Toegepast Research Gathering

FoAM holds a research gathering at the Design Vlaanderen Gallery, in collaboration with Toegepast: Fit to Boost! (Design Vlaanderen & Design Platform Limburg)

With:
Michaël Verheyden, Designer, Belgium
Rula Sayaf, Information Systems & Software Engineer, Syria

facilitated by Maja Kuzmanovic

Research gatherings are designed for creative practitioners to discuss their works in progress, research questions & creative processes in a casual and interactive setting. There are no formal speeches or presentations, but instead the guests are invited to share brief remarks, research questions & conceptual sketches to set the scene, followed by a conversation between the guests & the audience. The goal of Research Gatherings is to receive valuable feedback early in a creative process, in an open & non-judgmental manner. For this session an additional goal has been included – to bring together two guests from different fields & cultures, who explore interaction between tradition & innovation from different perspectives.

The main question of the Toegepast Research Gathering is "What can we learn from interaction between traditional creative disciplines (such as crafts or dance) and innovation, to make our works more sustainable?" To help answer this question, the guests present their works in progress, followed by a moderated conversation between the guests & the audience, 'lubricated' with especially designed food & drinks.

In other words, the purpose of this session is to understand each other's creative process and expected results, hearing from two Syrian artists & technologists and a Belgian designer both working on the cusp between tradition & innovation, by getting an insight into their respective perspectives & experience.

In addition to the Research Gathering, FoAM is present at the Toegepast: Fit to Boost! with a groWorld installation, as well as in the design of the food programme for "By Design for Design" and "Dream team dinners".