After this year’s Master graduation ceremony, a jury of experts convened at DAE to judge the nominees for the Gijs Bakker Award. The jury was impressed by the quality of all the projects, the thorough research, and the convincing and highly personal concepts. They unanimously selected Camila Kennedy (MA Information Design) with her project ‘The Best Descriptor is Fuzziness’ as this year’s winner.
The jury ‘applauds Kennedy’s ambitions and daring in-depth approach to exploring new territories where design meets science. Not only the content but also the design of her thesis caught their eye. In her presentation she was able to present her research and design clearly and convincingly, demonstrating a profound understanding of her subject. The jury is therefore pleased to award the Gijs Bakker Award 2019 to Camila Kennedy.’
Gijs Bakker Award
This year’s jury was chaired by Wendel ten Arve and consisted of Hester Alberdingk Thijm, (director of AkzoNobel Art Foundation), Valentijn Byvanck (director of Marres, House for Contemporary Culture) and Manon Schaap (director of Museum of Bags and Purses). The Gijs Bakker Award is presented to an outstanding Master graduate whose thesis research and design project demonstrates outstanding skill and imagination, tenacity and originality, personality and relevance to the profession and the outside world. These criteria reflect the foundations of the DAE master programme, which was initiated by designer Gijs Bakker. The winner receives a sum of € 2,000 and a 3D-printed trophy by DAE Alumnus Olivier van Herpt.
In elaborating on its choice, the jury comments: ‘Last April, the first ever photographs were made of a black hole. With scientific achievements like this, Camila Kennedy believes it is important that scientists can explain – not only to their peers – what quantum gravity is. To do so they need artwork to illustrate complex theory. For her graduation project she thoroughly analysed the designs that have been used as scientific illustrations for decades. These have not changed in response to scientific development. She successfully concludes that they are poor ‘translations’, and that they lack design. In her project she worked with scientists to come up with a better descriptor for quantum gravity: fuzziness. Subsequently, she challenged herself to offer new representations thereof, not only visual designs but also physical, and even sensual, experiences.’
Nominees & previous winners
A total of seven projects were nominated from the four Masters Departments. The other nominated projects were Domitille Debret with ‘One Tailed’, Lara Chapman with ‘Through the Emoji Looking Glass’, Colette Alimann with ‘Mechaphony’, Colin Keays with ‘Soon All This Will be Picturesque Ruins’, Maggie Laylon Saunders with ‘Striptopia’, and Ismaël Rifai with ‘Border as a Producer of Design’.
Winners of the Gijs Bakker Award in previous years were Kuang-yi ‘s with ‘Tiger Penis Project’ (2018), Nadine Botha with 'The politics of Shit’ (2017), Jing He with ‘Tulip Pyramid’ (2016), Allison Crank with ‘The Reality Theatre’ (2015), and Gabriel Anne Maher with ‘DE_SIGN (2014).