What becomes of water when we look at it through the lens of different artists and researchers? And how might it assist us in looking at the world differently? Seven practitioners individually welcome us to a water-related place in Amsterdam, and explain what this place tells us about water when we listen, look, and think carefully. Each interview is preceded by a listening exercise, guided by the voice of the interviewee; intimately connected to their chosen location. These recordings can be experienced onsite, or wherever you find yourself, with a moment to spare.
In this opening episode of Restless Grounds, we dive into the entangled histories of magic, technology, and capital. Our conversation explores how belief systems—from Enlightenment science to tarot, commodity fetishism to algorithmic “intelligence”—shape not only how we relate to technology, but how technologies are designed to relate to us. Host Mariana Fernández Mora is joined by Flavia Dzodan, Zachary Formwalt, and Carlo De Gaetano to think through magical thinking as both a historical foundation for Western science and a critical tool for deconstructing algorithmic systems today.
Between November 2024 and March 2025, the research group Plot(ting), part of the Lectoraat Art & Spatial Praxis, hosted Tactics of the Plot: Reimagining Tools and Methods for Resistance & Collective Futures. This project, a collaboration with the Institute of Network Cultures, brought together a diverse group of makers, researchers, activists, and those working across disciplines whose practices can be examined through Sylvia Wynter’s concept of the plot. Participants included Inte Gloerich, Elisa Guiliano, Wouter Stroet, Sepp Eckenhaussen, Mayis Rukel, and Lina Bravo Mora.
The online publication "Fellows Published 2022-2023" is launched. The process and findings of the fellows who conducted their research in 2022 and 2023 are made accessible here. Contributors are: Aaro Murphy, Alaa Abu Asad, Andrea Lopez Bernal, Charlie Clemoes, MELT (Ren Loren Britton & Iz Paehr), Olya Korsun, Patricia Domingues, Sandra Golubjevaite and Zaïra Pourier.
Take a look at the online publication here: 2023.fellowspublished.rietveldacademie.nl/
The latest issue of 'Wijsgerig Perspectief' (Amsterdam University Press) is dedicated to the work of Sara Ahmed. Ahmed is renowned for her groundbreaking contributions to feminist theory, phenomenology, cultural studies, queer theory, and critical race theory. This issue features a contribution from Patricia de Vries (lector Art & Spatial Praxis), who also served as its editor.
On March 3, the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation (CoECI) presented "Testing the Waters: on the value of artistic practices for societal challenges" at the Rietveld Academie. This publication aims to open the discussion on how to integrate artistic methods into research and innovation agendas, without losing the unique qualities of artistic methods.
In 2019, Maia Gattás and Francisca Khamis Giacoman met in the West Bank. Their correspondence, rooted in shared memories and layered histories, explores how water shapes Palestinian landscapes, experiences, and diasporic connections. The first four letters have traced a path across Bariloche, Santiago, Amsterdam, and Palestine—interweaving memory, geography, and resistance. This week, we share the final two letters in their epistolary exchange.
On 28 November 2024, Müge Yılmaz gave her end of residency lecture and launched the first edition of the booklet series "Future Guide for the Salty Forager". Set in 2124, this practical and imaginative foraging guide offers insights on gathering, living with, and consuming salty plants for future readers.
On November 28, Müge Yılmaz gave her end of residency lecture and launched the first edition of the booklet series "Future Guide for the Salty Forager". Besides, we experienced a performative salt-resistant bite by the Brackish Collective. Katía Truijen and Radna Rumping from Loom, practice for cultural transformation, gave their start of residency lecture and introduced their research project "Rhine River Rehearsal – Reimagining a River." Take a look at the video and photos here.
The Gerrit Rietveld Academie congratulates Femke Herregraven on obtaining the title of Creator Doctus (CrD) on 14 November 2024. CrD is a project developed at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie that seeks to realise a new European third cycle award for higher arts education.
Flavia Dzodan held her inaugural lecture on November 26th on the impossibilities of algorithmic translation. "Amorino Latente/ Latent Cupid” revolves around the translation of art and its emotional impact through algorithmic and computational processes. Take a look at the video & photos of the event.
The Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Rietveld Sandberg Research are pleased to announce the appointment of Flavia Dzodan as Professor (Lector) of Algorithmic Cultures. Dzodan’s work marks a significant contribution to the GRA’s mission of fostering a research culture that embraces expansive, interdisciplinary, and non-traditional approaches, which reflect the complex and critical issues of our time. Her appointment underscores the GRA’s commitment to recognizing and supporting research practices that transcend conventional academic boundaries, weaving together theoretical exploration and artistic expression.
The Art & Spatial Praxis research group gather monthly with the Plot(ting) research group to discuss theoretical and material manifestations that align with Sylvia Wynter’s concept of the plot. In January, the reading group examined Demonic Grounds by Katherine McKittrick.
For more than a decade, Femke Herregraven has been investigating which material base, geographies, and value systems are carved out by financial technologies and infrastructures. The exhibition 'Dialect' marks the last chapter of Femke Herregraven's Creator Doctus trajectory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie/Sandberg Instituut.
During the symposium and round table discussion on Algorithmic Cultures on the 6th op December 2023, Flavia Dzodan launched her new essay ‘Haptic Mournings; Morning the Never-Made' about our increasing blurring relation to the digital world, the imagined and real.
"The City as Anthology: Movements at the Margins of Public Space" presents the work of Mariken Overdijk, artist and teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, with an introduction in collaboration with Jeroen Boomgaard, former lector of LAPS (Lectorate of Art & Public Space) at Rietveld Sandberg Research. The book was launched on 13th of January 2024 at Zone2Source, Amstelpark and on 27th of January at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam during the Boekie Woekie & Friends event.
We are delighted to hear that the publication ‘I Am Going to Be Your Last Teacher - A Workbook’ by Yael Davids is part of the selection of the Best Dutch Book Designs.
