[Nettime-nl] Dutch design proposal for micro-nation Sealand

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: "Sealand Identity Project" <island@xs4all.nl>

PRESS RELEASE
Amsterdam, August 18, 2003

Dutch design proposal for micro-nation Sealand

Dutch designer Daniel van der Velden will, together with a team of
researchers, develop money, passports and stamps for Sealand, a mini-state
located on a man-made island near the British coast. Preliminary designs,
due in Spring 2004, will be about the shared history of Sealand and the
internet. Sealand proclaimed its own independence as a principality in
1967. The island was major news as, in 2000, it began hosting internet
services which, in accordance with Sealand national law, allow the
information provider unprecedented freedoms.

Designers Maureen Mooren and Daniel van der Velden are well-known from
their experimental design of architectural magazine Archis. Other
commissioners of the duo include new economy government think tank
Infodrome, Droog Design, the Barcelona Museum of Modern Art and many more.
It is the first time that an acknowledged design team is creating an
identity for the 'network state'. Sealand's government will judge the plans
phase by phase. Final designs will be made public in Autumn 2004.

The project to conceive Sealand's visual identity is not without
complexity. Its status as an independent country is subject of debate. The
'data haven' - as Sealand's data harbouring policy is called - is,
according to Van der Velden, a compelling, yet essentially 19th century
concept. According to Daniel van der Velden, Sealand's main asset is its
legendary potential. Sealand provides a context for a contemporary
discussion of (national) identity and the network, of history, politics and
fiction. This cultural perspective will be pursued by the Sealand Identity
Project.

The much-discussed micro-nation's identity design will take shape against
the backdrop of the internet as a global archive. The consequences of the
internet's daily usage, its universal vastness and its potential to blur
the boundaries between the 'real' and the 'fictional', will be key
operators in the design methods employed.

Sealand's identity design project will be carried in collaboration with a
team of researching designers at the Jan van Eyck Academie, a postgraduate
art an design center in Maastricht. The application to be part of this
design team is still open.

____________________________________________________________________________
__
For additional information on the Meta Haven - Sealand Identity Project
please contact:
Sealand Identity Project, phone +31 (0)6 242 76 797 * fax +31 (0)20 622 67
92
Prinseneiland 42 - 1013 LR Amsterdam * The Netherlands * e-mail
island@xs4all.nl

* ILLUSTRATIONS / VISUAL MATERIAL
Visual material of Maureen Mooren & Daniel van der Velden design can be
downloaded from our web server:
http://www.metahaven.net/downloads/press.html




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