• Oliver Ibsen

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  • Hello world

    I gave a workshop at Sint Lucas Ghent. We've been performing and executing computer code. More documentation will be available here soon.

  • Not from Canada

    A3 posters for Sponsored By Nobody's theater piece (see below).

  • Not from Canada

    I have a part in Not from Canada: a play written by Kevin Doyle and performed by his theatre company Sponsored By Nobody. You're very welcome at Kultuurfaktorij Monty on the 26th or 27th of April. Doors open at 20:30.

  • Onder De Titels bis

    This small book is a collection of news titles which appeared on the website of Dennis Tyfus from 29/04/06 till 28/03/13 published by Für Dich Verlag.

  • Onder De Titels

    Sunday 7th of April Onder De Titels will be presented at Tatjana Pieters in Ghent. This small book is a collection of news titles which appeared on the website of Dennis Tyfus from 29/04/06 till 28/03/13 published by Für Dich Verlag.

  • Workshop Sint Lucas

    I am conducting a workshop at Sint Lucas Antwerp. More information here.

  • Photo Magazine(s)

    01 Adjusting Infinity (pp. 1-40). First issue of a collection of photo magazines by Nicolas Karakatsanis. More issues (pp. 41-80; pp.81-120; pp. 121-160;...) will be published on irregular basis.

  • Graduation Gifts

    These woodglue records were produced as gifts for the graduating year 12 participants of the Werkplaats Typografie. These copies play backwards. In collaboration with Ines Cox.

  • Word in Process

    Working on a new word processor.

    Word in Process sprung from a strong interest in the evolution of reading and writing technologies and practices and their relation to the spoken word. Throughout history, our relation to and dealings with text are characterized by a process of gradual internalization, passivation, visual isolation and de-physicalization. By creating an interface that allows for a more bodily and less visually fixated production and consumption of text, this project is an experiment in establishing a kind of literacy in which physical and mental activity relate more harmoniously through the use of voice, time, feet movement and keystroke pressure as forms of expression, much in the same way one would play the piano. Our writing and reading machines are not neutral devices but bear the marks of cultural values, conscious choices and varying interests. Word in Process is about reviewing and readdressing those values and choices in the hope to discover unexplored areas.
    (More soon)

  • The local grocery store

    Travel Tips

  • Speelplaats

    Speelplaats is a program in Werkplaats Typografie which was termed by former participants as "a kind of school within a school". A room in the school building with the same name served as a playground where "open-ended sessions were proposed, organized and realised by individuals and ad-hoc groups that created shared experiences with uncertain outcomes". Ines Cox and myself organized the program from february till june 2011. What follows are some thoughts on the program in particular, and on education in general.

  • Speelplaats introduction

    Is it still worth asking what meaningful design education could be today? Does it make any sense in the current European climate of neo-liberalized education, where governments are taking up austerity measures and cut back heavily on social expenses? In some cases, the answer could be ‘yes’ but a reversal of the above might provide a more interesting question: is the contemporary design (or form) of education still meaningful?

    The answer of field experts is affirmative. Indeed, PISA data and OECD statistics assure that the system works. Education, a technological process supervised by the school management, proves its usefulness as a tool for achieving preconceived goals. This process thus instills in students knowledge, values and attitudes essential to the entry into the contemporary order of things. Ultimately, the goal of education becomes the consolidation of Europe’s competitiveness in a global economy. In this context, the continual capitalist necessity of refutation, advancement and accumulation (in this case, of knowledge) defines the needs of the subject. Students thus turn into clients, attempting to solve jigsaws with puzzle pieces of information. In the meantime they construct, while walking, their individual, separate learning paths.

    Is it possible today to provide education in another form? Is there an alternative to education as a process of addition or adaptation of exchangeable subjects in an existing knowledge society?

    Maybe we could revive an old and worn principle. What if education would lead up to the constitution of a cultivated human being? Consequently, the goal wouldn’t be the adaptation to the existing order, but instead the formation of one’s inner self. Old Greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates already knew: acting and thinking can only be true when one shows that one’s actions are in accordance with what one thinks or says. This state of mind is also the goal of their educational ideal. Consequently, mastery here isn’t obtained by successful processing and correct utilization of informational knowledge-bits.

    For Hannah Arendt human actions are initiatives, i.e. beginnings. Action and speech are based on plurality, which stands for both ‘equality’ (understanding each other) and ‘differentiation’ (becoming another ‘who’). The presence of others who can perceive what we perceive is therefore necessary. Put differently, we have to be able to hear and see what others say and do.

    “With word and deed we insert ourselves into the human world, and this insertion is like a second birth, in which we confirm and take upon ourselves the naked fact of our original physical appearance. This insertion [...] springs from the beginning which came into the world when we were born and to which we respond by beginning something new on our own initiative.” (Arendt 1958: 176-177)

    Thus our beginning in the world is dependent on the reactions of others, and vice versa. Arendt considers this complex reciprocity as characteristic of human action.

