Boy London creator Stephane Raynor talked about the relationship between fashion and film on 10 December at the Fash!on/Off festival in Antwerp, Belgium. The cult clothing brand’s founder appeared as the final guest in Premsela’s Perfect Cut discussion series. The photographer Ari Versluis interviewed Raynor on stage about the state of the art of the fashion film and its influence on music and videos in the FotoMuseum. Boy London became famous in the 1980s and was a favourite of performers like the Sex Pistols and Boy George.

Interview with fashion designer and artist Carri Munden (Cassette Playa, UK) by Ari Versluis about her work and vision.

Summary of the book launch of Open Design Now – Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive, which took place during DMY Berlin. Moderator of the event Marcus Fairs (Dezeen.com) talked with editors and authors of the book.

Berlin, 2 June 2011 – Premsela, the Netherlands Institute of Design and Fashion

Partners: Waag Society, Creative Commons Netherlands
For more info: opendesignnow.org

Keynote by philosopher professor Henk Oosterling: Skill City: Reflective Craftsmanship as Eco-social Design. Oosterling opened the day with a mental exercise around the notion of ‘reflaction’, in which reflection meets action, and words are coupled to deeds. Drawing on the Premsela lectures by Richard Sennet (Out of Touch, 2011) and himself (Dasein as Design, 2009), Oosterling will unfold the idea of a ‘skillcity’, and discuss its ethical, social, and economic implications. In his view, the attitude needed in design today is one of material and relational consciousness.

video commissioned by premsela.org

“Fingers operated buttons instead of fishing nets.” As curators of the exhibition INDUSTRIOUS| Artefacts, the Evolution of Crafts, Studio Makkink & Bey have researched the transformation of the landscape after the closure of the Zuiderzee, and the subsequent migration of crafts and their organisational forms (such as guilds) from the fishing industries and its subsidiary professions to large-scale agricultural manufacturing. What can we learn from the evolution of crafts for tomorrow’s working landscape?

Keynote by Prof. Pieter Tordoir, owner Economisch Ruimtelijk Atelier, Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam: Where we want to work.

The personal values of entrepreneurs and highly educated workers increasingly drive the location and relocation of business activities in our advanced economy. Landscaping the economy is the trend, but does this bring us more variety or a new uniformity? Tordoir’s presentation will shed light on some fundamental dynamics in the work environment in various business sectors and locations.

This discussion addresses sustainable processing cycles, the dual use of raw materials and how we can optimise production cycles. With engineer and researcher Christiaan Bolck (Wageningen University) and designer Simone Farresin (Formafantasma) . Farresin presents the project Autarchy prototypes (a family of food-based containers and objects) and under the title Biobased materials: using old principles in a future economy, Christiaan Bolck will then present the principles of biorefinery and its applications in the development of biobased materials.

The panel discussion Industrious Matters, with internet activist and author Smári McCarthy, and designers Dries Verbruggen (Unfold), Hanna-Lisette Wiesener (Trikoton) and Kieren Jones, explores the visual, political and social potential of digital fabrication and open-source technologies – which emergent societal models can we derive from them?

The video starts with presentations by the four of them.

On Saturday January 28th, Professor Timo de Rijk interviewed the Canadian production designer Carol Spier on stage in Rotterdam at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Spier talked about the relationship between design and the environment we live in, and how we experience the world designers create for us in film and in reality.