Vernacular Archaeology

Creative coding

Graduation project
Willem de Kooning Academy

Vernacular archaeology questions how we can optimize cultural representation within the creative practice, it wants to give a voice to communities that are misrepresented or overlooked in design. It is based upon the phenomena of globalization which influence has led to neglect of local values within art, design, and architecture. since the introduction of a more unified style often based on following international trends. 

With design systems and methodologies being a crucial essential in the toolbox of a designer. This project’s research and experimentation reflects on existing design methodologies with the goal of forming its own alternative for approaching highly propagated design problems by supplying an application to the designer’s toolkit that is created to introduce technological innovations while preserving local values.

The application focusses on working with the valuable artifacts of what could be found around us, providing designers with just a camera to generate imagery, encouraging them to generate images using vistas and objects from their own environment to let them experiment with different sources as input than what is normally expected from the completely internationalized internet. A canvas is added for the designer to draw with the captured images through set parameters which is also a response to the rise of A.I. tools that increasingly relinquish control from the designer, offering a functionality which often is completely handed over to technology. To strive for the correct balance between designers’ autonomy and technological automated design, generative art is used, through setting some visual parameters but always giving the designer the power over core graphic design elements like photography, colour, and layout.

Special thanks to
WdKA interaction station
Wim Albersen
Baris Meurer
Richard Hausil
Max Rohu