Keynote Martijn De Waal & opening Night of the Arts

Thursday 7th of May 2026 - 18h00 - 19h00

Kapittelzaal (house #2 / 1.4), @Beguinage in Hasselt

Institutions in Dialogue - Design & the Civic Economy

Martijn de Waal. Design & the civic economy.

Can we think of the economy and money as something that could be designed? In this talk Martijn will bring a perspective from media studies and design towards emerging economic practices such as urban commons that intend to strengthen relationships of care and planetary well-being rather than mere profit or efficiency. He will explore the design of media and technologies that could facilitate such systems, such as currencies, current-sees and rights-based tokens. Will such an approach enable local economies to take negative externalities into account, while rewarding practices of care? Or do we risk to 'transactionalize the social', rather than the reverse: designing economies that are relational and caring?

For the lecture please register via this form

Presentation of workshop results – Reworlding Spring School
More-than-human design, Living Lab @Beguinage
19:00 – end

Within the Reworlding project, a group of designers, artists and social scientists collaborate on projects that challenge governments, universities and cultural institutions to move beyond human-centred thinking and take the non-human seriously in addressing current climate challenges. This approach is often referred to as more-than-human design.

By working together with both human and non-human actors (such as trees, solar panels, etc.), it explores more sustainable economic models (e.g. cooperatives), energy transitions and water management.

During the Spring School, participants will engage with these ideas through a week of collective thinking and design. The outcomes of this process will be presented during Kunstennacht.