Autarchy: The Making of Dutch Design in Practice

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademic

Abstract

Since the early 1990s a new term became increasingly current in the international design circuit: Dutch Design. It became strongly associated with objects frequently described as conceptual, unconventional, environmentally friendly and sober, among others. The canonical discourse takes a culturalist approach to Dutch Design, explaining Dutch Design artifacts as natural reflections of an assumedly fixed national and cultural context. In contrast, this paper explores how Dutch Design artifacts participate in creating new social formations that contradict, escape or otherwise transcend conventional accounts of Dutch culture, heritage and history. Informed by Actor-Network- Theory (ANT), it examines the social and material construction of one specific artifact, namely Autarchy (2010) by Studio Formafantasma, and how in the process of it being construed as Dutch Design it reconfigured the Dutchness of Dutch Design and the context of the nation. Autarchy thus requires the formulation of a different framework to study Dutch Design, an approach that is able to account for its involvement in Dutch material culture and its deviations from it. In conclusion, I suggest that focusing on how artifacts create their contexts rather than on contextualizing artifacts in already existing frames of reference may be a useful means to approach national design histories in times of globalization.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Matter of Design
Subtitle of host publicationMaking Society through Science and Technology. Proceedings of the 5th STS Italia Conference 2014
EditorsClaudio Coleta, Sara Colombo, Paolo Magauda, Alise Mattozzi, Laura Lucia Parolin, Lucia Rampino
PublisherSTS Italia Publishing
Pages901
Number of pages919
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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