For those who believe in destiny, embracing something labeled as a mistake can easily be the path they are meant to take. Our focus here, however, is on those who see mistakes differently.
It is clear – a mistake is an unforeseen, unexpected, and undesired consequence of an activity.
A slip-up. A lapse. An oops moment. When things go in a direction we didn’t plan, should we quickly return to our intended course, correct the mistake, pause, start over in the predetermined direction? Alternatively, should we go with the flow? Or should we curiously explore what is being offered to us? A new perspective emerges, offering a chance for a different approach, a novel solution, and, taking a risk of sounding pretentious, let’s call it – innovation. “Go on failing. Only next time, try to fail better,” as Beckett wisely stated. What do we gain from making a mistake? An opportunity for new choices. An opportunity to discover an unexpected solution. An opportunity for spontaneity, creativity, and uniqueness. It is not possible to intentionally make a mistake while remaining authentic at the same time. As we commit to thoughtful contemplation, thinking, and planning, could it be that the mistakes we make are the most sincere aspects of ourselves? For a ‘good’ mistake, both luck and openness are needed – openness to acknowledge and allow something beyond our control. We’re not saying that mistakes are always favorable; we’re simply suggesting – give them a chance.
Process is an avant-garde design powerhouse based in Vienna. Specializing in generative and interactive design, they bring a fresh perspective to branding, web, installation, and print. Breaking free from conventional graphic design, they craft specialized software, turning challenges into inventive solutions for clients. Led by Martin Grödl and Moritz Resl, their client roster boasts names like Design Museum Holon, MIT, The Prodigy, and more.
Through their works, Martin Grödl and Moritz Resl investigate the potential of generative and interactive methods in graphic design. Their experimental approach, in addition to producing highly aesthetic results, represents a confrontation with the digital technologies that increasingly influence our lives. In their new talk, they discuss some of the social implications of those technologies (particularly AI), focusing on sustainability and environmental impact. This overarching bracket is demonstrated through a variety of concrete projects.
He’s not a stranger to design events, even organising a major one, but this time he’s a guest on our stage – Vladan Joler! An acclaimed academic, researcher, and artist, he’s on a mission to untangle the complexities of tech and society. From dissecting AI systems to demystifying digital realms, he’s making it relatable even to those who don’t speak “data”.
Contemporary planetary-scale communication, computation, and extraction systems are constructed with multiple opaque layers and are mostly built by ghost work or invisible labor. The bricks of these structures are made of black boxes, closed code, and hardware, glued together with invisible network infrastructures. They are covered with layers of corporate secrets, patents, and copyrights. In this lecture, Vladan Joler will deep dive into the tactics and limitations of mapping these systems during his lecture “Critical cartography: Limits and tactics“.
Matrijaršija is a meeting place, a production hub, and a crossroads for numerous Serbian, regional, and international artists and artistic collectives. It collaborates with them in creating this nearly decade-long movement of non-aligned, outsider art, including graphics and prints, books and posters, music, and other outputs.
Well-known for their unwavering dedication to printing, they work tirelessly in multiple shifts, exceeding expectations, and strive to have Thursdays off. On Thursdays, they rarely, if ever, pause to consider what is printed, how, and why in Belgrade nowadays. This time, Johanna Marcadé-Mot and Milica Ivić in their lecture “Every Day Is a Day for Printing. Except Thursday.” attempt to do something they rarely do. To answer the questions they and you have: What, why, and who prints in Matrijaršija? What drives someone to pursue a career in printing? How was the Turbulator book in Matrijaršija created as a result of mapping the life experience with screen printing?
The author behind over fifty visual identities and countless designs for publications, books, and magazines. Former art director of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Belgrade Circle, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Borut Vild is also known as a respected professor. He has exhibited at twelve solo exhibitions and more than a hundred group exhibitions in the country and abroad. His works have been published in respectable magazines and publications both at home and abroad.
This year at PDP15, Borut Vild will deliver a report from the front – an exploration of carelessness, delusions, and pitfalls in an unequal struggle with the real world. This is a lecture you don’t want to miss.
Nemanja Bogdanov was born in July 1989 in Subotica, which probably makes him 76 years old, but we will find out one day by the tree rings. He grew up as the middle of three sons in a family where “they had everything they needed but nothing they wanted”. Despite the difficult conditions, their parents did everything to raise them properly. He graduated high school as a veterinary technician but was never committed to high school or elementary school. He spent most of his time drawing, for which he was rewarded with numerous reprimands and remedial exams. He got his first positive contact with formal education after enrolling in philosophy at FFNS, but due to the family’s financial situation, he had to leave his studies to start working. Despite this, he considers philosophy “one of his greatest loves”. He is a graphic designer, and illustrator by profession and proudly holds the position of Creative Director at multi-million company StrikeGentlyCo.
