Roel Wouters: The process is the product

They are changing the rules of the design-game: Luna Maurer, Edo Paulus, Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters are fed up with the archetypical approach of graphic design. Redefining the working method for artists and designers, they published the ‘Conditional Design Manifesto’. The methods of philosophers, engineers, inventors and mystics inspired them to dramatically shift the focus from end result to process.

Written by Myrthe Velter

The most well-known result of this philosophy might be the music video that Roel Wouters  created with Jonathan Puckey for C-Mon & Kypski’s ‘More is Less’. All visitors of the site oneframeoffame.com can be part of the video by shooting a frame of their own. The interface of the site allows visitors to mimic a frame of the video, take a picture of it and then upload it. The video is re-rendered every hour with the latest frames included, adding up to an amazing 35166 participants and still counting. According to Wouters, merging the artist’s original take and the fan’s copy creates a new democratic order that changes the power within the music industry.

Wouters made his first video for the Dutch dark and danceable rock duo zZz.  This video immediately brought him to fame and won several international prizes. But the biggest reward was probably the use of the video’s concept by car producer FIAT. The uniqueness of this video lies in the fact that it was shot in one take and was recorded live, as part of the opening of ‘Nederclips’ at the Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This meant there were no options to reshoot or edit if something went wrong.

In his work, Wouters searches for a self-generating system that leads to a result. Another video that shows the importance of the process, is the controversial music video ‘Running with the Beast’, which is the title track of zZz’s second album. For this video, Wouters and the band went to Thailand, the country where cockfight are still legal. What happens when you dip roosters in water-based ink en put them on a white piece of paper where they start to fight? Exactly, you get a work of art, see the video here. ‘Running with the Beast’ was inspired by one of Thomas Edison’s film experiments from 1894. Wouters claims that one of the video’s aims is to portrait aggression and anger in an alternative way:  “The approach taken to represent rock music and the dark side of humanity is often a cliché”.

Wouters videos will be showed at the STRP Festival as part of the Cinema programme.

On Saturday November 26^th, Wouters will be present at his screening, starting at 21.30 at the Light Café Cinema. STRP Festival takes place from November 18 till 27 at the Klokgebouw, Eindhoven.