Alice Twemlow: Would you say that you do research from the perspective of a designer — designerly research, maybe?

Lauren Alexander: My practice is under the name Foundland Collective [in collaboration with Ghalia Elsrakbi]. Here I work from the perspective of a designer, but in creating autonomous commissioned work mostly for cultural spaces or for cultural institutions. A lot of the research that we’ve done is based on collections of archival material — in an institutional, official sense, but also informal collections of material. We use video, publications and installation-making to communicate our findings.

Much of our early work related to observations of the conflict in Syria. Originally we wanted to talk about issues related to migration, about how media narrates ideas of migration, about how to examine issues of being a refugee and the identity of refugees within the Netherlands. This was at a time when political issues weren’t really on the radar in the design scene. Now, of course, many designers and design students touch on social and political topics. We developed a way of counter-mapping, which is I think a designerly way of interpreting topics.

We would reformulate data or collections of information with some fictional elements, and we also started to make more video work, diving more into narrative storytelling. I think the work in general relates to design because communication, and often translation, remains an important goal, while still being personal and subjective.

A question that would come up all the time was: are you an artist or are you a designer? This came to a head in 2015 when we were nominated for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize [a prominent art prize in the Netherlands]. Until that moment we had been operating as independent designers and responding to research questions that we found interesting with the tools of a designer and suddenly you’re in another arena where the people looking at your work (such as the director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) have quite fixed ideas about what constitutes art, and are wondering if you will have any longevity within the realm of art, will your work sell, can it become a product that circulates in the art market?

AT: I think many researchers at the KABK can relate to this dilemma of being caught between art and design. So what happened?

LA: We didn’t win! But it was a valuable experience in the sense that it opened our eyes to how different audiences perceive the value of the final outcome of work.

AT: If you can remember back to your time in the Research Group, what were some of the benefits for the project and for you, and what was challenging, perhaps?

LA: I used the Research Group to reflect on the projects that I had worked on with Foundland Collective, because all of those commissions came in so hard and fast for a period of three years that there was no time to think.

I appreciated that the Research Group allowed me time to contextualise the work and explore the themes again using the readings and discussion that we were doing.

And just as we were wrapping things up, COVID-19 was upon us which forced a break in our practice because exhibition-making completely stopped and we couldn’t keep travelling to the Middle East. What followed was a period in which we mobilised the thinking from the Research Group to apply for grants.

Looking back, the Research Group period was a pivotal period for me personally.

Something I remember about being in the Group, which was quite confronting for me – and I hadn’t really realised it until then – is that I’d always worked in a duo, to the extent that I had internalised the perspective of being a duo. This brought up some interesting questions for me about how to write about the work that I had done together with someone else. It’s still a relevant question for me, in fact, related to identity politics.

The collective mode of making provides an anonymous identity to some extent, and gives one freedom to play with identity roles. With Real-Time History, for example – one of the projects that I was thinking about during the Research Group period – we were able to open it up for many others to participate in, whether they were from academia, anthropology or journalism. I think that was also a new way of approaching the project that we’d not really tried prior to that. We’re still working on how to publish the outcomes.

AT: You mention using research methods like interviewing and analysing video footage. Are these the kind of things you brought into your teaching as well?

LA: Yes, because of my roles in both a BA and an MA program, I have had a platform to develop different teaching methods and themes and to test them at different levels. With the BA programme, the foundational building blocks for research and theoretical skills are essential. So much learning takes place within experimenting with different tools, workshops, materials and techniques, which can be just as exciting as the discursive side of things.

I have had fantastic experiences developing shared projects with fellow tutors, and many teaching projects came to life as exhibitions. In the MA Non Linear Narrative we get deeper into interviewing as a method – how to use interview material as a source, how to interpret and intervene – and thinking about what that means.

RH: Since you’ve been a co-head of BA Graphic Design, what modifications have you made to the curriculum? Especially in relation to research?

LA: Research has always been relatively strong in BA Graphic Design, especially in the graduating year. COVID-19 had several impacts regarding research. Whereas before the idea was always to look beyond the context of the school and produce work and research in collaboration with others, students became more hermetic in the type of themes that they were working on. Understandably so.

The graduation work after 2020 was less related to the idea of communication or of trying to reach a particular audience — students began to let go of functionality and the application of their research. We’re trying to bring back connections with external organisations and to expose the students to a broader set of research perspectives.

During the Research Week in January 2023, for years two and three, Design Lector Alice Twemlow was a guest to help us develop research questions in line with excursions that the students experienced. The intention is to work on a solid foundation for situated research from an earlier stage in the study, so that when we get to the thesis and graduation project in the fourth year, the student is more accustomed to methods of research. Or at least they’re equipped with some tools to get started.

Within the assignments throughout the programme research skills are applied within the practice disciplines such as typography and coding. In the past tutors used to constantly reinvent their assignments every year or every semester; now we really try to deepen and strengthen skills and research topics not to stay static, but to really work on bringing certain fundamentals into the courses.

For research, we have two “vertical captains” – Maarten Cornel and Els Kuijpers – tasked with paying attention to how the research components are built up over the four years of study. The captains or custodians within all disciplines keep a close eye on what needs strengthening and renewal, and we work hard to create moments with the tutor team to reflect on our shared objectives and methods.

RH: What would be your recommendations or desires for the future with regards to how research is facilitated at the KABK?

LA: I think the way the Design Lectorate is enabling tutor research is really helpful. It is apparent that this feeds back into the curricula of all the departments. So I hope that can continue. I noticed that at the “Fault Lines Research Forum” event last December, not many students were present. It’s such a shame that more students were not able to learn about what their tutors are doing in relation to research.

RH: Yeah, I think it’s just because of jam-packed schedules and their jobs; there’s really no room for students to do anything outside the department.

LA: Students often ask for more engagement with institutions or with experts outside the academy. There are many lectures and initiatives which are arranged here already. My recommendation would be to create synergy between each department’s research curriculum and plans for public events and sharing, to streamline things but also to pool resources more effectively.

If we worked together, we could get more high-profile speakers as part of a program that everyone will be able to benefit from. In general, I think there can be far more transparency and collaboration between departments.