Graduation Shows 2024

Make More Noise

During this year’s graduation shows, students delved into exploring their past and future worlds, their experiences, and their emotions. The various projects were created around subjects close to their hearts and values, pushing the boundaries of social change and future thinking.

We visited the graduation shows of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, and Central Saint Martins in London. Across these events, we saw strong emotional connections, building on life experiences, past and present, and translating feelings and emotions into their work. 

The graduating artists and designers create projects that align with their lives and values. By making noise and raising questions, they transform learning into an active and social experience. They embrace the freedom to experiment and challenge established norms, asking critical questions like, “Why is it the way it is?” and “Who says it should be like this if it is clearly not working?” In a world where there is growing distrust and lost hope in big companies, organizations, and government, graduates strive to create a place for themselves without compromising their beliefs.

This approach allowed students to connect deeply with their discoveries, creating an honest sense of engagement. Themes such as youth, family, home countries, gender, and experiences of exclusion and discrimination served as sources of research, as well as inspirations for future ideas for better food and living systems in an aging world. Projects explored how to live within limits and achieve a better balance with nature. Their connection and questioning can inspire all of us to engage more actively in shaping a better future.

You can download the PDF version here

Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp

Emotive Narratives

At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the collections we selected focussed on different aspects of human life, blending past experiences with future possibilities and using garments as a powerful medium for storytelling.

Fashion Masters

Sofia H Rodriguez Rodriguez / Broken tooth

This collection explores the experience of a control freak losing control, delving into the ensuing fear and uncertainty. The project uses visual representations of garments that appear to burst at the seams, symbolizing an internal struggle to maintain composure while also allowing the garments to return to their original shape, reflecting the ability to regain control.

Behind Pagoda seeks to reinterpret the distinctive characteristics of Byeongho Lee’s childhood neighbourhood in Korea through a cinematic lens. The project evokes a cyberpunk dystopia, influenced by the visual aesthetics of “Blade Runner 1987,” and highlights the area’s old buildings, working-class people and homeless.

Fashion Masters

Byeongho Lee / Behind Pagoda

This project challenges the constant innovation and uniqueness in fashion design, questioning whether a garment’s worth is determined by its novelty or ability to foster emotional connections. By drawing inspiration from everyday outfits and utilitarian uniforms, it aims to infuse familiar garments with mystery and significance, encouraging a renewed appreciation for simpler, emotionally resonant ways of dressing.

Fashion Masters

Tim Wirth / n0thing n3w

Jinny Song’s collection reflects on the designer’s formative years and complex dynamics with her mother. It explores the love and healing between a mother and child, using fabric treatments inspired by the Virgin of Willendorf to symbolize the generational transfer of emotional trauma and the deep, eternal connection between mother and child.

Fashion Masters

Jinny Song / Mothers Milk

Curtain Call is a tribute to the power and beauty of dance, inspired by witnessing Sharon Eyal’s “Half Life” and the universal expression of movement. The project incorporates the dynamic essence of dance into each garment, drawing inspiration from contemporary dance pioneers and the timeless elegance of ballet. It celebrates the body in motion and the beauty of behind-the-scenes moments and a dancer’s life.

Fashion Masters

Margot Verstuyft / Curtain call

Central Saint Martins, London

Holistic Progress

At Central Saint Martins, the projects explored different aspects of future living, focusing on sustainable practices and technological inclusivity and fostering deeper connections between humans and nature, within communities or across generations.

Biodesign

Christopher Bellamy / Lucid Life

Symbiotic

Living materials 

Traditional kowledge

This project explores the symbiotic relationship between corals and microorganisms. The living material is infused with bioluminescent micro-algae, which respond to touch and thrives on sunlight for at least six months. The project merges traditional Polynesian knowledge and scientific advancements to produce living materials and their potential to reconnect humanity with the natural world.

