Kooning Foundation in 2015 to emphasize the central role of art and design research within the newly introduced curriculum. The Willem de Kooning Research Awards are no prizes for just theses or research documents but for projects merging theory and practice where art or design work is a vital part of the research. Research Award ceremony for both Bachelor and Master graduates took place on July 14th.

And the winners are:

Bachelor Research Awards

First Award: Rosalie van Pinxteren

"The first prize of the WdKA Research Award 2019, €1.500.-, goes to Rosalie van Pinxteren (Fashion Design - Commercial Practices) for her project Adobefashion. Adobefashion is a fashion collection that currently only exists on Instagram with some fashion items that are photoshopped but look real and others that physically exist but look photoshopped. As a consequence, the audience never quite knows which is which. Both in her thesis and her presentation, Rosalie investigates and plays with these notions of the digital and physical realm.

In her presentation for the graduation show, she defies audience expectations by choosing not to show her tangible fashion designs. As a result of this, her theory and practice are a coherent whole. The jury interprets this as both a critique of the fashion industry and its standard ways of working and as a timely reflection on the state of fashion in the Internet age. Rosalie’s research is driven by social and economic urgency which it adequately addresses both in its thesis and its design. The jury praises Rosalie for her sensibility to metropolitan culture and her ability to translate this into a project that accurately addresses current developments in the fashion industry."

Second Award: Fleur Peters

"The second award ( a prize of 1000 Euro) goes to Fleur Peters (Product Design - Commercial Practices) for her project The Light Conductors. Particularly her thesis is outstanding in its rigour and execution, showcasing thorough research into materials, artistic tradition and location."

Third Award: Lot Mars

"The third award (a prize of 500 Euro) goes to Lot Mars (Graphic Design - Autonomous Practices) for her project a written form of stuttering. "Both in her thesis and her design of a modified alphabet, Lot makes a convincing case for stuttering as a dialect and for the emancipation of the stutterer."

Jury Bachelor Research Award: Florian Cramer – chairman (WdKA), Jojanneke Gijsen – secretary (WdKA), Charl Landvreugd (artist and researcher), Hilde Westerink (Vers Beton) and Robin van den Akker (Erasmus University College).

Master Research Award

Natasha Berting (Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design: Experimental Publishing)

"Natasha’s research into the history and current online practices of censorship in Indonesia is both thorough and critical and would make a good step towards a PhD-proposal. Operating on the premise that it is ‘apparent that deliberative and creative activism is needed to help vulnerable netizens, in particular, [to] resist the rising pressure of state and self-censorship online’, she designed a highly engaging, full-fledged game that takes its players through various levels of online media strategies and tactics all within a safe environment. The jury immediately recognised that her research paper had been necessary in order the make the urgency of the game within a specific geopolitical context tangible. The great value of Instant Warnet, however, is found in the fact that it can transcend its context of origination, and can be used by educators, activists, and human rights organisations alike. The jury would, therefore, like to stimulate Natasha to continue her critical engagement with this subject." Congratulations on your prize of €2.000.-! Visit her website here.

Jury Master Research Award: Mariska Versantvoort (WdKA, chairwoman and secretary), Charl Landvreugd (artist and researcher), Hilde Westerink (Vers Beton) and Robin van den Akker (Erasmus University College).

Photography by Selma Hengeveld.