    The conclusion of the above is that a possibly different form of education could result into a confrontation between, and a coming into the world of unique, singular individuals instead of the production of adaptable and flexible experts. This way of working needs to create spaces where the encounter with, and exposure to the other, is a possibility, because the unique and the new can only emerge under these conditions. Speelplaats, which means playground in English, was an attempt to offer such a space, partly inspired by Jacques Rancière’s ‘The Ignorant Schoolmaster’. The prevailing notion that the transfer of knowledge (I.e. explaining) produces equality is radically contradicted in this famous book. For teachers aren’t really teaching, they’re constructing ‘the other’ as someone in need of (their) explanation. Alternatively, Rancière proposes that equality should be a practical assumption from which one speaks and acts. This is what he terms emancipation.

    “Neither the teleological end of a political project nor a state of social liberation, the process of emancipation consists in the polemical verification of equality. Since this verification is necessarily intermittent and precarious, the logic of emancipation is in fact heterology, i.e. the introduction of a ‘proper-improper’ […]” (Rancière 2000 / 2007: 86)

    So, in speelplaats, this ‘axiom of equality’ was applied within a particular research domain of a student and examined together with the group of participants. Thus collective efforts could bring insights for personal thesisses. Speelplaats was therefore an attempt to proof that disruptions of positions associated with situated statements of equality (individual acts of emancipation), could make it conceivable that new dimensions can originate where a kind of ‘we’ arises, that will teach ‘us’, and whereby the contours of that ‘we’ are always singular and provisional. New ways of perceiving or doing things (new beginnings of beginners) which were triggered by ‘assuming that a certain x = a certain y, and its consequential verification sought to encourage thought, experimentation and inventiveness.

    This inherent unprovable principle provoked more than once local, temporary, singular and non-conformist acts which created a new, shadowy dimension inside the apparent natural order of things. The use of these foregoing tactics and the process of emancipation were applied to substitute a hierarchical, unequal and schoolish order for an educational form based on free will, initiative and singularity. This design tried to open up a space, a playground, where playing wasn’t understood as ‘gaming’, but as an act of practicing. The latter, termed ‘aksesis’ or ‘meditation’ by respectively the ancient Greeks and Foucault, isn’t an attempt to recognize one’s innermost feelings but should be understood as a thinking process whereby one verifies if what one does is in line with what one presupposes as the truth and with the ideas one has. The athlete who’s working on his condition is an analogy often used by the Greeks in this context. Isn’t this also what is considered, with a Greek term, a thesis? Developing, strengthening and tuning ones body of work?

    Maybe Max Stirners conclusion in ‘The False Principle of Our Education’ can serve here as well. He states that ‘we’ can only educate ‘us’ when everybody becomes free men. Then the goal of education is no longer knowledge but the will born out of this knowledge. In other words, “knowledge itself must die in order to blossom forth again in death as will” (Stirner 1842 / 1984: 19). This is exactly what speelplaats sought to achieve; indeed one cannot learn to have a will, but one is likely to become inspired by human beings who are doing what they are willing to do, human beings who are prepared to take responsibility for that what makes the core of their personal concerns.


    • Arendt, H. (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
    • McGushin, E. F., (2007) Foucault’s askēsis: an introduction to the philosophical life. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
    • Olssen M. (1999) Michel Foucault: materialism and education. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
    • Rancière, J. (2000 / 2007) The Politics of Aesthetics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.
    • Rancière, J. (1987 / 1991) The ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
    • Stirner, M. (1842 / 1984) The False Principle of Our Education. Oakland: A K Pr Distribution.

    The next posts present the various speelplaats-contributions of 2011.


  • Speelplaats 1

    New Babylon = New Babylon
    by Ines Cox and Boris Van den Eynden


    A trip to the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag where the models for Constants’ city ‘New Babylon’ are on display, combined with a visit to a clandestine and very temporal movie house. The documentary ‘Constant, Avant le Départ’ was screened in an unfinished luxury penthouse ‘woningtype M’ on the 24th floor of the contemporary ‘New Babylon’ (the eye catcher of Uptown Den Haag, ‘outstanding in every detail’). After secretely entering the construction site, the ghost of Constant appeared on a wall facing a 1.507.000 euro panoramic view of the city.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • http://www.newbabylon.nl
    • http://www.notbored.org/new-babylon.html
    • New Babylon Den Haag BV (2011) New Babylon – Residences. Rotterdam: PersC vastgoedcommunicatie.
    • New Babylon De Haag BV (2011) New Babylon – Outstanding in every detail. Publisher unknown.
    • Nieuwenhuys, C. (1974) New Babylon. Den Haag: Haags Gemeentemuseum.
    • Nieuwenhuys, C. (1969) Opstand van de Homo Ludens. Bussum: Paul Brand.
    • Nieuwenhuys, C. (1989 / 2006) “Another City for Another Life.” In: Knabb, K. (ed.) Situationist International Anthology. Berekeley: Bureau of Public Secrets, pp. 71 – 74.
    • Wigley, M. (1998) Constant’s New Babylon: the hyper-architecture of desire. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
    • Constant, de Zegher C., Wigley M. (2001) The activist drawing: retracing situationist architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to beyond. New York: Drawing Center.
    • Heynen H. (1995) “New Babylon of de antinomieën van de utopie.” OASE nr. 43. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
    • Constant, avant le départ (2005) Dir. Schmidt, M., Doebele M. VPRO.

