We propose aesthetic engagement as a valuable construct for organisation studies to advance its contribution to organising for sustainability. Aesthetic engagement is defined as a set of material practices that re-engage humans and systems to trigger and accelerate transitions towards regenerative futures. We adopt an aesthetic, practice-based approach to study the emerging field of circular fashion, zooming in on six research projects evolving around bio-based textile design. Our results show that matter needs to matter more in sustainable organising in three key material practices: (1) re-presenting alternative systems, (2) re-imagining affective materialities and (3) re-claiming embodied ethical agency. Matter that reflects new ‘imagined’ realities - whether in artefacts, bodies or socio-material spaces - could greatly support stakeholder engagement and collective identity-building towards transitioning to regenerative futures.
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This paper will describe the rationale and findings from a multinational study of online uses and gratifications conducted in the United States, Korea, and the Netherlands in spring 2003. A survey research method of study was conducted using a questionnaire developed in three languages and was presented to approximately 400 respondents in each country via the Web. Web uses and gratifications were analyzed cross-nationally in a comparative fashion and focused on the perceived involvement in different types of on-line communities. Findings indicate that demographic characteristics, cultural values, and Internet connection type emerged as critical factors that explain why the same technology is adopted differently. The analyses identified seven major gratifications sought by users in each country: social support, surveillance & advice, learning, entertainment, escape, fame & aesthetic, and respect. Although the Internet is a global medium, in general, web use is more local and regional. Evidence of media use and cultural values reported by country and online community supports the hypothesis of a technological convergence between societies, not a cultural convergence.
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Hoe kunnen we voorbij een maatschappelijke verhouding tot handicap die gebaseerd is op verschil en exclusie? ‘Willen we een ander soort engagement met handicap aangaan, dan volstaat bewustwording niet langer’, stelt Andries Hiskes. Hij ontdekt een vruchtbaar alternatief in de filosofie van Spinoza, die de potentie van een lichaam ziet als inherent relationeel van aard.
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This project develops a European network for transdisciplinary innovation in artistic engagement as a catalyst for societal transformation, focusing on immersive art. It responds to the professionals in the field’s call for research into immersive art’s unique capacity to ‘move’ people through its multisensory, technosocial qualities towards collective change. The project brings together experts leading state-of-the-art research and practice in related fields with an aim to develop trajectories for artistic, methodological, and conceptual innovation for societal transformation. The nascent field of immersive art, including its potential impact on society, has been identified as a priority research area on all local-to-EU levels, but often suffers from the common (mis)perception as being technological spectacle prioritising entertainment values. Many practitioners create immersive art to enable novel forms of creative engagement to address societal issues and enact change, but have difficulty gaining recognition and support for this endeavour. A critical challenge is the lack of knowledge about how their predominantly sensuous and aesthetic experience actually lead to collective change, which remains unrecognised in the current systems of impact evaluation predicated on quantitative analysis. Recent psychological insights on awe as a profoundly transformative emotion signals a possibility to address this challenge, offering a new way to make sense of the transformational effect of directly interacting with such affective qualities of immersive art. In parallel, there is a renewed interest in the practice of cultural mediation, which brings together different stakeholders to facilitate negotiation towards collective change in diverse domains of civic life, often through creative engagements. Our project forms strategic grounds for transdisciplinary research at the intersection between these two developments. We bring together experts in immersive art, psychology, cultural mediation, digital humanities, and design across Europe to explore: How can awe-experiences be enacted in immersive art and be extended towards societal transformation?
Fashion has become inextricably linked with digital culture. Digital media have opened up new spaces of fashion consumption that are unprecedented in their levels of ubiquity, immersion, fluidity, and interactivity. The virtual realm continuously needs us to design and communicate our identity online. Unfortunately, the current landscape of digitised fashion practices seems to lack the type of self-governing attitude and urgency that is needed to move beyond commercially mandated platforms and systems that effectively diminish our digital agency. As transformative power seems to be the promise of the virtual, there is an inherent need to critically assess how digital representation of fashion manifests online, especially when these representations become key mediators within our collective and individual public construction of self. A number of collectives and practitioners that actively shape a counter movement, organized bottom up rather than through capital, are questioning this interdependence, applying inverted thinking and experimenting with alternative modes of engagement. Starting from the research question ‘How can critical fashion practitioners introduce and amplify digital agency within fashion’s virtual landscape through new strategies of aesthetic engagement?’, this project investigates the implications of fashion’s increasing shift towards the virtual realm and the ramifications created for digital agency. It centers on how identity is understood in the digital era, whether subjects have full agency while expected to construct multiple selves, and how online environments that enact as playgrounds for our identities might attribute to a distorted sense of self. By using the field of critical fashion as its site, and the rapidly expanding frontier of digital counter practices as a lens, the aim of this project is to contribute to larger changes within an increasingly global and digital society, such as new modes of consumerism, capital and cultural value.
The Netherlands must build one million homes and retrofit eight million buildings by 2030, while halving CO₂ emissions and achieving a circular economy by 2050. This demands a shift from high-carbon materials like concrete—responsible for 8% of global CO₂ emissions—and imported timber, which inflates supply-chain emissions. Mycelium offers a regenerative, biodegradable alternative with carbon-sequestration potential and minimal energy input. Though typically used for insulation, it shows structural promise—achieving compressive strengths of 5.7 MPa and thermal conductivities of 0.03–0.05 W/(m·K). Hemp and other lignocellulosic agricultural byproducts are commonly used as substrates for mycelium composites due to their fibrous structure and availability. However, hemp (for e.g.) requires 300–500 mm of water per cycle and centralized processing, limiting its circularity in urban or resource-scarce areas. Aligned with the CLICKNL Design Power Agenda, this project explores material-driven design innovation through a load-bearing mycelium-based architectural product system, advancing circular, locally embedded construction. To reduce environmental impact, we will develop composites using regional bio-waste—viz. alienated vegetation, food waste, agriculture and port byproducts—eliminating the need for water-intensive hemp cultivation. Edible fungi like Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) will enable dual-function systems that yield food and building material. Design is key for moving beyond a singular block to a full product system: a cluster of modular units emphasizing geometry, interconnectivity, and compatibility with other building layers. Aesthetic variation (dimension, color, texture) supports adaptable, expressive architecture. We will further assess lifecycle performance, end-of-(service)-life scenarios, and on-site fabrication potential. A 1:1 prototype at The Green Village will serve as a demonstrator, accelerating stakeholder engagement and upscaling. By contributing to the KIA mission on Social Desirability, we aim to shift paradigms—reimagining how we build, live, grow, and connect through circular architecture.
