Lecture / Confrontations 1: Marcel van Kan (Atelier Ted Noten) & Lucia Massei (Alchimia)
This academic year the ‘Confrontations’ lecture series started on 6 November 2012 and was organised by the St Lucas University College of Art and Design Antwerp, Jewellery Design|Silversmithing department and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Jewellery Design department.
Lucia Massei
The first speaker was Lucia Massei, co-founder of Alchimia, the School of Contemporary Jewellery in Florence, Italy. In the first part of her lecture, she described the school’s activities, and how the visiting teachers, past and present, had left their mark. This was illustrated by numerous pictures of student work and exhibitions held by Alchimia. The second part of her lecture, entitled ‘Latitudes’, was devoted to her own work. To explain her attitude towards her practice, she started with the research she did on ‘beauty’. In order to visually define her perspective, a substantial number of illustrations, including images of her own work, followed.
Afterschool
Next, contemporary jewellery artist and researcher Liesbet Bussche briefly introduced the audience to ‘Afterschool’, the new research project conducted by the St Lucas University College of Art and Design Antwerp, Jewellery Design|Silversmithing department and spanning a two-year period. ‘Afterschool’ will concentrate on the strengthening of a postgraduate practice and all its implications, through a variety of means.
In this context, SLA invited Marcel van Kan, assistant project manager and designer at Atelier Ted Noten, to hold his ‘Confrontations’ lecture entitled ‘Stay hungry, Stay foolish’. Atelier Ted Noten has grown from a small one-man venture into a successful design studio, meanwhile extending their jewellery achievements with various design projects, and are therefore a fitting example for the ‘Afterschool’ research project.
In this context, SLA invited Marcel van Kan, assistant project manager and designer at Atelier Ted Noten, to hold his ‘Confrontations’ lecture entitled ‘Stay hungry, Stay foolish’. Atelier Ted Noten has grown from a small one-man venture into a successful design studio, meanwhile extending their jewellery achievements with various design projects, and are therefore a fitting example for the ‘Afterschool’ research project.
Atelier Ted Noten
The title of the lecture – ‘Stay hungry, Stay foolish’ – is intended as a recommendation from Atelier Ted Noten and expresses this studio’s mindset.
When Ted Noten, a jewellery designer based in Amsterdam, became too busy to deal with all aspects of his successful art practice on his own, he invited Marcel van Kan to join him. In 2005 they emerged as Atelier Ted Noten and, due to continuing success, were joined by Cathelijne Engelkes and Sandra Savelli. As they continue to grow, they also welcome students, interns and temporary assistants in their office and laboratory, and outsource part of the work involved in running a jewellery/design studio.
To illustrate their work, Marcel van Kan showed several images of ‘Design against crime’ and other essentials, cast acrylic handbags filled with items, already existing or reproduced in gold, iconic for ATN. Both materials, acrylic and gold, are often used in ATN designs, and are therefore symbolic themselves.
To illustrate the importance of teamwork within ATN, Marcel van Kan showed a video of a presentation held in 2008, when they won the Françoise van den Bosch Prize. Instead of presenting their work in a traditional way, the work was displayed on models walking on a catwalk (hence the title ‘Tedwalk’) and gradually merging into performance art. Even the audience gradually became part of their presentation, thus also emphasising the significance of collaboration to ATN.
Since Atelier Ted Noten consists of several people with different functions, they felt there was a need for a strong corporate identity. As with their jewellery, they believe their corporate identity should reflect humour, short stories and even emotions. ATN hired the graphic designers De Designpolitie (Dutch for design police) for this job. They used gold, the iconic ATN material, and black for the business cards and letterheads, paired with naive and funny half-truths. Marcel van Kan explained that, to the ATN team, an appealing communication strategy is key to express their personal approach and purposefully build up relationships.
As a progressive team, Atelier Ted Noten works on several projects at the same time, some upon invitation, and others at their own initiative. Marcel van Kan showed pictures of ‘ATN supermarket’, a web-shop that is independent from their website. The public is given the chance to buy a variety of works not represented in museums or galleries directly from Atelier Ted Noten online. It functions as a regular web-shop, showing reliability with numerous payment options and a printable ‘ring-sizer’ (ring-size measuring sheet). And of course, this web-shop is conceptually fully in line with the rest of Atelier Ted Noten’s work, as humour and short stories can be found on every page. Marcel van Kan also mentioned a few downsides to having a web-shop in artist jewellery such as the loss of tactility to which people are very much taken, or the difficulty to attract visitors to the site.
To highlight the global character of Atelier Ted Noten, Marcel van Kan talked about their project ‘Wanna swap your ring?’. This project originated at the 2010 Tokyo Design Week, where ATN arranged 500 plastic Miss Piggy rings in the shape of their iconic gun on a wall. The visitors were invited to participate in the art installation by swapping their own ring with one of ATN. At first, the very Dutch, forward way of presenting the installation clashed with the subdued Japanese culture, but in the end all 500 Miss piggy rings were swapped for personal ones. Since ATN were very pleased with the cultural exchange that took place during the project, they decided to continue the project at art exhibitions in Sydney, Wellington and Stockholm.
