DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - INFO-ECO, Amsterdam, 7-11 November 1995
15 August 1995
Dear reader,
The third Doors of Perception conference, from 7 - 11 November this year,
will ask: "In what ways can Informationtechnology and design contribute to
a sustainable environment?"
The event aims to:
* develop scenarios for a convergence of 'info' and 'eco'
* make these scenarios visible and therefore capable of being acted upon
* foster projects and collaborations, and stimulate business
The event consists of:
* a full-time, workshop based programme (6 - 11 November)
* a series of 4 seminars (7 - 10 November)
* an all day Big Event on (11 November)
A brochure with the Final Programme will be published in September.
If you would like to participate in one of the workshops as described in
the attached documentation, please complete and return the following 'Call
For Participation' by 4 September. (Feel free to submit a joint application
from yourself and colleagues or clients.)
We will soon open a Website for Doors 3, that will be called DOME. The
address will be http://www....@design-inst.nl from 1 September.
Information about the first two Doors of Perception Conferences can be
found @: http://www.mediamatic.nl/doors
If there is any problem with our new Dome address, the corrections will be
found at the Doors Site @ Mediamatic.
On behalf of the Doors of Perception 3 - Executive Team,
John Thackara, Josephine Grieve, Caroline Nevejan
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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION - REGISTRATION FORM
Doors of Perception 3 - Info-Eco Workshops, 6 - 11 november 1995
Last name......................................
Firstname......................................
Street address.................................
City...........................................
Zip Code.......................................
Country........................................
Telephone .....................................
Fax............................................
Email..........................................
WWW address....................................
Title/Position.................................
Company/Organisation...........................
Specialised in.................................
Student (post graduate) in (subject)...........
University/Academy/School......................
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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Our ideal workshop will focus on a live project or business; its
participants will come from mixed disciplines, and will deliver a clear and
stimulating presentation; it will live on as a project after November. It
is against those criteria that we are inviting - and will select - a
maximum of 180 workshop participants. Bearing in mind that 1,100 people
came to Doors 2 for three full days, we will have to be selective. But
there are 500 places available for each seminar and 750 for the 'Big
Event'.
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WORKSHOPS
Please indicate in order of preference which workshop you would like to
join - ie '1' = first, '2' = second, '3'= third choice:
A - FEEDBACK
( ) Mapping Global Processes
( ) Urban Footprints
( ) Designing Desires
B - CARING FOR MATTER
( ) Info-Eco Tourist
( ) Beyond Being There
( ) Electronic Songlines
( ) Eternally Yours
C - Info-Eco Communities
( ) Info-Eco work : Communities of Business
( ) Virtual versus Real Communities
( ) Info-Eco Social Care
( ) Info-Eco Education
( ) Health and Inefficiency
( ) The daily 'We'
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PRICES
The participation fee for the Complete Programme includes: documentation;
coffee and tea served during the 'Big Event'; an evening Concert and Party
as part of the the 'Big Event' on 11 November. We will send you an invoice
after registration.
* Seminar DFL. 35
* 'Big Event' DFL. 875
* Seminars & 'Big Event' DFL. 1,000
* Complete Programme DFL. 1,765 (Workshop, Seminars, 'Big
Event')
(A limited number of bursaries is available for Dutch independent
practitioners and students)
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Please attach a short motivation (text, storyboard, illustration; max 200
words and/or one A4 sheet) on the subject: "Why I would like to join the
................................workshop" and send it together with this
registration form to: Annelou Evelein, Netherlands Design Institute,
Keizersgracht 609, 1017 DS Amsterdam, fax: + 31(0)20 6201031
I have completed the 'Call for Participation' form and I have attached a
personal statement.
Signature................................
Date.....................................
Annelou Evelein/Helen Vreedeveld
Keizersgracht 609 NL-1017 DS Amsterdam
tel: +31(0)20 5516506 / 5516512
fax: +31(0)20 6201031
e mail: do...@design-inst.nl
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3: INFO-ECO
Amsterdam, 7-11 November 1995
PROJECT SUMMARY
On 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 November this year, the third Doors of Perception
conference will address a big question: how can information technology and
design contribute to sustainability? By what creative process might we
speed up the flow of information, and slow down the consumption of matter
and energy? How can we dematerialise services and products that will
otherwise devastate the planet's resources?
