Photo album of day 5 - The opening night

Day 5 of the Workshop - The opening night

The opening day of the exhibition has arrived. All the groups have finished their works and prepared for the final presentation. Before the official opening of the exhibition starts all participants of the workshop meet for dinner. It is finally 20.00 and the evening opens with a lecture by John Schneijderberg, a graduating student from the faculty of architecture of TU/e. The topic of the lecture is “Identity and decay”. John investigates the origins and causes of beauty in decay and how to preserve such qualities. The moment of the presentation of the works developed by our five groups has arrived. The exhibition space is crowed with people and colored spotlights are creating an intriguing atmosphere.

Group 4 is the first presenting. Four cylinders (built out of bubble paper) are hanging inside four metal frames. Through the bubble paper the viewer sees the shadow of hanging objects. Mirrors located directly under the hanging cylinder give a clear view of the hidden objects. Each mirror is partially covered with earth, wood and other materials in order to represent various subjective point of views.

“Change your prospective to see the beauty of decay.”

Group 2 is the second presenting. A paper tent hangs from the ceiling 1.50m over the floor. One side of the tent has a lifted corner, which invites the visitors to step inside. Black boxes are floating in the space created by the paper curtains. Each box has a quotation written on its side.  Holes are revealing to the viewer the content of each box. A box with viewing holes on opposite sides gives the chance to cross views inside the box. Group 2 tells through its work a fragment of the story of Chris (a man living in a boat on the canal) and his opinion about beauty of decay.

“I can’t stop the future, I don’t want to” - Chris

Group 3 is the third presenting. Different pieces of a frame are hanging from the ceiling. Fragments of the same picture are hanging behind the frame pieces. From a specific point in front of the frame the viewer will not be able to distinguish its fragmentation, but only percieve a complete frame and its picture. This deceiving perspective can be compared to the view of a landscape. An overview prevents the viewer to perceive the story behind each detail of the landscape. From the defined starting point the viewer moves in a straight line toward the hanging frame. Getting closer to the frame the he starts to perceive its actual composition, the different pieces and their imperfections. Each single piece has its own identity and story. It is in the intimacy of these stories that you can find the beauty of decay. 
“To be able to capture the beauty of imperfection is just a matter of perspective.”

Group 1 is the fourth presenting. A big frame is standing on the floor. The frame is crossed by ropes that can be pulled. Each rope moves a different object hanging inside the frame. The viewers are invited to move the objects and trace their stories. Through its work Group 1 investigates the relation between information and the space left to imagination.

“Set your imagination in motion”

Group 5 is the last group presenting. A tree is standing in the middle of the exhibition space, an empty frame hanging behind it. The leaves of the tree are colored, written and drawn.

A tree crosses in a year four different seasons. In spring the tree gets ready for summer. The summer of the tree is its most glorious season. In autumn rain and temperature are corrupting the triumph of summer,  but with the rain autumn brings also incredible colors. The colors are covering the tree and its surrounding. What happens to the tree in winter?

Like trees also buildings are living bodies. Buildings are crossing four different seasons in their lifespan. In its autumn a building gets color by nature (through decay) and by people (through art).

“What happens to the building in its winter? ....empty frame”

After the presentation the night continues for some more hours with music and beer…..

Photo album of day 4

Photo album of day 3

Group 2 in search of beauty

Day 3 of the Workshop

We are half-way through the week and the workshop is populated with wooden frames and scattered decomposed objects collected from the canal area.
Here is a summary of what they were working onn today.


Group 1: Relation between information and imagination
This group is working on an interactive frame to trigger your imagination about the canal of Eindhoven.


Group 2: Top-secret
This group still wants to keep what they are working on a secret... curious?


Group 3: Imperfection
The boys are working on the frames while the girls are preparing what will be inside them. The imperfection that will be portraid is a matter of perspective.


Group 4: Traces/Details/Path
This group is defining the path they want to create. The question is how to relate the collected material with a specific location.


Group 5: Seasons
At the time of this posting, this group is still nowhere to be seen. We hope their work is going well!

Updated version of the lectures at LCM

Other interesting links:


http://www.madlab.nl/?lang=en - Puls 2010 website
http://www.dutchdesignweek.nl - official website of the DDW