new a/r (art and research) database
Database architecture for the a/r initiative
those.tools is a software development and design studio for research, editorial and publishing practices in the arts and social sciences. We develop free and open source tools for writing, archiving, mapping, designing and publishing research.
We activate and adapt each tool to the context of every project we collaborate on. Wether for self-initiated projects or commissioned work, our aim is to explore new ways of doing things, recognizing the epistemological function of tools with a strong focus on collective creative processes.
These processes can produce a variety of objects: books, web platforms, sound installations… They may also, we hope, produce new ideas, new perspectives, new relations.
Open to collaborations, those.tools welcomes fellow designers, developpers, artists with an interest in these topics.
Chemins a data archiving and mapping tool. Built on top of the Processwire CMS, it enables one or more users to build up a database of documents, specifying object typologies and relationships, while graphically visualizing these documents within a map. The resulting database can be used to produce a website, with each node and link in the graph constituting a web page.
Marginalia a writing tool for creating relationships between several columns of text. It can be used to write linear text containing calls for notes, as well as multi-voice dialogues. It includes an export module for designing a printed publication from the encoded content.
Database architecture for the a/r initiative
english version below
[fr] Le projet those.tools a pris forme tout au long de l'année 2024, dans une période de transition : après 15 ans de travail au sein du studio de design graphique La Villa Hermosa, il se structure autour de points d'intérêt qui, s'ils étaient déjà présents avec La Villa, n'étaient pas situés au centre du travail. Cette transformation ressemble à une inversion géométrique, ce qui est à la périphérie devient le centre et inversément.
La Villa Hermosa est passée par plusieurs moments de révolutions, changements de formes, de rythmes et d'activités. Bien que mouvante, elle s'est construite sur deux éléments structurels; le fait que ce soit un projet en duo et donc une manière de vivre des choses à deux, en miroir d'une amitié très forte, et le fait que ce soit un projet de design graphique porté par des personnes cherchant et apprenant ce qu'est et ce que pourrait être le design graphique.
Notons déjà que those.tools n'est ni le projet d'un duo ni un studio de design graphique (ou de recherche de ce que pourrait être le design graphique), ce qui ne veut ni dire que les duos ne peuvent exister en son sein ni que le design graphique n'y a pas de place mais plutôt qu'il repose sur une structure différente, attachée aux quelques éléments listés ci-dessous.
[en] those.tools took shape over the course of 2024, in a period of transition: after 15 years of work within the graphic design studio La Villa Hermosa, it is structured around points of interest which, while already present with La Villa Hermosa, were not located at the center of the work. This transformation resembles a geometric inversion: what is on the periphery becomes the center and vice versa.
La Villa Hermosa has gone through a number of revolutions, changes of form, rhythm and activities. Although in motion, it has been built on two structural elements: the fact that it was a duo project and therefore a way of experiencing things together, mirroring a very strong friendship, and the fact that it was a graphic design project driven by people seeking and learning what graphic design is and could be.
It should be noted that those.tools is neither the project of a duo, nor a graphic design studio (or a research studio for what graphic design could be). This does not mean that duos cannot exist within it, nor that graphic design has no place within it, but rather that it is based on a different structure, attached to the few elements listed below.
First waves of Maghrebi and Black struggles in Brussels, and beyond.
Map of the connections between the individual research projects in the context of the exhibition "Branching Streams. Sketches of Kinship" by the international research team Reconnecting 'objects' (reconnecting.art) at Théodore Monod African Art Museum, Dakar. The map was designed and hand drawn by Ayoh Kré Duchâtelet and Lionel Maes.
A website for the research project Simba Mbili by Sam Hopkins and Marian Nur Goni.
Introduction to the writing tool Marginalia in the context of the "Networked Practice" seminar organized by Sam Hopkins at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne.
A database for the archival practice of Peliskan, an association dedicated to the rescuing of Super 8 Films, notably in connection with the "festival Super 8" in Belgium