  • Speelplaats 2

    School = Train
    by Ines Cox and Boris Van den Eynden


    A day long, the infrastructure of the Dutch railway system was used as school environment, based on Cedric Prices 1964 ‘Potteries Thinkbelt’ study. In his proposal the university was not a building, but a kind of circuit, or network, with mobile classrooms and laboratories using the existing rail lines to move from place to place. A literal illustration of what a school could and should be: minds in motion, travelling through a variety of thoughts and connecting them together.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • http://www.ns.nl
    • Cox I, Van den Eynden B. (2011). “Train of thought, steam of consciousness.” http://metropolism.com/features/train-of-thought-steam-of-consci/
    • Matthews, S. (2007) From Agit-Prop to Free Space: the Architecture of Cedric Price. London: Black Dog Publishing.
    • Price, C. (2002) Re:Cp. Basel: Birkhäuser.
    • de Certeau, M. (1984) “Railway Navigation and Incarceration.” In: de Certeau, M. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 111 – 113.
    • Nieuwenhuys, C. (1969) “Over het reizen.” In: Nieuwenhuys, C. Opstand van de Homo Ludens. Bussum: Paul Brand. pp.82 – 93.

  • Speelplaats 3

    Up = Down
    by Manuel Zenner


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • Serres, M. (2006) L’Art des ponts: Homo pontifex. Paris: Le Pommier.
    • Locker, J. L. (2000) The Magic of M. C. Escher. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
    • Newmark, P. (1991) About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
    • The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) Dir. Sophie Fiennes. P Guide Ltd.

  • Speelplaats 4

    Sunday = Odyssey
    by Mark Simmonds


    Holland.com states that Cadzand is home to the longest piece of art in Europe. The work is 1099.71 meters in length and contains ‘Doric pillars and design street lights’, furthermore one’s experience of the work is akin to ‘walking on the Acropolis’.

    Little information, reviews or images of the artwork can be found, say for a similar description of the artwork stating it contains ‘neoclassical columns and light fittings’. Most bizarrely, a website for holiday home rentals in the local area declares that there are no ‘things to see’ in Cadzand. How can such a landmark, the longest piece of art in Europe be all but undiscovered?

    A journey was thus made to Cadzand to find and experience the ‘Zeeland Acropolis’. Two plastic Doric columns were hauled throughout and deposited at the journey’s end with their Greek brethren, resulting in an anonymous (semi) permanent monument to the odyssey.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • Benjamin, W. (1925-26 / 1979) One Way Street. London: NLB.
      von Daniken, E. (1968) Chariots of the Gods? London: Souvenir Press.
    • Hollis, E. (2009) The Secret Lives of Buildings. New York: Metropolitan Books.
    • Homer (c. 800 BC / 1992) The Odyssey. Ware: Wordsworth Classics.
    • Knabb, K. (1989 / 2006) Situationist International Anthology. Berekeley: Bureau of Public Secrets.
    • Masshelein, J. (2010) “E-ducating the Gaze: the Idea of a Poor Pedagogy” In: Ethics and Education Vol. 5, Nr. 1. pp. 43 – 53.
    • Mavraki, N. (1950) The Best Guide Book of the Ancient Monuments of Athens and the Acropolis. Publisher unknown.
    • Robbins, D. (2006) The Velvet Grind, Selected Essays, Interviews, Satires (1983-2005).
    • Zürich: JRP Ringier.
    • Sillitoe, A. (1958 / 2006) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. London: Harper Collins.
    • Everyday is Like Sunday (1988) Morrissey.
    • Abroad Again Episode 2: On the Brandwagon (2007) Dir. Jonathan Meades.
    • Nadine (1972) Jason King Series 1 Episode 15.
    • ’s Up (1991) Bottom Series 1 Episode 5.
    • Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) Dir. Karel Reisz. Woodfall Film Productions.
    • Ricthie Ready for Take Off (2007)
    • Simmonds, M. (2011) “Sunday #13: Sunday = Odyssey.” http://everyday-is-like-sunday.tumblr.com

  • Speelplaats 5

    Work = Play
    by Stefano Faoro


    A collective learning process becomes the heart of productivity:

    In the basement of Werkplaats Typografie there is a box. The box is the source of a very loud noise. The noise of fans, and of the electric systems inside it. It’s a sustained note, a continual vibration, a perpetual clash between the small metal components. No rhythm, no melody, an endless drone, through every day and night since the beginning of the Master Program, 12 years ago.

