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Rewatch the VPRO Ambassadors talks

20 November 2020

What will our future look like? Chris Kijne, Pieter van der Wielen and Koert van Mensvoort talk to important speakers who shape or predict our future. Our guests include Dutch Design Week (DDW) ambassadors for 2020 and 2019: Lidewij Edelkoort (DDW20), Sabine Marcelis (DDW20) and Lonneke Gordijn (DDW19).

My way of working is not fixed to a certain scale. I work from materials. And that can become large or remain small, from a vase to part of a building.' - Sabine Marcelis

In conversation with Sabine Marcelis

In this talk Pieter van der Wielen talks to designer and DDW20 ambassador Sabine Marcelis and urban planner Winy Maas. They discuss how their work has been changed due to the corona crisis. Sabine Marcelis immediately explains how she implemented this in her ambassadorship: 'How can I do justice to my objects without physically experiencing them? She collaborated with Dimenco and used an eye tracking technique. Winy Maas used to fly around the world on a weekly basis and shows his interest in communication when you can't (physically) see each other. Check it out below!

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'Now that you are much more at home, you look at your surroundings in a different way. And understand how much you are actually throwing away. You literally have time to see.' - Lidewij Edelkoort

In conversation with Lidewij Edelkoort

In this talk Chris Kijne talks with DDW20 ambassador Lidewij Edelkoort and Lucas de Man about many different themes, including democracy, life in America and most importantly, how we can live more together with nature. Lidewij Edelkoort shows images of Labour of Love, a major exhibition in Lille, the cultural capital. ‘It is actually a list of promising techniques for dealing differently with our materiality’, says Lidewij. Growing design is an example of this where you literally let the environment grow, like a lamp or wooden chair. This crisis shows that we need to find new ways of economics and production. Now that you are much more at home, you start looking at your surroundings in a different way. You have time to literally see things better. And Lidewij emphasizes once again that we have to live more slowly. Lucas de Man is an artist involved in more sustainable production and talks about his project during DDW20: Exploded View. A house built with natural and locally sourced raw materials. Watch the episode below!

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In conversation with Lonneke Gordijn

In this talk, Koert van Mensvoort speaks with DDW19 ambassador Lonneke Gordijn of studio Drift, designer Dion Soethoudt and writer Niels 't Hooft. Koert starts with the question what new intimacy, the theme of DDW this year, means to Lonneke. Lonneke: 'We are going to experience intimacy with technology. And for that we have to use technology in the right way.’ To which she then adds that you don't achieve intimacy with all kinds of technology and warns that we have to be careful not to become completely absorbed in this digital world. Then Koert talks to Niels 't Hooft about his app Dustin in collaboration with VPRO medialab. With this app they investigate the relationship between man and machine. With Dion Soethoudt, Koert continues on this subject. Dion Soethoudt was locked up in a room for seven days. Not all alone, but with an artificial autonomous robot: the Rumba. What kind of relationship do you get with technology and objects? That is what this episode is all about. Watch the episode below!

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