Doors 3 is about the mental and material changes we have to make in order
to achieve a sustainable future. The format is a series of high-intensity
workshops and seminars that will first consider info-eco scenarios, and
then make them visible. Doors 3 involves different disciplines
collaborating in a design process whose participants will experience new
ways of working together - with information technology and global networks
as powerful tools. Participants from 11 different countries are already
connecting in pilot workshops in Toronto, Melbourne, Milan, Utrecht and
London. Their results will be passed on to the November events - with the
idea that some projects will gather further momentum and grow .
Experts, policy makers, business people, designers, artists, philosophers
and scientists will participate in Doors 3 in different ways: there will be
a workshop-plus-seminar based programme for 180 people full-time over five
days; an evening seminar series for a total of 500 people each time over
four days; and a one-day 'Big Event' for 750 people at the end. There will
be a parallel conference and discussion programme on-line, and high level
media coverage.
THE MAIN EVENTS
SEMINARS - Exploring Zones of Convergence between Info and Eco Communities
* 'Think 20' Scenarios
* Collective Intelligence
* Mental and Material
* Connectivity and Community
DESIGN WORKSHOPS
A programme of 12 high-intensity workshops, each involving experts and a
mixed group of professionals, will be given the task of exploring the
implications of info-eco scenarios - and of making these scenarios visible
and capable of being acted upon. The workshops are divided in three groups:
* Feedback - using information technology to refocus our attention on the
consequences of our actions for the planet
* Caring for Matter - using information technology to foster an enhanced
sense of responsibility for matter
* Info-Eco Communities - local and virtual communities - of people and
businesses - using information technology to re-organise products and
services to achieve sustainability
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3- Big Event
An all-day programme at which first results of the workshops and seminars
will be presented to 750 people and the international media
LATE SHOW AND LIVE TELEVISION
Daily meeting point of people, ideas and the media at Amsterdam's arts
centre De Balie
ON-LINE COMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT
On-line Internet environment for the project, providing public access to
its results, created jointly by the Doors 3 team and the celebrated
Amsterdam Digital City Internet Environment
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - BACKGROUND
The first two Doors of Perception conferences attracted worldwide attention
for their focus on the cultural and social implications of interactive
multimedia. Of the 1100 people from 30 countries who attended Doors of
Perception 2 in 1994, 200 were journalists. Visitors from many disciplines
agreed on the need to locate new information systems within a cultural,
social and economic context - to start with people, not with technology.
Meanwhile, the eco community has amassed solid evidence that a radical
decrease in our consumption of matter and energy - by a factor of 10 to 20
- will be needed, within a generation, if we are to achieve a sustainable
world. This means re-organizing all kinds of processes and products so
that, in total, they consume about 10% of the energy they do today. A
cultural shift of this magnitude will not be achieved by technology alone -
but neither will it be achieved without technology. Dematerialisation on
such a scale can only be achieved by intense economic and cultural
creativity - stimulated by, but not relying on, new technologies, and
involving a dynamic collaboration between businesses, experts, and the
creative input of untold individuals.
Information technology affords a new way of communicating. It touches our
heads and our hearts, stimulates our senses, and enhances our knowledge.
The visceral appeal of connectivity to millions of people is reflected in
the explosive growth of the Internet. Information technology also
dematerialises much that it touches, and consumes little matter and energy.
It is the driving force behind a deep re-organisation of production and
distribution in the New Economy.
But still we ask: what is it all for? Doors of Perception 3 is about the
coming together of creative innovators determined to look for an answer in
the multiple challenges of creating a sustainable future.
THE SEMINARS
=46our potential zones of convergence between info and eco communities will
be addressed in the seminars which take place between 7-10 November. Expert
speakers will open each seminar with short papers.