    The sound of the server – located in the Werkplaats Typografie basement – was modified by the participants, using one mixer and four pedal effects, and sent through three black cables all over the school where three speakers where playing it very loud, during the work-study afternoon.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • Obrist, H., U. (2010) “In Conversation with Antonio Negri.” http://www.e-flux.com/journal/in-conversation-with-antonio-negri/
    • M. Lazzarato. “Immaterial Labour.” http://www.generation-online.org/c/fcimmateriallabour3.htm
    • Cunningham, J. (2008) “Art Stripped Bare by Post-Autonomists, Even.” http://www.metamute.org/en/Art_Stripped_Bare_by_Post-Autonomists_Even
    • Carpenter, A. (1999) “La Monte Young: Towards Absolute Music.” http://transparentmeans.net/lmytam.html
    • Doty, D., B. (1989) “Interview with La Monte Young.” http://www.dbdoty.com/Words/LMYInterview_01.html
    • Lebensformen. “Bibliography.” http://uninomade.org/lebensformen/bibliography/
    • http://www.generation-online.org/c/cimmateriallabour.htm
    • http://www.archive.org/details/ArtAndImmaterialLabour
    • Boltanski, L., Chiapello, E. (2005) The New Spirit of Capitalism. London: Verso.
    • Dyer-Witheford, N. (1999) Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
    • Osborne, P. (2011) The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-garde. London: Verso.
    • Terranova, T. (2004) Network culture: politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
    • Negri, A. (2008) “Metamorphoses.” In: Radical Philiosophy 149. London: Radical Philosophy Ltd. pp. 21 – 25.
    • Hardt, M., Negri, A. (2011) Commonwealth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
    • Lazzarato, M. (2004) “From Capital-Labour to Capital-Life.” In: ephemera vol. 4. pp. 187 – 208.
    • Lazzarato, M. (2008) “Art, work and politics in disciplinary societies and societies of security. Dossier: Art and Immaterial Labour.” In: Radical Philiosophy 149. London: Radical Philosophy Ltd. pp. 26 – 32.

  • Speelplaats 6

    Library = Bar
    by Annett Höland and Lu Liang


    To commemorate the anniversary of death of Malcolm McLaren, the WT library is transformed into a bar. The idea for this event was taken from one of the points of the so-called “McLaren Manifesto” regarding reclaiming public space: “Parks, squares, churches and the Thames should be open night and day. We should introduce bars in public libraries; drink a glass of Guinness while reading Dickens.” This was one of many points in an article called “My Vision for London” which McLaren published in the New Statesman in 1999 and which lead to speculations that he might stand to be elected as Mayor of London.

    Existing furniture from the library, in particular upside down bookshelves, are used to create a bar setting. During a “happy hour” drinks are served in the library and Dick Dick Dick performs and records their first and last live mp3 album “The Emancipation of the Voice”.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • McLaren, M. (1999) “My vision for London.” http://www.newstatesman.com/199912200006
    • Bailey, S., Reinfurt, D., Keefer, A. (2011) “The Serving Library Company, Inc. Statement of Intent (draft).” http://www.dextersinister.org/library.html?id=262
    • Bogdanov, B. (1989) “Situationist International.” http://www.ubu.com/film/si.html
    • Dickens, C. (1838 / 1966) Oliver Twist. London: Penguin Books.
    • The Sex Pistols (1977) Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Virgin.

  • Speelplaats 7

    Left = Right
    by Simone Koller and Goda Budvytyte

    An informal talk by Geoff Brookshire on the right and left hemispheres of the brain and on how they stimulate different aspects of bodily functions like speech, vision, manual skill, etc.

  • Speelplaats 8

    Jeffrey A. VanderClute = Jeffrey A. Vanderclute
    by Mark Simmonds and Ine Meganck


    In april 1987 Jeffrey A. VanderClute wrote ‚"Metal Meltdown needs you!". In april 2011, Werkplaats Typografie answered. To coincide with the 24th anniversary of Volume I of Metal Meltdown, a gathering was organised in the basement of Werkplaats Typografie on 15th-16th April in which one could experience the world of Metal Meltdown and that of its editor and creator, Jeffrey A. VanderClute. The aim was to attempt to make a contribution, either individually or collectively which could be considered for inclusion in Metal Meltdown. These contributions were sent to the P.O. BOX mentioned in the magazine. Surprisingly enough, VanderClute replied.

    Please click here and here to read the letter to Jeffrey and read here and here what he replied.


