Baltan Laboratories’ New Directors
Marlou van der Cruijsen and Lorenzo Gerbi
test lexicon
Posted: 11 October 2022
Baltan Laboratories’ New Directors
Marlou van der Cruijsen and Lorenzo Gerbi
From October 1, 2022, Lorenzo Gerbi and Marlou van der Cruijsen took on the directorship of Baltan Laboratories. In the past years they have been deeply involved in the organisation’s artistic development and business direction. In the text below, they will guide you through their vision for Baltan and how it evolved over the last years of Baltan’s programming.
‘What is at stake is not just a given economic model (neoliberal capitalism), nor a set of cultural traits inimical to life on the planet (say, rampant individualism and consumerism), high-level policy reform (e.g., more comprehensive climate change protocols), geopolitical power struggles for re- and de-Westernization, or the ever-growing military-industrial complex. As Latin American indigenous, black, and peasant activists are wont to say, the contemporary crisis is a crisis of a particular modelo civilizatorio, or civilizational model, that of patriarchal Western capitalist modernity. This is a striking claim[...] the implication is none other than everything has to change.’ (Escobar 2018: p. IX)
From 2017 to 2020, Baltan worked on human-centred themes wherein we reflected philosophically and artistically on humans’ role in today’s world. We were inspired by the idea of Homo Universalis to think about new archetypes of humans in our contemporary context. Focussing on the four themes Homo Socialis, Homo Economicus, Homo Sensorium and Homo Ludens, the discussion evolved to questioning the human-centred character of Western society. We acknowledged the need to go beyond a human-centric approach and even the term human since it does not encompass all humanity but a smaller group of people entitled to discuss and unrealistically solve the issues of our time.
These issues are not restricted to the borders of the countries that caused them but have consequences globally. We need a global approach that values other unheard voices in the discourse, a non-western approach that is primarily intercultural rather than international. In fact, different cultures bring different traditions and value systems, relationships between man and nature, and ways of looking at technology, for example. We need to consider these contributions in rethinking the (economic, environmental, societal, technological, and geopolitical) systems we are part of. In concrete, that means we aim to go beyond the western-centric knowledge system by exploring alternative ways of knowing, for example, through feelings, myths, indigenous knowledge and embodied knowledge.
Positioning and mission
Baltan has always been identified as a lab experimenting at the crossroads of art, science, design and technology. In the first years of Baltan, art and technology were the primary focus, together with media art. Over the years, we have progressively moved away from a technology/media-based discussion and critique in art and design to focus on societal challenges and how art and design could contribute to those. We recognise where we come from but move forward to remain meaningful and contemporary to the renewed cultural landscape and current urgencies.
We think that, especially today, Baltan should fulfil its social role as a cultural institution in the permanent state of crisis we live in by becoming a site of discussion, learning and organizing towards the challenges we need to deal with. Culture in our vision should be one of the prominent agents of change, as we believe that change is primarily cultural and behavioural before political, infrastructural and solution-based.
There are new urgencies, and we feel that Baltan has to reply to those, using its interdisciplinary expertise to facilitate collaboration between different fields, not only with science and technology: in the last 6 years also social innovation (Age of Wonderland) and economy (Economia Festival, Make Economy Yours Again, Co-Emerging Economies) became primary topics of our cultural program. This expertise emerges from our experience in art and design research, two disciplines that are by nature more-than-disciplinary since they already mediate with different fields in their creative outputs. We use artistic strategies to facilitate these in(ter)disciplinary discussions. Through this approach, art and design could become tools to question and destructure our society, expanding their more-than-disciplinary disposition beyond their specific fields.
Also, in terms of outputs, we experienced an exciting evolution. We are more frequently engaged in long-term trajectories rather than event-based presentations (festivals and exhibitions). The nature of the topics we work on (such as alternative economics, de-organization of knowledge, questioning the ideologies that shape our life on this planet, etc.) pushed us to work with smaller groups of people for a more prolonged and more frequent engagement, with the aim to make these reflections present and lived in their everyday routines. It’s about rehearsing and training different ways of being, such as the way we listen to each other, the way we do not exclude, the way we go beyond the stereotypes associated with our backgrounds, the way we do not judge others, the way we could live together, the way we are concerned with the issues of our times, the way we stay with the trouble and do not avoid it, the way we share with and care for the human and non-human other, the way we see happiness in the connection with each other and the planet we live on. These ways need time and repetition. For these reasons, we see the impact of our work in creating long relationships with our participants that could evolve from participating to becoming an active part of our program, for example, by creating artworks, projects, and interventions originating from the learning and discussions we had together. This way of working also implies another approach to curating: harvesting and supporting projects from the learning ground Baltan provides next to selecting them from the outside world.
A new Baltan profile
Baltan Laboratories is a cultural in(ter)disciplinary lab based in Eindhoven. We focus on societal issues in an imaginative and collaborative manner, bringing experts and non-experts together. We believe that the increasing complexity of our world and of the challenges we have to face no longer allows for a strictly disciplinary, reductionist and western-based approach. In a world full of uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the interactions and exchanges between different disciplines are fundamental to achieving a relational approach that responds to the environmental, political, social, economic and technological issues we must address today. We can no longer divide a problem into its parts, deal with those in separate disciplines and then recompose them in a solution (Morin, 2008).
Disciplines separate those considered qualified to think from those who are not; for this reason, we rather focus on indisciplinarity: an approach which transgresses disciplinary boundaries to achieve intellectual emancipation (Baronian & Rosello, 2008) and evades disciplinary specialism and hierarchisation. Indisciplinarity is not undisciplined. It opposes what, in the discipline, limits the process of discovery and the free movement of serendipity (Catellin & Loty, 2013). That means that we shouldn’t get rid of disciplines but instead design ways for their borders to be more permeable and for a new collaboration attitude to emerge.
