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Members

The Charles Nypels working group consists of Gillian Crampton Smith, Paul Elliman, Wouter Vanstiphout and Annelys de Vet

Gillian Crampton Smith
designer and director Interaction Design Institute Ivrea

Having studied philosophy and history of art at Cambridge University, Gillian Crampton Smith graduated in 1968 and spent the following decade as a designer — first in book publishing, then on the Sunday Times and Times Literary Supplement. In 1981, she designed and implemented a page layout program to help her with magazine design — an early desktop publishing application. This experience convinced her that artists and designers have an important role to play in creating information technologies. She joined St Martin's School of Art in 1983 where she set up a new postgraduate course in graphic design and computers for practising designers. In 1989 she moved to the Royal College of Art (the UK's only purely graduate school of art and design). At the RCA, she established the Computer Related Design Department, where artists and designers apply their traditional skills to interactive products and systems. Under her guidance, the CRD Research Studio achieved an international reputation as a leading centre for interaction design, supported by a wide range of industrial sponsors. See for more information Interaction Ivrea: www.interaction-ivrea.it

Paul Elliman
independent designer

Essentially a self-taught designer, Paul Elliman was a member of the City Limits Magazine collective (1984–1986) and then became Design Director of the British music magazine Wire (1986–1988) before embarking on a career as a freelance designer.
In 1991 he was awarded Design & Art Direction Gold and Silver medals for design and publication of an electronic journal that utilized fax and email. In 1992 he was the recipient of a Barclay’s New Stages prize for a collaboration with British choreographer Rosemary Butcher. Recent work includes commissions from Princeton School of Architecture; a collaboration with cycling activists Critical Mass; a series of imaging test patterns with Xerox, for the American Institute of Graphic Arts; and cover designs for Everything Magazine.
His work has been exhibited internationally in, for example, The British Council and Tate Modern, as well as in smaller gallery shows. He has been a contributor to FUSE, the electronic type publication published by Font Shop International, and he has published essays in magazines as Eye and IDEA.
Elliman has taught in the Cultural Studies Department at Central St. Martin's School of Art, London; The School of Visual Communications, University of East London; and at the University of Texas at Austin, and he has been a guest speaker and visiting critic at a number of schools. He was a project tutor at the Jan van Eyck Academie, between 1996 and 1999, and has been an assistant professor at Yale School of Art since 1998. Currently he is also an advisor to the new Shanghai University of Art and Design, and a critic at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Wouter Vanstiphout
art historian and partner of Crimson Architectural Historians

Wouter Vanstiphout graduated in 1967 as art historian at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Since 1994 he is partner at Crimson Architectural Historians, which, among other things, was awarded the Jonge Rotterdam-Maaskant prize for architects in 2002. Crimson published Stories from Behind The Scenes of Dutch Moral Modernism in Mart Stam’s Trousers (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1999), Profession Architect, De Architecten Cie. (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002) and Too Blessed to be Depressed, Crimson Architectural Historians 1994 - 2002, (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002). In 2003 the second part of Crimson’s collected works Vernacular Spectacular, Crimson Architectural Historians 1994 - 2002 (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003) is to appear, as well as Wouter Vanstiphout’s thesis Van den Broek. Architect. Rotterdam 1928 -1948 (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2003).
Together with Michelle Provoost (Crimson) and Felix Rottenberg Wouter Vanstiphout has been a member of the directors of the International Building exhibition Rotterdam – Hoogvliet since 1999. This is a ten-year venture which aims to give a new prestige and a new economic and cultural meaning to satellite city Rotterdam Hoogvliet by means of innovating urban developmental and architectural projects.

Annelys de Vet
independent designer

Annelys de Vet is an Amsterdam based designer who focuses on diverse media, like print, cd-roms, internet, video, theatre and performances. Her clients vary from artists, cultural institutions, independent thinkers and writers. De Vet studied graphic design at the School for the Art in Utrecht and continued her study at the Sandberg Institute, where she earned her masters degree in 1999. The same year the sculpture department at RMIT university in Melbourne awarded her a fellowship to work as artist-in-residence. Currently she is teaching communication at the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL). She is also member of the board of BNO (Union of Dutch Designers).