    Further Reading / Viewing:

    • Vaderclute, J. (2006 – 2012) “jvanderclute’s channel.” http://www.youtube.com/user/jvanderclute
    • Simmonds, M. (2011) “A Concert for Jeffrey.” http://www.marksimmonds.info/
    • VanderClute, J., A. (1987 – 1992) Metal Meltdown volumes 1 – 9. Maryland: Self Published.

  • Speelplaats 9

    Q = A
    by Laure Giletti and Corina Neuenschwander


    “First there is the idea.Then there is the matter and then the form.”

    from “Où gît votre sourire enfoui?” Pedro Costa, 2001


    Speelplaats #9 Q = A deals with the ambivalence of words and functions. On Fourthday #13 the Speelplaats room was turned into a vertical cinema by screening the movies Bauhaus Design workshops (1944) by László Moholy-Nagy, En rachâchant (1982) by Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub and Tell me by Guy de Cointet (2006) to the ceiling.

    László Moholy-Nagy’s documentary of the Bauhaus workshops underlines the sensibility of how to work with different materials can be seen as an essential ability for every designer. Experimenting with material can be a source for an outcome in every field of design, depending on how the designer translates the form.

    In the movie En rachâchant schoolboy Ernesto refuses to follow his teachers methods, he has his own way of learning which he calls “rachâcher”.

    How we name what we see is influenced by our common knowledge, education, perception or personal story. A butterfly framed on the wall can be a trophy, a collectors item, a crime, a memory.

    The participants of Werkplaats Typografie were asked to create objects of which the use, meaning or materiality had to be changed. On Fifthday #15 we spent a day at the workshops of ArtEZ, finding out about the facilities, possibilities and materials this place offers.

    The objects were completed, presented and performed on Seventhday #21 at the Werkplaats Typografie Beginning of theYear Show 2011. Each participant was presenting another participants object while the speaker was reading the instructions written by its maker. Since the user did not know about the use of the object beforehand, he had to interpret and present it spontaneously.

    The performance was captured on a movie, which was screened the day after at the same time in the same location onto to the ceiling, to end as it began.


    Further viewings:

    • Design workshops, László Moholy-Nagy, 1944
    • En rachâchant, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 1982
    • Tell me, Guy de Cointet, 1979/2006
    • Où gît votre sourire enfoui?, Pedro Costa, 2001
    • Mon Oncle, JacquesTati, 1958
    • Playtime, JacquesTati, 1967
    • Le Roi et l’oiseau, Paul Grimault, 1979

  • Speelplaats 10

    Speech = Frame
    by Laure Giletti

  • Wallpaper

    I am included in the graduate directory 2011 and in the january 2012 issue. Disguised as a fresh, young boy.

  • Short List

    The poster series for A Group Show are selected for the Cobra Power of Print Poster Prize.

  • A Burning Man

    A man sets himself on fire, on a square, in a city. A Burning Man isn't looking for the motive, but looks beyond the action. What is the meaning of a statement that can't be claimed? A Burning Man zooms in on the true effects of an act which advertising slogans and marketing strategies don't have a grip on. This production is a collaboration with Jesse Cremers, Simon Allemeersch and Philippe Flachet.


    posters and flyers, B&W offset + charcoal

  • Cultuurmarkt 2011

    A festive kickoff of the new cultural season. The last weekend of August culture devotees can enjoy free musical acts and performances spread over the city of Antwerp. More than 200 cultural institutions and associations gather at different squares and present their program for the next season. The 2011 edition's theme was 'Art and Ecology'.


    posters, flyers, brochure, banners,... B&W offset

  • A Critical Reflection

    Critical Reflection of the ArtEZ Institute of the arts Master Course Werkplaats Typografie. This publication was made on the occasion of an accreditation which was executed in August 2011.


    booklet, A4, 96 pp

  • Indian Camp

    Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway is an installation consisting of 4 synchronized inkjet printers that re-enacts the eponymous short story. The story is about a trip to a so-called Indian Camp by a medical doctor, his son, and his uncle, in order to help an indigenous woman to give birth to her child. During the process - a Caesarian incision has to be made in order to save the mother and her child - the husband commits suicide. Three printers represent the individual characters and perform (i.e. print) the dialogues between father, son, and uncle, while one takes on the role of the narrator. The story is thus not only spatialized but also transformed and performed in real-time, as the print performance includes the time gaps contained in the original story. This installation was presented during the end of year show of the Piet Zwart Institute's Networked Media department at Roodkapje in Rotterdam. The story was 'performed' once per day, over a span of 4 hours.


    installation, 4 inkjet printers, 1 minitop, wood, paper, python code

  • 50 + 50

    Father and mother Ibsen turned 100 together.

    invitation, A5, screen-print

  • The End of Year Show

    = The Beginning of the Year Show. On February 15th, Speelplaats (Firstday 1, 00:00:00) began with the End of the Year speech. Logically the last day now ends with the Beginning of the Year. All the contributions to the program during July 8, 9 and 10 are dedicated to the Beginning and the Ending, the maxing out of time, extension of space, and all the contributions follow the spirit of Speelplaats, as a testing ground for research, a place where the students can introduce and expand their investigations collectively.


