Arts Thread

Above: Kortrijk Creativity Festival 2021: We Are The Next Generation exhibiting designers  1. Bumblebox by Arno Vandercammen, Jasper Cypers and  Floris Spithoven / 2-3. Please do touch - interact and play by Nele Demeulemeester/ 4. No Time To Waste by Isabeau Goddé/ 5. The Social Game by Manon Lambeens

The annual We Are The Next Generation exhibition by Designregion Kortrijk is on now as part of WONDER - Kortrijk Creativity Festival. The exhibition, now in its eight year features work by Belgium's future designers and makers from schools around the country. 

The show features over 40 new creatives from the field of product design, game design, graphic design and architecture. Amongst the product design projects is the Bumblebox created by  Arno Vandercammen, Jasper Cypers and  Floris Spithoven (Howest). The team worked together to create a safe haven for bumblebees that also has a modern and versatile design aesthetic, making it a desirable object to have in your garden. Please do touch - interact and play by Nele Demeulemeester (KASK School of Arts Gent) is an ambiguous project that appears like a flatpack furniture kit without any instructions.

Viewers are encouraged to examine the contents and materials provided which include textiles, sticks and ropes to create whatever they like. Isabeau Goddé (KASK School of Arts Gent) is showing the No Time To Waste project which makes use of fibre waste from the textile industry and uses the leftover strands to create yarns and sheets of recycled textiles.

 

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Graphic design projects on show include The Thai Tone Kit by  Lina Bee Gillis (LUCA School of Arts Gent) explores the expressive nature of the Thai language and how one word said in different tones can have completely different meanings. In order to simplify this aspect of the language, Gillis has created a toolkit made from colour palettes which represent each tone of speaking.



ARTSTHREAD member Manon Lambeens (KASK School of Arts Gent)  is showing her typographic project The Social Game that aims to bring young people together through street art and experimental fonts. Lambeens has created a stencil of an incomplete typeface which young people can complete and develop further by painting the letters on the side of a tunnel wall using glow-in-the-dark paint. The luminous typography then brightens up the dark space, creating a visual metaphor that seeks to help people see the light in dark and trying situations.



Lieselot Geirnaert, Pieter Olievier, Cesar De Greve and Wilma Vandemaele (Howest) collaborated on the Hack-tic project, a game that seeks to educate young internet users on the importance of cyber security. The game combines physical gameboard elements with digital devices and sees one player takes on the role of the hacker while the others must act to protect their passwords.

From physical board games to digital gaming design, Ewout De Vos is exhibiting the What about hedgehogs? video game. Players are given the opportunity to see life through a hedgehog's eyes as you navigate a suburban garden and sniff plants and investigate human tools such as lawnmowers.



Interior architecture student Chioma Obasi (Universiteit Hassel) is showing her idea for transforming and reinvigorating the Strand Street quarries of Cape Town. The area's past is linked to slave labour and currently is a crime hot spot, however Obasi wants to give it a new lease of life and turn it into a hub for the community. The project would see the Strand Street quarry site turned into three areas: an intimate garden, a living space and a public park.