SEMINAR 1 - FACTOR 20 SCENARIOS
What are we to make of forecasts that we must improve global eco efficiency
by a factor of 20 within 50 years? In this opening seminar, Doors of
Perception 3 is put into context: what does 'Factor 20' mean, and how big a
jump will be needed to achieve it? How might we connect 'top down' policies
with 'bottom-up' social, cultural and business innovations needed to act on
them? Speakers will include experts who develop scenarios about the future
of ecology, economy, and information technology.
Commissioners: Professor Ezio Manzini, Domus Academy, Milan; Professor
Chris Ryan, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
SEMINAR 2 - COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Information technology is making it possible for people to communicate with
each other via machines - and not just one-to-one, but also many-to-many.
How real is the prospect that these tools will foster the collective
intelligence - not just the exchange of data - that we will need to achieve
a sustainable future? What precedents are there in society for the network
intelligence afforded by new technology? Do network designers sufficiently
understand natural and biological - as well as technological - system
models? Leading philosophers will be joined by researchers and developers
of distributed intelligent networks.
Commissioners: Professor Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program In
Culture and Technology, Toronto; Professor Pierre L=E9vy, author of
'L'intelligence Collective', Paris; Josephine Grieve, Netherlands Design
Institute, Amsterdam
SEMINAR 3 - MENTAL AND MATERIAL
What is the specificity of the human race within nature? In designing
information networks bigger than ourselves, have we made ourselves blind to
the vital signs that tell us about the health of the planet? Have we
forgotten the fact that human intelligence is bound up with having a body,
and that our bodies can only exist as part of a planetary eco-system? And
if we have forgotten this, what is the antidote? If sustainability demands
that we speed up information, and slow down matter, how do we protect the
sensual element in human intelligence?
Commissioner: John Thackara, Director, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterd=
am
SEMINAR 4 - CONNECTIVITY AND COMMUNITY
Intense social creativity will be needed to achieve sustainable lifestyles
- and much of that creativity will take place at the level of 'the
community'. But what is a 'community', and to what extend can information
technology stimulate collective action among people - or enterprises - that
exist in different places? Do information networks empower - or do they
dissolve the shared values, and networks of relations, that are found in
real communities? Do information networks foster better human
relationships, or do they devalue the lived experience of family and
kinship relationships? What of the argument that if you join networks
together, all you get is a bigger network?
Commissioner: Professor Ezio Manzini, Domus Academy, Milan
THE WORKSHOPS
There will be 12 workshops, each with about 15 participants, in central
Amsterdam.Their role is to make new ideas visible to design concepts and
processes more than objects. They will thus expose participants to new ways
of working together. Some workshops will focus on real enterprises at the
leading edge of business; others will develop new product and service
concepts, system and process designs. Each workshop will be asked to
present its findings in the form of storyboards. Participants in each
workshop - professionals from a variety of disciplines, and some graduate
students - will be selected by workshop commissioners and the programme
team from among 'Call For Participation' forms submitted.
GROUP A - Feedback
We need to be confronted with the consequences of our actions for the
health of the planet. Astonishing data from satellite remote sensing are
being combined with geographical information systems to bring city
planners, policy makers and strategists new insights. But these insights,
when locked in laboratories, are slow to influence our everyday
relationship with the planet. How might a combination of computer graphic
simulations and immersive media enhance our understanding of complex
natural processes? How might information technologies refocus our attention
on our bodies and on the earth? And in particular, how might scientists
work with designers and communication experts to deliver this information
in such a way that we relate to it personally?
A1 - Mapping Global Processes
Many powerful simulations of phenomena like ozone-holes and climate already
run in laboratories; how might they be projected into society? Design and
art have the potential to act as the interpreter of these data, making
creative connections between specialist areas of knowledge. They may also
engage new audiences by communicating complex problems, and possible
solutions with clarity and wit. How might these data be disseminated in
schools, in science centres, or by television? The workshop will bring
together social and scientific historians; psychologists expert on feedback
and attitudinal change; designers and artists; and experts from the
front-line of remote-sensing, GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and
related computer simulations.
