Borderless States, 2016

project collaboration Graphic Design

In times of aggressive nationalism, economic protectionism and mass migrant movements, third year Graphic Design students from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague were invited to rethink the outdated idea of nation states. During a semester-long project, students proposed new concepts for the classification of space by entirely refusing political borders and rather exploring environmental territories, social boundaries, technological reach and mental limits.

Temporary Assembly of Borderless States was a one-day mini-convention on 22 December 2016, during which 24 student presented new approaches towards personal, regional, national or global states of being. Starting from a predefined GPS coordinate, the student teams identified questions typical for that specific location, then analysed the local situation, identified stakeholders and came up with a personal response for conflict management.

Read more about the project on waag.org.

concept and project supervision in collaboration with Lauren Alexander; student participants: Barton, Hilde Barwegen, Nóra Békés, Leith Benkhedda, Kylièn Bergh, Paul Bille, Thijmen van Brunschot, Jonathan Cho, Kiki Coster, Rudi van Delden, Carmen Dusmet Carrasco, Niels van der Donk, Jan Egbers, Lukas Engelhardt, Elizaveta Glukhova, Michiel Heemskerk, Daniel Hernández Chacón, Céline Hurka, Saber Javanmard, Rebecca Joly, Ies de Jong, Daan Kars, Dóra Kerekes, Rik Laging, Iris Lam, Jungeun Lee, Anna Lenczewska, Zuzanna Loch, Raphael Maman, Andréas van der Mast, Kay Pisarowitz, Taisiia Reshetnik, Guillaume Roux, Rebecca Rui, Josephine van Schendel, Theresa Scherrer, Marika Seo, Asya Sukhorukova, Lou Top, Amélie Vancoppenolle, Natalia Vishnevskaia, Wannes Vrijs and Yasheng Zhang; theory component tutoring: Willem van Weelden; flag designs: Dóra Kerekes Kerekes and Daan Jesper Kars