Future Salvage
Applications are open for DesignInquiry Amsterdam! 7-12 Sept 2025
DI May 2025 Newsletter
Could salvage provide an ethos for our futures?
Grafische Werkplaats Amsterdam, 7-12 September 2025
futuresalvage.designinquiry.net/
How might we develop a shared ethos of resurfacing, reviving and reimagining things thought to have sunk to the bottom of the ocean of value? Join us for DesignInquiry: Future Salvage to look for value in the dysfunctional and to envision the salvage of cities, democracy, and our relations with the natural world. DesignInquiry invites curious minds to a week of investigation where printing and binding intersect with immersive thinking, and diversions. Together we will explore the politics of salvage and how we might fuse together fragments for future reimaginings. This third gathering in our Europe/UK series on design in times of uncertainty, welcomes participants with developing research, convivial spirits, and open minds to get lost and found together in the collective process of finding and making meaning amid ruins.
Confirmed Activators:
Noviki, Alice Twemlow, BB Workshop, Novo Typo and more to come…
Early submission of your application is advised, as housing spaces are limited and allocated on a first-come basis.
Solid/Liquid/Gas Inquiry
November 14-21, we nested once again in the late autumn landscape of Mill Run, PA, for our Solid/Liquid/Gas event which unfolded in a mix of natural beauty, experimental shenanigans, and repeated changes of state. Participants engaged in bird walks led by Bird Lab, revisited Ben Van Dyke's Nowotny Machine from Warsaw, took in a film night curated by Holly Willis. We also turned wood, pinched pots, developed images, baked onion tarts, not to forget an intimate tour of Fallingwater.
Following the event, we participated in a Directangle Residency December 1–7, 2024, where fragments and images from the inquiry continued to come together.
The experience culminated in a book designed by Tyler Rico, Mark Zurolo, and Steve Bowden, featuring work by Christo Allegra, Steve Bowden, Olivia Crosby, Christopher Fox, Lindsay Larsen, Wes Larsen, Robyn Metcalfe, Jeanne Paterak, Tyler Rico, Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera, Chris Sancomb, Christopher Swift, Sarah Woodward, Mark Zurolo
The Solid/Liquid/Gas publication recently debuted at the Multiple Formats Book Fair at Boston University on Mar 22, 2025. Where we saw loads of new work by former participants Sofie Hodara, Matt Neff Mary Banas, Tyler Rico, Lindsay & Wes Larsen and our new friends at Directangle Press. Check it out on May 15th at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair at Tyler Rico’s table (07)!
We also are pleased to announce that the Bewilder publication designed by Tyler Rico, Stephen Parks, Kiana Thayer and Steve Bowden was recently acquired by the Bryn Mawr College Special Collections.
Several exciting new publications are in the works and we are always looking for good homes for our new and old books. If you have any publication inquiries email us at info@designinquiry.net.
DI Editions
DesignInquiry has launched DI Editions — a publishing arm for the collective to produce and disseminate the outcomes of its inquiries. DesignInquiry has a long history of producing publications about its events, in addition to the outcomes produced by many Inquiry participants.