Commissioners: Professor Gillian Crampton Smith, Royal College of Art,
London; David Cross, Senior Research Fellow, Royal College of Art, London
=09
A2 - Urban Footprints
The eco-performance of the planet is a too big and abstract story to engage
many people - but cities and towns are easier to grasp as entities. How
best should information we already know about the 'eco-footprint' of a city
be exploited? How might the 'eco-agenda' be added to discussions about the
impact of telematics on urbanism ? The workshop will involve development of
the 'Green Maps' project.
Commissioners: Professor Chris Ryan, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology; Melbourne; Wendy Brawer, Modern World Design, O2 Network, New
York
A3 - Designing Desires: Fluid Functionality and Less as More
We blame consumerism for its wastefulness - but could we not learn from the
numerous and subtle ways in which it stimulates our desires? What new
ideals could direct the way we cultivate desires with our product design
and guide us to a more sustainable end? Should we only marvel at the
psychological power of status symbols, fashion, and fetishism, to stimulate
demand? Could 'anti-matter' status objects be virtual? Could we also use
Internet upgraded product functionality, life-style affirmation exercises,
eco-impact visulisations and new product/desire combinations to realise our
new ideals?
Commissioners: Niels Peter Flint, O2 International, Denmark; Sytze
Kalisvaart, O2 Global Network, Delft
GROUP B - CARING FOR MATTER
The ecological vision emphasizes the material presence of the planet
itself; ubiquitous information creates a sense of immateriality and
rootlessness. How might we use new information and communication tools to
enhance our sense of, and responsibility formatter and place?
B1 - Travels to the Edge: the Info-Eco Tourist
The damaging impact of mass tourism is made worse by the tendency of modern
travel to de-sensitise us to nature and culture: we move vacuously from
airport to hotel, to beach - blind to the damage we may be causing not only
to the natural environment, but also to indigenous, human-made cultures. Is
mass travel environmentally sustainable? How might information technology
enhance the concept of eco-tourism? This workshop will develop ideas and
projects explored at the RMIT International Design Winter School in
Melbourne in July 1995.
Commissioner: Professor Chris Ryan, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology, Melbourne
B2 - Beyond Being There / Hi-Touch Telematics
Using telematics to replace environmentally damaging business travel and
commuting sounds logical. But a much deeper understanding of the social and
physical contexts of communication is needed before any impact on damaging
mobility will be made. This workshop will focus on three questions: the
design of integrated real and simulated space; the design of extended
sensoriality; and the design of communication patterns and processes.
Commissioner: Professor Marco Susani, Research Director, Domus Academy, Mila=
n
B3 - Electronic Songlines
In many cultures, shared values and laws on the environment are
communicated through stories, myths and rituals. In such countries as
India, Australia and Indonesia, experimental uses of information technology
as new ways to propagate these myths are being explored. How might global
information networks foster a better interaction between (highly
mis-named) 'developed' cultures and those wiser than our own? The workshop
will develop scenarios for modern electronic storylines.
Commissioner: Josephine Grieve, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam;
Jogi Panghal, New Delhi; Mark Pesce, developer of VRML, California
B4 - Eternally Yours
How might industry modify its reliance on the rapid innovation of
short-life products? Why are people increasingly surrounding themselves
with products they feel less and less attached to? Should we design less
desirability into hard products, or make hardware the 'carrier' of
infinitely mutable soft attributes? Could we enrich information technology
to counteract the growing ephemerality of our environment? What happens if
communications concepts like those underlying West African music are set
free in the digital world?
Commissioner: Liesbeth Bonekamp, Ed van Hinte , Henk Muis, Eternally Yours
Research Group, Wijk bij Duurstede
GROUP C - INFO-ECO COMMUNITIES
Although research and expert opinion are important, a sustainable future
will not be achieved only by the top-down promulgation of policies and
scenarios by governments and think-tanks. Innovation is a social process as
much as a technical one. Nor is technology neutral: automation destroys
jobs and communities; global manufacturing often speeds up the wasteful
consumption of matter. Yet information technology will be vital as an
element of the intense social innovation in thousands of communities, that
will be needed to achieve a 'Factor 20' way of life.
