Connecting through seams Installation
| Connecting through seams Installation | |
|---|---|
| Name | connecting through seams Installation |
| Location | Het Nieuwe Instituut |
| Date | 2026/01/11 |
| Time | [[]] |
| PeopleOrganisations | Hackers & Designers, Ren Loren Britton |
| Type | Exhibition |
| Web | Yes |
| No | |
connecting through seams is an installation commissioned by the Nieuwe Instituut for the exhibition Dutch, More or Less. It will be on view from 18 September 2025 to 11 January 2026.
connecting through seams brings together collective experiences and expressions of Hackers & Designers with Ren Loren Britton. In making a soft interface, we explored the metaphorical and practical seams of collective technological praxis. Embracing imperfection, collective authorship, and ongoing process the work reflects H&D's commitments to free/libre open-source principles – challenging impersonal, techno-slick aesthetics prevalent in today’s digital design.
Visitors of connecting through seams are invited to contribute to the patchwork by connecting to WiFi modules sewn into the fabric. Scanning the QR code grants access to the local WiFi network and opens a pop-up interface.
On September 25, an activation of the installation will take place as part of the research night program of Het Nieuwe Insituut. This workshop will explore how these seams – the boundaries of intersections between systems – can serve as points of connection between communities and technologies. This will be considered through witnessing the edges of collective and community-based technological practices.
Dutch, More or Less is an exhibition exploring over 30 years of design in the Netherlands. Nieuwe Instituut has invited emerging and established designers to anticipate the future of ‘more or less Dutch’ design and digital culture through new works. connecting through seams is the fourth commissioned piece in the series.
Credits
- Concept and design: Ren Loren Britton Anja Groten Pernilla Manjula Philip
- Development: Heerko van der Kooij
- This work is a continuation and extension of H&D's collective practice. H&D currently consists of nine members who form the ‘H&D COOP,’ a decentralized organization that aims to distribute power over decision making. H&D COOP members are: Loes Bogers (NL), Selby Gildemacher (NL), Anja Groten (DE), Heerko van der Kooij (NL), Juliette Lizotte (FR), Pernilla Manjula Philips (SE), Karl Moubarak (LB), slvi.e / Sylvie van Wijk (NL) and vo ezn (GE).
The work connecting through seams is an expansion and continuation of H&D’s shared practice. The concept and design are by Ren Loren Britton, Anja Groten and Pernilla Manjula Philip, with further development by Heerko van der Kooij.
Hackers & Designers (H&D) is a self-organized collective working at the intersection of technology, design, art and education. H&D develops empowering learning formats, builds and maintains free/libre open-source tools, self-hosts technical infrastructures, and produces experimental on- and offline publications. H&D currently consists of nine members who form the ‘H&D COOP,’ a decentralized organization that aims to distribute power over decision making. H&D COOP members are: Loes Bogers (NL), Selby Gildemacher (NL), Anja Groten (DE), Heerko van der Kooij (NL), Juliette Lizotte (FR), Pernilla Manjula Philips (SE), Karl Moubarak (LB), slvi.e / Sylvie van Wijk (NL) and vo ezn (GE).
Ren Loren Britton is a trans*disciplinary artist-designer who reverberates with trans*feminism, technosciences, radical pedagogy and disability justice. Trans*feminist technoscience in their work follows the long wiggle of cyberfeminism; focusing on trans*, as in, transgender and trans*, as in, crossing contexts with feminist concerns. They are interested in the ways that socio technical systems & media makes lives accessible and pleasurable. Departing from the understanding that we live in an ableist white supremacist world, and therefore to be able to follow a justice oriented direction, their work begins from the assumption that we must rethink the terms of who fits where in all places, all scales, with what friction (or not) and why. This set of considerations brings them to their interest in disability justice which upholds and values all non-normative bodies and minds.