Contemporary Cure Compendium

USELESS ARTIST DISEASE#work in progress or not
#underlying everything or notI invented the Useless Artist Disease. I've got it myself. I am investigating its relevance and how to cure it. It might become a bigger project. But as it is also useless, I might never come to any conclusion or presentable outcome. It is, again, a journey.first research paper:Is a disease a personal or a social one? – assumptions towards the invention of the Useless Artist DiseaseI hold meetings irregularly with a random group of survivors called the Anonymous Useless Artists Support Groupfeel free to join!1/1 ad in the publication "OUCH", available at Taak.grabbing Jacques Rancière last minute, 25.3.15question to Naomi Klein during her lecture at HKW, Berlin, 23.3.15bathtub conversations during the exhibition "Ouch", 16.12.14 at Het Vijfde Seizoen, on the grounds of the psychiatric institution Willem Arntsz Hoeve/Altrecht, Den Dolderproject presentation and discussion at The Side Room, Amsterdam, 13.5.2015press release:"Design for Babylon

"But the ultimate problem of design concerns not how I design the world outside, but how I design myself—or, rather, how I deal with the way in which the world designs me" (Boris Groys)

Design for Babylon is a communal research project in collaboration with strategist and program designer Susanne Eskens. A series of conversation exploring the relationship, landscape and friction between design and society from a sociocultural perspective. If design cannot be escaped, how can we live with design, (re)evaluate and (re)think the way we produce culture and give meaning to the notion of design in our hyper-sensitively connected world

Part 1: Health, Wealth and Happiness
"If you are too smart to pay the doctor, you had better be too smart to get sick"— Tswana Proverb

To kick off the series we examine the correlation between health, design and illness in our contemporary hyper-visual society. Various studies from across the world indicate that design is a contributing factor in occupational fatalities. Designers and artists are the new wunderkids according to city officials and governmental policies. What happens when design fails and how do the themes of health and illnesses intersect with design failures? What is illness and wellbeing? How do we experience physical failures and the invisibility of the permanently ill in our societies? Together with artist Vera Hofmann and researcher Emily West we look into the framing of ‘being ill’ through the languages and narratives offered within our visual cultures. Is a disease a personal or a social one?Susanne Eskens is a creative strategist, thinker and program designer based in Amsterdam. She works on the cross section of culture, media and society; that little space where different ideas and insights come together is where the real magic happens. Susanne is fascinated by the role of language & creating meaning by telling stories."there's a little collection of advises and possible therapies already and still lots to come...maybe...made with Lay Theme