DAE announces recipients of 2021 Melkweg, René Smeets and Gijs Bakker Awards
The René Smeets Award for professionalism, Melkweg Award for exceptional talent at BA level and Gijs Bakker Award for exceptional talent at MA level were announced at the DAE Graduation Show during Dutch Design Week. Each award recipient received a €2000 prize and a trophy designed by DAE alumnus Audrey Large.
The René Smeets Award went to Michelle Se Yoon Kee a graduate of the BA Communication Department, for their project Learning By Doing It – a digital platform that collects stories of sexual encounters as a learning resource with text, audio and illustration.
‘For many young people, expectations, pressure and misconceptions make it difficult to talk about sex without judgement,’ said the jury panel for the award. ‘With a focus on sharing knowledge, Kee takes a subject that is often stigmatised and offers a mode of sex education that is approachable, fun and empathetic.’
‘Learning By Doing It can help us become more aware, accept each other’s differences, and improve sexual well-being. This concept has a clear mission and it connects the industry with art and functionality. Moreover, it is feasible, and the jury is confident that this platform can have a huge impact.’
The Melkweg Award was presented to BA graduate Filips Stanislavskis for their Human-Cloud Project, which challenges current ideas around climate engineering and the management of nature through a series of experiments that aim to ‘blur the line between human and weather’.
A breath condensation device collects the user’s exhalations, while a weather balloon carries the liquified breaths to the sky, where a cloud generator vaporises them, thus forming a momentary human-cloud: Cumulus Homomutatus.
‘The jury was very enthusiastic about this holistic concept that shows technical innovation and poetry at the same time,’ said the judging panel. ‘It’s very relevant to current times, especially with references to the political value and awareness of breath. The jury sees broad potential for use, and the project provides a solution that’s both tangible and original at once.’
The winners of the René Smeets and Melkweg Awards were selected from shortlists of eight, following presentations by the graduates to a jury consisting of Gerard Baten (lead designer, DAF Trucks), Mirjam van Coillie (director marketing & innovation, Royal Gazelle), José Maase (head of design, Royal Mosa), Gabriela Sánches y Sánchez de la Barquera (brand creative director, Vlisco) and Tijn van Elderen (chief executive officer, Brabantia).
The Gijs Bakker Award was given to Ginevra Petrozzi a graduate of the Social Design MA programme, for their installation and project Digital Esoterism, which merges traditional ideas of Witchcraft with digital technologies and interfaces to question the creation of meaning and how knowledge is transmitted.
‘Ginevra Petrozzi has adapted the role of the witch as an archetype of political rebel, healer, and conjurer to the digital realm,’ explained the jury. ‘Examining the role of surveillance capitalism and predictive systems in manufacturing possible futures, Digital Esoterism recasts witchcraft as a tool to reclaim agency and disrupt algorithmic governance.’
‘Petrozzi offers an imaginative, hopeful and care-centred means of re-enchanting our post-digital reality. The project provides multiple entry points, with a strong balance struck between the esoteric and the digital. Her questioning of big data in the context of fate and the future is an intriguing notion. It opens up and makes space for other ideas and forms of intelligence, knowledge and wisdom (both human and digital).’
Petrozzi was selected from a shortlist of eight by a jury consisting of Amanda Pinatih (design curator, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Lyongo Juliana (architect and director Caribbean Region, OZ Architecten), Angelique Spaninks (director and curator, MU Hybrid Art House) and Tabo Goudswaard (artist and social designer, Studio Goudswaard).