    A4 invite-schedule + exhibition theme and organization with Ines Cox, contributions from Ines Cox, Gregory Darpa, Stefano Faoro, Laure Giletti, Ine Meganck, Corina Neuenschwander, Mark Simmonds, Noah Venezia, Manuel Zenner, Goda Budvytyte, Anna Haas, Annett Höland, Simone Koller, Lu Liang and Isabelle Vaverka

  • Beyonda

    A journey into the darkness. Watching Bissy Bunders' road movie Beyonda, outside, on the streets of Arnhem. 'We're gonna have animals, crazy characters, runovers, killings on the road, fucking caves from the 40s, Byron, Zion, I don't know what, marriage cakes, Boyden, cave full of fluorescent lights, minerals, things popping up, carrot eating, kissing, woman perfect - it's gonna be wild!'


    poster, A1, screen-print, with Ines Cox

  • Crow's nest

    When the digesting man is hungry, he must eat. When he's full, he must shit. After that he obviously is hungry again. He's unceasingly caught in this cycle. Need supervises this process and is simultaneously the foundation of it. The digesting man can satisfy this need for a short period of time but finds himself quickly re-absorbed in an unstoppable, alternating centrifugal and centripetal process. This pressure in or from the body, originated in a place beyond signification, causes him to be almost never at ease.

    This drive which seeks to bring that what is inside to the outside, and that what is outside to the inside, accompanies the digesting man day in and day out. His quest for relief drives him to providential spaces where 'Sinnestrieb' (the sensuous drive) and 'Formtrieb' (the formal drive) merge into the spiritual and physical creative urge which defines man as man. The more he absorbs of the world, the more opportunities he develops in himself. The more he digests the matter, the more he can make form of it. Was it this what Friedrich Schiller, probably not coincidentally philosopher of the Enlightenment, meant by beauty in his 'Letters on the aesthetic education of man'?


    Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
    Tochter aus Elysium,
    Wir betreten feuertrunken,
    Himmliche, dein Heiligtum!
    Deine Zauber binden wieder,
    Was die Mode streng geteilt;
    Alle Menschen werden Brüder
    Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.


    With the pants at the ankles, everyone is equal. Especially in Europe. This is at least assumed. The trinity eye-mouth-anus pushes the digesting man away from places where he exists as part of a specific order to locations which are established in the spirit of mutual equality. Here he can lose himself into active contemplation and contemplative activity. Arriving at the crossroads of exposure the digesting man leaves behind himself and simultaneously opens up a new world underneath him. Isn't this the educational space par excellence? A place where, like the meaning of the Latin 'e-ducere' already suggests, one 'leads and is being led outside'. Thus the digesting human is longing for intimate experience-spaces where he can reveal and hide himself, behind entrance gates which are simultaneously exit doors.

    In the ultimate educational space, to which the nest below is a cautious approach, the result of individual human creative urge is reflected in the book shelf. The outcomes of what is high-tech and at the same time intellectual digestion are leaning against one another, disorganized and uncategorized. Collective food for thought which carved its way through the cracks and slots of devices such as scanners, copiers, printers and computers, is piling up and generously offers itself to be consumed. Consequently the reproductions of various books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, etc. reveal itself in the form of both excrement as a nutrient. Isn't this a fine illustration of this coercive and perpetual cycle wherein man is being caught?

    When he is hungry, he must eat. When he's full, he must shit. After that he obviously is hungry again.


    Always beginning and ending at the same time.


    Facsimile and Speelplaats-related books, cd's and dvd's in a custom made shelf
    thanks to Paul Elliman

  • Best Books 2011

    Each year Werkplaats Typografie organises its own Best Book selection. Every participant chooses a book that is important for him in that year. The project is supervised by a guest tutor. This year artist Joelle Tuerlinckx directed a series of acts in which the participants became their most signicant book.

    Beginning in the Werkplaats Typografie library, the ensemble relocated to Netwerk Aalst in Belgium, gradually utilising costume, props, light and sound to create a theatre of the best books. Despite being amateur thespians, the theatre was a serious attempt to assume a character based on the interpretation of a book. Perhaps one can be lead to a new reading of each signicant book, an experience that is both insightful and bewildering.


    Acting, editing and design together with: Ines Cox, Gregory Darpa, Stefano Faoro, Laure Giletti, Ine Meganck, Corina Neuenschwander, Mark Simmonds, Noah Venezia, Manuel Zenner. Accuracy by Roland Früh.