See also: www.xs4all.nl/~annevet

Jouke Kleerebezem
artist and advising researcher Jan van Eyck Academie

After his study (1972-1977) in typography and graphic design Jouke Kleerebezem has been productive as an artist/curator with, from 1993, a focus on new media and the internet for both individual artistic and organisational activities. He was commissioning editor for the website of Netherlands Design Institute (see www.doorsofperception.com) and has been connected to Doors of Perception (Amsterdam) since 1994.
He has been involved in several curatorial projects, including the Exhibitions Allocations (1992), Sillicon Rally (1996), The Website Notes Quotes Provocations, Other Fair Use (www.nqpafu.com since 1998), Innovation and Design for Information Empowerment (http://idie.net, since 1999). Kleerebezem has written many articles and essays on design, arts and media in the professional press: Mediamatic, Mute, Items, De Witte Raaf, Metropolis M, Aiga Journal.
Upcoming projects include a reworking of the Innovation and Design for Information Empowerment (idie.net) website, preparing the publication of Omnia Mea In Media - a selection of his design critiques -, ongoing activities with Doors of Perception, the exhibition and symposium Personal Publishing Pandemonium and the project <A!P>, both on on-line publishing and at the Jan van Eyck Academie.

See also: www.nqpaofu.com

Filiep Tacq
designer and advising researcher Jan van Eyck Academie

Filiep Tacq has studied graphic design at Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent (BE). From 1984 he has been working as an independent graphic designer. Since 1993 he has specialised in designing art catalogues and artists books for editors, museums and institutions.

In collaboration with Yves Gevaert Editor he published Rodney Graham, Harald Klingelhöller and Philippe von Snick (York University, Toronto), James Coleman and Chris Marker (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris) and R. Graham and "Eine Baroke Party" (Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna).
For Ludion Editions he designed The Sublime Void and catalogues about Jan Vercruysse, Dirk Braeckman, Raoul De Keyser and Luc Deleu.
Furthermore he collaborated with Fondacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Roomade, Brussels; Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, Casino Forum d’Art Contemporain, Luxembourg.
From September 1989 till 1995 he was Professor Graphic Design (typography) at St.-Lucasinstituut, Ghent (BE). He founded the company Leopold en Zonen bvba, (1990–2000). In 2001 he gave a series of lectures at the Jan van Eyck Academie entitled Books and since 2002 he has been an advising researcher at the design department of the Jan Van Eyck Academie. Currently he is editing the publication Proceeding 1 about Dakar. It is the first number in the publication series Proceeding of the Jan van Eyck Academie.

Koen Brams
director Jan van Eyck Academie, chairman Charles Nypels Foundation

Koen Brams studied Psychology, specialisation psycholinguistics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven [BE]. Before he became director of the Jan van Eyck Academie in 2000, he was editor-in-chief of the magazine De Witte Raaf. Furthermore he was editor of De encyclopedie van fictieve kunstenaars (Nijgh en Van Ditmar, 2000) which is translated in German as Erfundene Kunst. Eine Enzyklopädie fiktiver Künstler (Eichborn Verlag, 2002). The English translation is forthcoming.

In 2003 he will be working on three research projects which are framed within the covering project on an alternative history of the arts in Belgium (since the seventies). The first research project concerns the genesis of the cliché of Belgium art – the cliché that contemporary artists are cousins of Ensor, Magritte and Broodthaers. The second research project regards the popularisation of contemporary art, more especially as spurred on by Jan Hoet. The third project is about the mediatisation of art, quite especially on Belgian television, with an emphasis on the television work of Jef Cornelis.
These three research projects are done together with Dirk Pültau.
Apart from this he is also continuing his previously initiated research activities into the nature and essence of 'artistic research'.
More information on his research and biography.
More information on the his researchprojects and biogr