Just some of the names he has worked with include Hollywood actor Tom Hardy CBE and Sam Sheriff MBE, Reorg Charity, StrikeGentlyCo, Matte Finish, Scramble Fightwear, Unathletic, Condor Tool and Knife, Robert Graham and Oli Sykes (frontman of “Bring me the Horizon”). He considers his work a “craft”, and he zealously and categorically rejects the title of “artist”, because he believes that he will never grow up to be his role models, whom he considers precisely that – artists.
He has been involved in martial arts for over 10 years and trains at the CDS NS Fighting Club where he holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu awarded by Nemanja Milošević and holds an amateur MMA record of one win without loss. His fighting career was cut short by an injury that left him without a spleen. Despite this, he still trains regularly. He travels avidly and has so far been to Japan, Chernobyl, Transnistria (Transnistria), Russia (Siberia) (via Trans-Siberian Railway), the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, China, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and many other places. He made it to the Chaladi Glacier in the Caucasus, the highest point of Olympus (Mitikas peak), Golem Korab, Musalu as well and Kaymakchalan among others. Something that makes him extremely happy and of which he is most proud is the fact that during the last three years, he spent more than a month camping in the heart of the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, with the unjustifiably infamous Matis tribe, or “Jaguar People”, whom he considers dear to him. Besides that, one of his favorite adventures was camping in “Building 102”, i.e. “prison within a prison” on the validly and justifiably notorious “‘Goli Otok”. Due to his experience in the Amazon, he designs knives and machetes for the Condor Tool and Knife company.
He lives seemingly happily in Novi Sad with his beautiful girlfriend Nina and their significantly less beautiful but equally charismatic sphynx cat Jinx.
As a result of life’s tumultuous challenges, his lecture “Failing Upwards” unveils the journey of an individual who, originating from a small town and a family where they “had everything they needed but nothing of what they wanted”, has managed to ascend to the position of a creative director in a multi-million-dollar American company. By sharing personal experiences, we will delve into the techniques crucial for achieving success in today’s market, offering valuable ‘nudges’ to empower you to boldly embark on your endeavors. It is the details of unforgettable experiences from various journeys that will be included in these nudges, particularly from the Amazon rainforest, and the circumstances that allowed them to happen. This is not just a tale of obstacles but one of vision and courage. Join us as we explore how to break into the business world, channel the fear of mistakes into creative strength, and understand that the creation of inevitable imperfections can be a step toward excellence. Because, as this lecture will demonstrate, the alchemy of success often lies precisely in our mistakes.
The workshop will allow participants to become acquainted with the screen printing technique through manual and experimental methods, without the use of emulsion. We’ll be creating small psychedelic graphics with two passes (we’ll explain) but a lot more colors (you’ll see!).
Each graphic will be unique, and each participant will leave the workshop with several completed experiments!
Do you have the shortest story you could tell, in the shortest way possible? And does it move in the “cak — cak” rhythm? An event that fits into a single sentence. Everyone creates their own short animation consisting of a few frames, saying as much as possible — with as little as possible.
To participate in the workshop, you would need to bring the following: a laptop (if you wish for your work to be digital), a drawing pad (if you wish for your work to be analog), a drawing tool that you normally use, collage material, etc.
Born in 1998 in Subotica, Serbia, Vladimir is a dynamic visual artist with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and the recipient of The Annual Award of the Department of Fine Arts for New Media Art. His captivating photographic work has graced the pages of Parisian Fisheye Magazine, Zone Magazine, ELLE.rs, and BBC. His artistic focus centers on communication dynamics, exploring control and the relationship between the visible and the unseen. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, he continues to push the boundaries of visual expression.
The theme of this year’s PDP Conference, Mistake. Mistake. serves as the foundation for the exhibition he’ll present, which will consist of selected works called Photographic Experiments. Despite being digital, his photographs evoke an era when photography was more prone to errors, necessitating the utmost precision and dedication from every photographer seeking to make a perfect print. On the other hand, the mistakes that occurred as a result of such an unpredictable process presented themselves as new and exciting visual solutions, thus expanding the realms of interpreting photography as a visual art.
Since the end of the last Ice Age, 11,700 years ago, humanity has been living in the “Holocene” epoch, the “Whole New Age” roughly translated from ancient Greek. With the “Great Acceleration” of industry and population growth, the scientific term “Anthropocene” appeared as the era in which we hijacked the course of our evolution and shaped the next one, centered around us. It is debatable whether it was created in 1950 at all, as some scientists claim, the question is whether it ever came to be! Although, let’s dare to imagine for a second that it is and that we live on its edge. It is a period when we use technology to dictate the course of our evolution more than we are left to it. This is the representation of a sterile imagination devoid of arbitrary standards such as “good” or “bad” or even of any served interpretation. This is an appeal, if nothing else, to imagine the world in a posthuman transhumanist world and what emotions the very idea evokes in us.