  • Metropolis M

    Train of thought, steam of consciousness. An article about speelplaats on the website of Metropolis M.

  • Helsinki

    The Listener will be presented at Pixelache in Helsinki.

  • RTRSRCH Vol.3 n°1

    This fifth issue of RTRSRCH, edited by Jeroen Fabius and Sher Doruff, is a monographic assemblage of writings by eight contributors focusing on a single, unique choreographic work: Ave Nue. The idea of reappraisal, or 're-visioning' as Paxtons puts it, is a central thread running trough the contributions. Together they form a reappraissal, a re-seeing of what the piece presented in 1985.

    Paxton Ave Nue, a revisioning captures contributions by Jeanine Durning, Sher Doruff, Jeroen Fabius, Konstantina Georgelou, Ame Henderson, Patricia Kuypers, Martin Nachbar, Steve Paxton, Pieter T'Jonck and Myrian Van Imschoot.

    Steve Paxton was Artist in Residence at de Theaterschool in 2009. Together with students of the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) and the Amsterdam Master of Choreography (AMCh) he worked on a re-visioning of his piece Ave Nue, which was originally performed in 1985.


    booklet, 140 x 216 mm, 120 pp

  • Animals Ago

    A story about a tiny human being who's in danger of losing control. Suddenly he's more beastly than ever. Meanwhile all the animals around him are disappearing. The story of a man in a state of collapse. Animals Ago is a stage play by Bas Devos and Michiel Soete.


    poster, A1, screen-print + A4 hand-out

  • Rekto:Verso

    Rekto:Verso published an article about the publication of A Group Show in its February issue. (in Dutch)

  • Enjoy Poverty

    Poster for the screening of the movie by Renzo Martens.


    poster, A1, B&W + blue and red markers

  • Kip en Lam

    Studio Pitapaal,
    een snack voor onderweg.

  • The Listener

    The Listener is a multi-person chatting program. The conversations are mediated by a "third person", a computer script that adds, subtracts and replaces words to deliberately create discrepancies in what is shown, and understood by the users. Every chatter sees their own unaltered version of the transcript, but every other person sees a transformed version.

    As these subtle changes are secretly operated on a secure server, a large plotter instantly prints out the complete transcript with both original and altered versions, shedding light on the inner workings steering The Listener's behavior and creating an eternal, physical artifact to embody these fragile, ephemeral variations. This project is a collaboration with Laurier Rochon.

  • €SPACE

    €SPACE is a Brussels based spatial planning and design studio which also provides process management, stakeholder management and evaluation of complex projects.

    €SPACE's ambition is to facilitate complex spatial and infrastructure projects by a balanced and integrated method of design, process and project evaluation, stakeholder management and legal counseling.


    Logo, business cards, punched out envelopes, A4 templates for quotes, invoices, letters,...

  • Dionysus' Food Flute

    This spoon-flute was made in the workshop of Vincent De Rijk together with Stefano Faoro. It was used as cutlery for a big dinner in Rotterdam. Afterwards the instrument was played by Y. Tsakiridis and myself while performing with L. Vanhamel (voice) and M. Nelis (whipped cream guitar) as The Crappy Birthdays in Zaal België, Hasselt.

  • Beste Vrienden

    The party chairman will speech on wednesday the 19th at 10 am during the werkweek in Sint Lucas, Ghent.

  • Power

    I'll be one of the jury members of the Cobra Power of Print 2010.

  • A Group Show (Book)

    During the workweek of A Group Show W. Wolkman (now called O. Ibsen) spent his days and nights non-stop in the exhibition space. He decided to personally register all the relational movements of the artworks, artists and curators during this period of time. The main challenge was to capture and record this temporary spatial dialogue as objectively and precisely as possible. The result of this self-imposed assignment was translated into a series of plain data. Afterwards this wave of information was represented in an accurate and meaningful info-graphic. What is visible now is a transcript that strives to expose the relationship between the parts, starting from the whole. Thus it provides the fleeting specter called Encounter with a discernible face. The accompanying book is wrapped with the aforementioned info-graph and its associated picture sheets.


    book, 240 x 340 mm, B&W, 32 pp, 690 x 960 mm folded sheets which serve as dust jacket, 8 possible covers

  • Vom Grill

    Sticker design for Vom Grill. The 7 inch includes music from Vom Grill, Spykes, Warning Sign and Faceneck. Released by Jef Cuypers. These graphics were turned into a working font with 2 variations. The typeface, conceived as a building-set, comes with a manual which was first produced for the NY Art Book Fair 2010.

  • A Group Show

    The exhibition A Group Show focuses on an alternative approach to the photographic object. It emphasizes the way images are being incorporated by artists, and how photography is used in an (often associative) game of construction and deconstruction of the medium itself. The exposition wishes to accentuate the material and spatial features of the image instead of its representational values. It brings together people with an investigating attitude towards the medium photography and creates a context in which there is plenty of room for discussion and experiment.

