Ramon Amaro appointed Design Academy Eindhoven creative director

Design Academy Eindhoven has announced that curator and educator Ramon Amaro will succeed architect Joseph Grima as creative director of the Dutch design school.

Formerly a senior researcher in digital culture at Rotterdam's Nieuwe Instituut cultural centre, Amaro will begin his role at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) on 1 September.

Raised in Detroit, USA, Amoro is a curator, theorist, researcher and educator whose practice has ranged from engineering and policy development to exploring the philosophy of technology, visual studies and digital culture.

Amoro began his career as a quality design engineer at US automotive manufacturing company General Motors, before working in policy development at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has also taken on various academic roles, including visual cultures lecturer at London's Goldsmiths university.

At the Nieuwe Institute, Amoro founded -1, an intersectional space created for experimentation across design, architecture and technology.

His debut book, The Black Technical Object, was published in 2023. It confronts the complex relationship between race and machine learning, delving into the history of data and statistical analysis.

"Asking questions, listening closely…that kind of curiosity has been with me since I was a child," Amaro said.

"It's also how I lead. At the design academy, I want to bring that same openness: to continue learning not only about the institution and its people, but about design itself, beyond what I already know," he continued.

"We are thrilled to welcome Ramon Amaro to the thriving, pluralistic community of DAE," said chair of the academy board Meta Knol.

"With his collaborative leadership style, sparkling energy, and extensive experience in design, technology, art, and science, we trust he will foster an ecology of care, relevance, and imagination," she added.

Design Academy Eindhoven is known for its multidisciplinary creative approach. Projects by students have included a dress "made of social media noise" and a street food stall made to investigate why animal organs are rarely consumed in western Europe.

Amaro's appointment will mark the end of Space Caviar co-founder Grima's tenure as creative director, which began in 2017 and lasted for the academy's maximum timeframe of two four-year terms.

The photograph is by Tengbeh Kamara.

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