Ma Material Futures

Shuwen Yang/ Lost whale song

Species relationships

purpose

Conservation

The relationship between humans and whales is visualized in this object emphasizing the detrimental effects of noise pollution on whale communication. Through a hybrid human-whale creature, the project seeks to evoke empathy and awareness, highlighting the interconnectedness of all species and the need to protect the harmonious songs of whales.

Ma Narrative Environments

Chuichui Chui / The Next Bite

Genetically modified

Future nutrition

Food crisis

The Next Bite envisions a speculative food system in 2080, addressing the current urgency of food crisis predictions. It introduces two innovative food packs, BASICOO and POOCOO, that explore advanced genetically modified technology and the sustainable reuse of nutrients from human waste.

Ma Industrial Design

Goksu Oral / Bridge

Digital Inclusion

Tactile Feedback

Senior Independence

Bridge aims to enhance digital inclusion by empowering seniors to confidently use technology through tactile feedback mechanisms, ensuring accessibility and inclusivity. Combining a user-friendly mobile application with intuitive hardware components, it promotes independence and improves the quality of life for elderly adults in a tech-driven world.

Ba (Hons) Architecture

Alise Andzane / Co-Habitat: Modular Homes for Community Bonds

Co-living concept

Modular housing

Connectivity

The challenge of designing future homes in densely populated cities like London is explored in this co-living concept set in 2060. It proposes modular timber housing units that critique and offer alternatives to the H16 policy (the policy basis for shared living), advocating for spaciousness, private outdoor areas, and adaptable living spaces that foster community connectivity and individual expression.

Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague (KABK)

Introspective Evolutions

At the KABK in The Hague, the overarching direction of the five projects we selected is the exploration and reinterpretation of identity, time, and societal constructs through artistic and immersive experiences. They all aim to challenge conventional perspectives and invite introspection and critical thinking about personal and societal transformations.

Ba Photography

Loes de Boer / Still Lifes & Self Portraits

This project explores the complexities of gender identity and societal norms through black and white still lifes and self-portraits, creating a dialogue between the self and surrounding objects. The photographs capture moments of transformation and introspection, aiming to uncover the fluid dimensions of femininity and promote liberation from conventional expectations.

Gender

Evolution

Identity

Ba Photography

Jelle Koiter / Deathconsciousness

Rage

Music

Life

Through images of bodies and abstract photographs created with long shutter speeds and moving light, this project conveys a music album’s ( Deathconsciousness by Have A Nice Life) exploration of life, wonder, anxious despair, and anger. The pictures focus on the emotional story of the music, inviting viewers to experience the visuals of the artist’s imagination and see what music looks like.

Ba Photography

Rui Lu / The Cure

The Cure explores the intersection of identity and consumerism through the lens of high fashion, gastronomy, and art. The project by Rui Lu looks at the compulsive spending habits influenced by cultural stereotypes and societal pressures, highlighting the impact of capitalism and social media on personal and collective behaviours.

Cultural dynamics

Capitalism

Media

Ba Fine Arts

Frans van Hoek / Everything Changes, Nothing is Lost: A Retroactive Retrospective

Retrospective

Timeline

Perception of History

A collection of objects as a retrospective that reimagines one work from each semester, exploring the interaction and collision of past and present. Through canonical forms it questions established ways of remembering and destabilizes notions of history, greatness, and linear time, presenting a fragmented, eclectic history of the world. Pictured are an armour shaped like a North Face puffer jacket and Adidas track pants and National football jerseys for civilizations wiped out by climate change.

Ma ArtScience

Gemma Luz Bosch / Long Low Slow Baden

Multisensorial

Awareness

Acoustic

Long Low Slow Baden is a soft landing on Earth, an acoustic immersive installation inviting participants to lay down on an inflatable, experiencing the sensation of gravity, body movement and sound. The installation, powered by human energy and gravity, creates a personal and intimate experience as slow sounds of flutes lead to an appreciation of silence when the flutes are still.

You can download the PDF version here