Welcome to the 2016 June graduation Ceremony. We are so proud of all your accomplishments and the work you have presented over the past two days.
A post-graduate Design degree takes the design skills you acquired in the Bachelors and develops them further. You can research, you can tell a story, you know how to take a big idea and make it specific. These are skills that are more and more sought after in this era where multi-disciplinary thinking is becoming the norm.
Students used to come to Design Academy Eindhoven for Dutch Design, but that has changed. What is most interesting about your work is how genuinely intercultural it is – not just one culture commenting on another, but a true acknowledgment of how intertwined and shared our histories are.
The crisis in 2008 affected us all and lead to a changed balance in economics and world politics. And it is only now that we are beginning to see the results of this in how students think and produce.
The international community in this academy reflects a new world order. In a multi-polar world it is no longer the west dominating in economics, politics and innovation.
Jing He ‘s project on copying connects Netherlands and Chinese heritage, and in doing so also connects the past and the future. And the same theme is addressed with some excellent research by Yun Tiam.
China has grown but has also become overbearing.
This makes Chen Jhen’s research on Taiwan’s identity crisis extremely relevant. His ironic research on icons of power acts as a release, offering a sense of liberation in a time when Taiwan is under so much stress.
This is Taiwan versus China. And a smiliar regional conflict is addressed in the work of Gali Blay in her take on Israel and Palestine. A Dutch national political leader who visited the academy last month was lectured by her on panic utopia. This is a strategy to keep society under control by putting it in a permanent state of crisis. Gali proposes a rock in which a micro society retreats and thrives.
These are all big world issues being addressed in an artistic and free way, which I think is the only way to get ahead in the present system.
But the same relevance can be found in small and personal projects aimed at renewing human contact. When Yi-fei Chen starts shooting her frozen tear bullets with a gun she is breaking violence with poetry.
Likewise Giulia Soldati gave a performance in which food and body merge in a new way. To feed and to be fed interact in a new eating ritual.
We like to see Design Academy Eindhoven as a creative community. Looking at the quality and relevance of all your work I can only conclude that we are thriving.
Two years ago we started the new Design Curating and Writing Masters. We are proud to see how this new department is developing with its first two graduates here with us today.
Congratulations to all. And thanks to all department heads, teachers, workshop instructors, families and friends who have made this possible. Please do keep in touch via our alumni organization, and good luck with your next moves.
Thomas Widdershoven