Anja Groten’s research project explores matters of collectivity drawing from experiences of working with the collective Hackers & Designers (H&D). H&D self-organizes educational activities with a focus on hands-on learning and collaboration between practitioners from different fields such as designers, artists, and computer programmers.

The role of the designer in this research project is informed by a blurring of supposed contradictions such as the maker and the user, the prototype and the product, or the process and the result. It is an unstable, steadily changing position – – dissolving and evolving within, and due to collectivities that include other humans as well as non-human collaborators – for example digital infrastructures, and digital tools.

As a graphic designer and design educator Anja Groten looks at her ambiguous role within such collectivities, and its significance for approaching fundamental questions about contemporary art and design practices that do not fit within, or cannot be described through the existing disciplinary frameworks. Paying attention to collectivity in action, central questions of this research project are: Are we still designing? If we are not, or we can't be sure, how do we define, defend and critique our practices? How can we hold and be held accountable? If we are, don’t we need to expand our frameworks for understanding and articulating design as it constantly evolves and dissolves?

By means of different case studies such as 'The Tool', 'The Workshop' and 'The Platform' this project aims to discuss design as a practice that cannot be assumed or affirmed as a formal practice or discipline. In those case studies different collectivities unfold – as their implications for the ways design processes are envisioned or pursued.

Anja Groten (1983, DE) is a designer, organiser and educator based in Amsterdam. Investigating collectivity in practice, her work revolves around the cross-section of digital and physical media, design and art education and her involvement in different interdisciplinary groups. In 2013 she co-founded the initiative Hackers & Designers, attempting to break down the barriers between the two fields by enforcing a common vocabulary through education, hacks and collaboration.

Anja is a PhD candidate at PhD Arts, and the consortium Bridging Art, Design and Technology through Critical Making. In 2019 she became course director of the design department at the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam, Master of the Rietveld Academie.

hackersanddesigners.nl