This fruitful collaboration between theorist Louise Schouwenberg and designer Hella Jongerius follows an invitation by Die Neue Sammlung in Munich for the set up of an exhibition reflecting the museum’s rich, and world’s oldest archive of design. This book which accompanies the exhibition explores the underworld of the museum, pointing at the variety of meanings underlying the words “object” and “thing”. It also examines the relationships between “the new” which reflects the market’s obsessions with novelty for the sake of novelty and between “true innovations.” In striking high quality images, crisp colours and a round of hypothetical conversations and critical comments, Beyond the New ponders on the profound influences the things in our surroundings have on the quality of our lives and on shaping our very identity. Buy

Entkunstung is an independent journal with a bold reflective attitude on the contemporary art scene. It was launched online exactly one year ago, and since then four issues were published before being compiled into this book. With 34 contributions in English and German, it is more of an artists’ intellectual forum in the form of a yearbook. The first of the four issues puts “art” as a notion into perspective and brings up the non-self-evidentiality of the power of artworks. Art, cannot thrive in isolation from the work of the philosopher, the academic or the theoretician. The second issue ponders on the relevance of knowledge and intelligence to the aesthetics of an art creation. The third issue basically tries to figure the extent to which artists should stay engaged in political matters pertinent to human rights and climate change. Whereas the last issue digs even deeper and explores the different meanings of power through analysis of everyday “power-ful” moments.

The Design Academy Eindhoven produced three new volumes of the Strategic Creativity Series which looks into how design and creativity could contribute to solving social and economic challenges such as population aging and the disruption of traditional industrial models. It does so by merging the existing knowledge of the academy with design theories and the students’ research projects. Throughout the three volumes the notion of thinking-through-making is accentuated, whereas each volumes focuses on a specific question: 1. Immersive Narratives introduces a range of design perspectives on the role of Virtual Reality in transforming journalism. 2. Let’s Talk Water, investigates how to be ready in the advent of heavy rains, droughts and floods caused by climate change, and 3. Radical ecologies, proposes ways to cope in a society of increased risk. Buy