C1 - Info-Eco Work: Communities of Business
Behind the rhetoric, the reality of much so-called tele-working is that it
is un-skilled and isolating. New telework concepts are needed that enhance
social contact, which value both mental and physical skills, and which
re-evaluate the relationship between work and leisure. Can re-humanised
forms of work replace automation with inter-dependent, trans-local
communities? What are the main elements of this agenda? Participants will
analyse and criticize emerging business models, and visualise their
conclusions using examples of new business concepts.
Commissioner: Debra Cash, New Century Enterprises, Harvard Graduate School
for Design, Boston
C2 - Virtual versus Real Communities
This workshop will search for the characteristics of virtual communities
and in which way they relate to Real Life communities. We'll try to define
in what way such virtual reality communitiescan be useful in a
professional context: is it possible to make this environment secure, to
identify the other person, to get a true conception of the other party? Is
it possible to trust? What would be the design criteria? And what would be
the true profit?
Attendees will be invited to meet eachother in a special Moo-room; this
communication-experience will eventually result in meeting in the flesh at
the conference.
Commissioner: Kristi van Riet, Mediamatic, Amsterdam
C3 - Info-Eco Social Care
The concept of health is changing to encompass social and cultural factors
as well as purely bodily ones. What are the consequences of a
virtualisation of social relationships? Positive connotations - such as new
social connections - may easily be cancelled out by negative ones, such as
increased social isolation. How might telematics improve the social
connectedness of those, such as old people, whom society has isolated? How
may informatics alter current models of 'social service'? The workshop will
focus on a specific telematic application for old people.
Commissioner: Fran=E7ois Jegou, Delta, Paris; Bert Mulder, VOTA, European
Design Age Network (DAN), Bussum
C4 - Info-Eco Education
Might advanced networks and interactive multimedia offer new opportunities
to design learning experiences that entertain and educate us all - singly,
or in communities - about issues of ecological sustainability? Against this
optimistic scenario must be put the 'innovation gap' that afflicts
educational software. Drawing on the experience of multimedia programmes
already developed by Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace
and others, the workshop will create the specification and storyboards for
a new educational software tool.
Commissioners: Michael Polman, Antenna, Nijmegen; Dick Rijken, Centre for
Interaction Design, Utrecht School for the Arts, Hilversum; Larry Keeley,
Doblin Group, Chicago
C5 - Health and Inefficiency
The root of all our eco-sorrows may be efficiency and for that matter,
health. This conceptual workshop starts from the radical assumption that it
is the human talent for efficiency that got us in trouble in the first
place. We'll explore the possibilities of developing inefficient and
improductive pastimes that are as fulfilling as work and progress can be.
Current entertainment and art are just not good enough to keep people from
working. Should we turn the worlds population into environmentally
responsable couch potatoes that can look back on a rich and fruitful
existence when they die young? Or will the world solve its own problems?
Commissioner: Willem Velthoven, Mediamatic, Amsterdam; Tom Ray, ATR Human
Information Processing Research Laboratories, Kyoto
C6 - Info-Eco Communications - The daily 'We'
Confronted by predictions that the paper-based newspaper will soon be
killed off by on-line personalised information services, newspaper
publishers reply that their products play a social role in the community
too. What new connections might be made between local newspapers and
environmental programmes - for example, in the distribution of eco
information and advice? But if a radical reduction in paper consumption is
nonetheless necessary, what information systems might replace the local
newspaper?
Commissioner: Carel Kuitenbrouwer, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam
PLENARY EVENTS
LATE SHOW AND LIVE TELEVISION AT DE BALIE
Workshop and seminar participants, journalists, and members of the public,
will be able to meet at a late night programme of talks and discussions,
which will be televised, at Amsterdam's well-known arts centre, De Balie.
Commissioner: Marleen Stikker, Director, Society for Old & New Media,
co-ordinator, Digital City, Amsterdam
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - BIG EVENT AT PARADISO
At the end of the week, on Saturday 11 November, the all-day 'Big Event'
begins with presentations of the results of each workshop, and a
report-back from the seminars, using a variety of display techniques,
performance and media tools. These presentations are followed by keynote
lectures delivered by seven prominent and insightful speakers.