During his lecture, Marcel van Kan stated that sharing information is very important to Atelier Ted Noten. For the jewellery exhibition ‘Unleashed!’ at the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, the Netherlands, they organised a smartphone treasure hunt called ‘Smartphone jewels’. Starting from the museum, the visitors could use their smartphone to visit the website smartphonejewels.com and follow a trail, as directed by a virtual map, through the city of Arnhem. They could use the QR scanner on their smartphone to collect codes and read information or short jewellery-related stories on posters they encountered on their walk. This information varied from the story of a gravedigger finding 40-million euro worth of jewellery to the explanation of how gold is made. After gathering all the QR codes on their 2-hour walk, the visitors could collect their ATN ring at the entrance to the museum.
Lastly, Marcel van Kan emphasised the fact that ATN is a team, with each member carrying full responsibility for their work. That way, they can focus on the details and deliver work of the highest quality, as Atelier Ted Noten aims to do.
Text: Broes van Iterson
www.broesvi.com
broesvitrine.blogspot.nl/
When Ted Noten, a jewellery designer based in Amsterdam, became too busy to deal with all aspects of his successful art practice on his own, he invited Marcel van Kan to join him. In 2005 they emerged as Atelier Ted Noten and, due to continuing success, were joined by Cathelijne Engelkes and Sandra Savelli. As they continue to grow, they also welcome students, interns and temporary assistants in their office and laboratory, and outsource part of the work involved in running a jewellery/design studio.
To illustrate their work, Marcel van Kan showed several images of ‘Design against crime’ and other essentials, cast acrylic handbags filled with items, already existing or reproduced in gold, iconic for ATN. Both materials, acrylic and gold, are often used in ATN designs, and are therefore symbolic themselves.
To illustrate the importance of teamwork within ATN, Marcel van Kan showed a video of a presentation held in 2008, when they won the Françoise van den Bosch Prize. Instead of presenting their work in a traditional way, the work was displayed on models walking on a catwalk (hence the title ‘Tedwalk’) and gradually merging into performance art. Even the audience gradually became part of their presentation, thus also emphasising the significance of collaboration to ATN.
Since Atelier Ted Noten consists of several people with different functions, they felt there was a need for a strong corporate identity. As with their jewellery, they believe their corporate identity should reflect humour, short stories and even emotions. ATN hired the graphic designers De Designpolitie (Dutch for design police) for this job. They used gold, the iconic ATN material, and black for the business cards and letterheads, paired with naive and funny half-truths. Marcel van Kan explained that, to the ATN team, an appealing communication strategy is key to express their personal approach and purposefully build up relationships.
As a progressive team, Atelier Ted Noten works on several projects at the same time, some upon invitation, and others at their own initiative. Marcel van Kan showed pictures of ‘ATN supermarket’, a web-shop that is independent from their website. The public is given the chance to buy a variety of works not represented in museums or galleries directly from Atelier Ted Noten online. It functions as a regular web-shop, showing reliability with numerous payment options and a printable ‘ring-sizer’ (ring-size measuring sheet). And of course, this web-shop is conceptually fully in line with the rest of Atelier Ted Noten’s work, as humour and short stories can be found on every page. Marcel van Kan also mentioned a few downsides to having a web-shop in artist jewellery such as the loss of tactility to which people are very much taken, or the difficulty to attract visitors to the site.
To highlight the global character of Atelier Ted Noten, Marcel van Kan talked about their project ‘Wanna swap your ring?’. This project originated at the 2010 Tokyo Design Week, where ATN arranged 500 plastic Miss Piggy rings in the shape of their iconic gun on a wall. The visitors were invited to participate in the art installation by swapping their own ring with one of ATN. At first, the very Dutch, forward way of presenting the installation clashed with the subdued Japanese culture, but in the end all 500 Miss piggy rings were swapped for personal ones. Since ATN were very pleased with the cultural exchange that took place during the project, they decided to continue the project at art exhibitions in Sydney, Wellington and Stockholm.
During his lecture, Marcel van Kan stated that sharing information is very important to Atelier Ted Noten. For the jewellery exhibition ‘Unleashed!’ at the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, the Netherlands, they organised a smartphone treasure hunt called ‘Smartphone jewels’. Starting from the museum, the visitors could use their smartphone to visit the website smartphonejewels.com and follow a trail, as directed by a virtual map, through the city of Arnhem. They could use the QR scanner on their smartphone to collect codes and read information or short jewellery-related stories on posters they encountered on their walk. This information varied from the story of a gravedigger finding 40-million euro worth of jewellery to the explanation of how gold is made. After gathering all the QR codes on their 2-hour walk, the visitors could collect their ATN ring at the entrance to the museum.
Lastly, Marcel van Kan emphasised the fact that ATN is a team, with each member carrying full responsibility for their work. That way, they can focus on the details and deliver work of the highest quality, as Atelier Ted Noten aims to do.
Text: Broes van Iterson
www.broesvi.com
broesvitrine.blogspot.nl/