We try to achieve this attitude by designing learning trajectories, projects and collaborations that bridge different ways of knowing (not just the artistic and the scientific ones) through creative strategies, including embodied, sensory, intuitive and performative techniques. The core of an indisciplinary approach is de-organizing knowledge, temporarily dismantling how it operates to reveal that we are not really touching the complexity of reality but just scraping the layers of abstractions that we put on it to feel in control. In this way, we can become aware of some of the assumptions and ideologies that shape our understanding and action in the world, especially the hegemonic ones that become natural, automatic, unconscious and apparently unquestionable.
We acknowledge the importance of creating a non-hierarchical and safe space where people from all kinds of social, ethnic, discipline, and cultural backgrounds can talk to each other on an equal and non-judgemental level. We strive to include diverse knowledges and value systems in our projects and collaborations, not relying solely on a western perspective.
Reference List
Baronian, M. & Rosello M. (2008) Jacques Rancière and Indisciplinarity. Art and Research Journal. 2 (1). → Available from: www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n1/ jrinterview.html [Accessed 24 June 2021]
Catellin, S. & Loty, L. (2013) Serendipity and Indisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity: Between Disciplines and Indiscipline. 67 (3), 32-40.
→ Available from: www.cairn-int.info/ journal-hermes-la-revue-2013-3- page-32.htm [Accessed 24 June 2021]
Escobar, A (2018) Designs for the Pluriverse. Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham and London, Duke University Press.
Morin, E. (2008) On Complexity. Cresskill, Hampton Press Inc.
test lexicon
Economia is the festival of
Baltan Laboratories Baltan Laboratories, gevestigd aan Kastanjelaan 500, 5616 LZ Eindhoven, is verantwoordelijk voor de verwerking van persoonsgegevens zoals weergegeven in deze privacyverklaring.
Contactgegevens:
www.baltanlaboratories.org Postbus 4042
5604 EA Eindhoven +31616717166
Baltan Laboratories verwerkt je persoonsgegevens doordat je gebruik maakt van onze diensten en/of omdat je deze gegevens zelf aan ons verstrekt.
Hieronder vind je een overzicht van de persoonsgegevens die wij verwerken:
Baltan Laboratories verwerkt de volgende bijzondere en/of gevoelige persoonsgegevens van jou:
Baltan Laboratories verwerkt jouw persoonsgegevens voor de volgende doelen:
Baltan Laboratories neemt niet op basis van geautomatiseerde verwerkingen besluiten over zaken die (aanzienlijke) gevolgen kunnen hebben voor personen. Het gaat hier om besluiten die worden genomen door computerprogramma's of -systemen, zonder dat daar een mens (bijvoorbeeld een medewerker van Baltan Laboratories) tussen zit.
Baltan Laboratories bewaart je persoonsgegevens niet langer dan strikt nodig is om de doelen te realiseren waarvoor je gegevens worden verzameld. Wij hanteren een bewaartermijn van maximaal 2 jaar voor persoonsgegevens en contactinformatie met als reden de garantie van continuïteit in de uitvoering van de programma's van Baltan Laboratories.
Baltan Laboratories verkoopt jouw gegevens niet aan derden en zal deze uitsluitend verstrekken indien dit nodig is voor de uitvoering van onze overeenkomst met jou of om te voldoen aan een wettelijke verplichting. Met bedrijven die jouw gegevens verwerken in onze opdracht, sluiten wij een bewerkersovereenkomst om te zorgen voor eenzelfde niveau van beveiliging en vertrouwelijkheid van jouw gegevens. Baltan Laboratories blijft verantwoordelijk voor deze verwerkingen.
Baltan Laboratories gebruikt geen cookies of vergelijkbare technieken.
Je hebt het recht om je persoonsgegevens in te zien, te corrigeren of te verwijderen. Daarnaast heb je het recht om je eventuele toestemming voor de gegevensverwerking in te trekken of bezwaar te maken tegen de verwerking van jouw persoonsgegevens door Baltan Laboratories en heb je het recht op gegevensoverdraagbaarheid. Dat betekent dat je bij ons een verzoek kan indienen om de persoonsgegevens die wij van jou beschikken in een computerbestand naar jou of een ander, door jou genoemde organisatie, te sturen.
Je kunt een verzoek tot inzage, correctie, verwijdering, gegevensoverdraging van je persoonsgegevens of verzoek tot intrekking van je toestemming of bezwaar op de verwerking van jouw persoonsgegevens sturen naar info@baltanlaboratories.org.
Om er zeker van te zijn dat het verzoek tot inzage door jou is gedaan, vragen wij jou een kopie van je identiteitsbewijs met het verzoek mee te sturen. Maak in deze kopie je pasfoto, MRZ (machine readable zone, de strook met nummers onderaan het paspoort), paspoortnummer en Burgerservicenummer (BSN) zwart. Dit ter bescherming van je privacy. We reageren zo snel mogelijk, maar binnen vier weken, op jouw verzoek.
Baltan Laboratories wil je er tevens op wijzen dat je de mogelijkheid hebt om een klacht in te dienen bij de nationale toezichthouder, de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Dat kan via de volgende link: https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/nl/contact-met-de-autoriteit-persoonsgegevens/tip-ons
Baltan Laboratories neemt de bescherming van jouw gegevens serieus en neemt passende maatregelen om misbruik, verlies, onbevoegde toegang, ongewenste openbaarmaking en ongeoorloofde wijziging tegen te gaan. Als jij het idee hebt dat jouw gegevens toch niet goed beveiligd zijn of er aanwijzingen zijn van misbruik, neem dan contact op met ons via info@baltanlaboratories.org.