    A Group Show should be seen as a temporary working environment, in which curators and artists discuss about the notion of space. The artists are being invited, starting from their autonomous work, to engage in the realization of the exposition and to participate in a dialogue on how to construct a meaningful whole.

    A Group Show is curated by RE: and is a production of vzw Punctum that took take place, September 2010, in croxhapox, a multidisciplinary and experimental art house and an open working place for contemporary art, situated in Ghent.


    A5 flyers and B2 posters, the posters were made by using stickers of which the left-overs became the flyers for the show

  • Audionights

    2 posters for 2 Audionights. Liars at Tivoli and Ultra Eczema's Popcorn Night(mare) where Jommmeke Geeraerts failed to perform his adaptation of the popcorn song. The Popcorn poster was made together with Stephen Serrato.

  • J. Geeraerts Audioprinter

    This is the setup in which Jommeke Geeraerts audioprinter could have performed his adaptation of the popcorn song at the Ultra Eczema's Popcorn Night(mare). The audioprinter is able to print out every desired music score with astonishing precision.

  • A La Karte

    A La Karte is an alternative enquiry by Ladda commissioned by the city of Antwerp and Mas (Museum aan de Stroom). The museum wanted to know how young people relate to 'history', in which way they like to visit museums, how they want to be addressed, etc. Ladda went out dinner with 25 Antwerp adolescents and stroke up a conversation with them about taste, city, lifestyle, history, culture and museums.


    book, 200 x 260 mm, 96 pp, iris print on the inside, the reader is invited to label the blank cover with the supplied stickers

  • Proficiat

    Cockfish, a poster for theater zuidpool, wins the Power of Print Poster prize 2009.

  • Integrated 09

    I'll give a talk at Integrated 09 in de Singel, Antwerp. Friday I'll play some records at the afterparty. Kriminacht!

  • Cockfish

    Originally this poster was, as the actors wished, an 'enigmatic' A1 print for a stage play by theater zuidpool which appeared all over the city. At one point a newly recruited responsible for promotion and communication contacted me to explain that this poster was useless. It was too big to hang in the usual spots and essential information was lacking. The solution that arose was simple: I cut all the posters in half and screenprinted the missing information on the remaining sheets.

  • Ondernemingskrant

    This paper is a documentation of events that happened during the 'Ondernemingsweek'. Mijnheer Cremers, Stagiair Devos, Mevrouw Niks and Mijnheer Van den Eynden teamed up with each other from Monday 2 March till Friday 7 March in the basement of Designcentrum De Winkelhaak in Antwerp.
    A week earlier the infrastructure of their work environment was constructed from found and recycled material. This paper presents on the basis of 14 keywords the workings and the underlying philosophy of De Onderneming. 'Zelfs een splinter is een kleine balk.'


    A3 B&W newspaper, 32 pp

  • Ondernemingsplannen

    A collection of plotted technical drawings of the infrastructure of de Onderneming.

  • Reglement

    Zonnenman and his friend Hart Voor Elkaar show us around in 't Land van Regels. Rules exist to make the work force shine! Indeed they create a space where everyone can develop themselves under the best circumstances. 'Niet vergeten uit te schakelen na het omschakelen!'


    Artist publication made during the Ondernemingsweek, A4 booklet, 36 pgs

  • Skeleton Ears

    T-shirt design for
    Skeleton Ears.

  • Aan de Lopende Band

    Tijdens de werkweek. Poster announcing an at that time still doubtful exhibition.

    A0 screen print

  • W.W.1 (now book-confetti)

    This book with ISBN number 978-90-813-7180-3 was printed in December 2008 in an edition of 500. To this day there are still around 408 copies left. It therefore seemed a good idea to transform this amount of slowly dying pages into festive waste paper par excellence, i.e. confetti. I am pleased that the book eventually, in this new form, will contribute to the success of a variety of parties. I imagine vividly the exulting birthday kid, the dancing newly weds or the cheering and sobbing jubilee-couple, all covered in colorful pieces of magical paper. Celebrate and shout because eventually everything has its destination!

  • Overzichtstentoonstelling

    2 posters announcing a retrospective show with archival material on W. Wolkman in de Velinx, Tongeren.

  • WARP Boekenpresentatie

    Stef Van Bellingen invited me to present "W.W." - a new book - at Siniscoop, Stationsplein, 9100 Sint Niklaas on sunday 14th between 14:00 and 18:00. I'll show a short movie.


    Still from 'Kevin Braekmans and W. Wolkman'

  • Pollens, wat een heisa!

    Posters made for the event Pollens, wat een heisa! A tribute to Wim T Schippers at Monty and MuHKA.

  • Contact

    Montignystraat 7
    B-2018 Antwerpen

    0032494859138
    0032487619332
    info@oliveribsen.com