Commissioner: Caroline Nevejan, Paradiso, Amsterdam
COMMUNICATION + DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS
=09
MEDIA
Doors of Perception is established as an important international meeting
point for journalists who write or broadcast about the social and cultural
consequences of interactive multimedia. The 1994 conference was covered by
the major Dutch dailies; by such global papers as the London Financial
Times, Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, and Mainichi Shimbun; and by highly
'connected' magazines like the Village Voice and Wired. For 1995, this same
level of newspaper coverage will be supplemented by talks and TV chat shows
involving Dutch and other European networks and producers.
Manager: Josephine Grieve, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam
=09
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
The proceedings of all workshops and seminars will be recorded and edited
for publication, as paper or on-line.
Manager: wendela smit, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam
=09
MULTI-MEDIA AND ON-LINE PUBLICATION
The organisers of Doors of Perception 3 include experienced pioneers in the
use of the Internet, World Wide Web, videoconferencing, MOOs, and other
media environments with the capacity to engage individuals around the
world. The use of multimedia to disseminate results is already part of the
Doors of Perception culture in the CD ROM of Doors of Perception 1 , and
the World Wide Web site of Doors of Perception 2. Doors of Perception 3
will include Internet and World Wide Web events and an on-line working
environment called 'Doors On Matter Environment' (DOME) before, during and
after the November programme.
Knowledge environment: Marleen Stikker, Director, Society for Old & New
Media, co-ordinator, Digital City, Amsterdam
TIMETABLE 1995-1996
=46ebruary International Programme Group: Meeting 1
April International Programme Group: Meeting 2
July 17 Publication of 'Call for Participation'
September 1 Publication of the Doors 3 brochure
September 1 Knowledge environment on-line
September 4 Deadline for applications
September 20 Notification letters + communications
September 22 International Programme Group: Meeting 3
November 7 Workshops begin
November 8 Seminars begin
November 11 Info-Eco 'Big Event'=09
January 1996 International Programme Group: Meeting 4
ORGANISATION
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - International Programme Team
* John Thackara, Director Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam (chair)
* Dr Connie Bakker, eco-design consultant , co-organiser O2 International
Event, Rotterdam
* Prof. Gillian Crampton Smith, Royal College of Art, London (+ David Cross)
* Niels Peter Flint, O2 International, Denmark
* Josephine Grieve, Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam
* Fran=E7ois Jegou, Design =E0 la long terme, Paris
* Prof. Derrick de Kerckhove, Director, McLuhan Program, Toronto
* Prof. Ezio Manzini, Domus Academy, Milan (+ Elena Pacenti)
* Bert Mulder, VOTA, Bussum
* Caroline Nevejan, Paradiso, Society for Old & New Media, Amsterdam
* Carlo Pesso, OECD, Paris
* Michael Polman, co-ordinator, ANTENNA, Nijmegen
* Dick Rijken, Centre for Interaction Design (HKU), Hilversum=09
* Prof. Chris Ryan, Director Design Centre, Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology
* Marleen Stikker, De Balie, Society for Old & New Media , The Digital
City, Amsterdam
* Prof. Marco Susani, Domus Academy, Milan
* Willem Velthoven, Director, Mediamatic, Amsterdam
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - Executive team
* John Thackara (chair)
* Josephine Grieve and Caroline Nevejan (co-producers)
* Marleen Stikker (knowledge environment)
* Michiel Harnisch (financial controller)
DOORS OF PERCEPTION 3 - Production Team
* Helen Vreedeveld (production co-ordinator)
* Connie Bakker (workshops co-ordinator)
* Wendela Smit (documentation manager)
* Anthony Chapman (technical production)
* Annelou Evelein (general co-ordinator)
CONTACT DETAILS
Helen Vreedeveld and Yvonne Janssen
Netherlands Design Institute
Keizersgracht 609
1017 DS Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel + 31 (0)20 55 16 506 / 55 16 504
=46ax + 31 (0)20 62 01 031
E mail: do...@design-inst.nl
DOME: http://www.dds.nl/dome (from September/October)