BURN-OUT

Since its founding in 2013, Het Nieuwe Instituut has pioneered research in architecture, design and digital culture, fostering programmes, exhibitions, lectures, archival investigations and publications in the Netherlands and internationally.

Through its annual Call for Fellows, Het Nieuwe Instituut’s Research Department acknowledges and gives visibility to research projects offering departures from established modes of thinking. For this iteration of the Call for Fellows, the Research Department has selected the theme of BURN-OUT, and has invited 2017 fellow Ramon Amaro to be the guest curator of the Call.  

It has been reported that 40% of people who had job-related health issues in the Netherlands in 2017 were either over-stressed or suffering from a burn-out—a common malady of contemporary labor ethos and structures affecting populations worldwide. Under unrelenting pressure, overwhelming demands and calls to push themselves daily, bodies are exhausted.

In addition, over the past years, an increasing number of debates have emerged in the fields of architecture, design, and digital culture surrounding issues of fairness, accessibility, accountability, the removal of institutional bias as well as the overcoming of exploitation of human and non-human bodies. These conversations reveal an impasse and the persistent presence of exploitative structures on scales ranging from the individual to that of the wider social, institutional and biological ecologies. While research and practice continue to promote the inclusion of voices and perspectives of difference—as well as investment in excluded communities—more equitable and inclusive environments have yet to fully materialise. The fact remains: social, cultural and economic inequalities are still mediated by the same conditions that promise to alleviate these concerns.

The consistency of divisive and exploitative climates questions the foundations of trust, experimentation and self-awareness; not to mention the flow of critical thought and creative expression. It must be asked: Have all options for non exploitative spaces been exhausted? Have the fields of architecture, design and digital culture reached their limits of critical enquiry? Can existing structures be re-shaped as non exploitative spaces for public and private good? Or, has it all burned out?

On the one hand, to burn-out is to stall, break or become otherwise unusable. In other words, processes, procedure and participation simply stop working. On the other hand, burn-out is an opportunity to break open, promote action and catalyse change towards new structures and relations. How can new, unconventional approaches to research, administration, communications, critical thought and practice be developed and utilised to challenge the inevitability of burn-out? What other approaches might be considered?

About the Research Fellowships
Het Nieuwe Instituut Research Fellowships are 6-month positions based at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Netherlands from September 2018–February 2019. They include a monthly stipend of 2000 EUR, and a return trip from the country of residence.

Het Nieuwe Instituut invites applicants from all citizenships and places of residence. The Research Fellowships are open to all degree levels in all disciplines. Equal priority will be given to those without a degree or institutional affiliation who can also demonstrate a high level of creativity, critical thought and other potential in their respective fields. Neither a curriculum vitae nor letters of recommendation are requested. There is no age limit for applicants.

An international jury will select the three fellows. Jury members include Ramon Amaro (Associate Lecturer in Interactive Media: Critical Theory and Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London), Marina Otero Verzier (Director of Research, Het Nieuwe Instituut), Nishant Shah (Dean of Graduate School at the ArtEZ University of the Arts), Sandi Hilal (architect, co-director Decolonising Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) and Jasmina Tešanović (author, feminist, political activist, translator, and filmmaker). More information about the jury members will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information about the Call for Fellows, please visit this link.

Applications are open from April 18 to June 1, 2018