The parameters of our (visual) culture are set within a normative, global stage. They are the result of an exchange between developing specialists and a public of users. Whenever we create and innovate, we act as moral agents within these parameters. They acquire their shape based on knowledge and skills: That is design; a practice that derives from motives and articulates via applications. From an outspoken and clearly augmented autonomous perspective, Onomatopee inquires after the value of the possibilities of application this type of production: its actual added value and effective communication. This type of production bridges the gap between a political - moral and ethical - domain, and a technical domain. Onomatopee contributes to the transparency of and involvement in this global stage.
Mediation
Onomatopee actualises both expert involvement via research projects and exhibitions tailored to a broad audience. Onomatopee has a worldwide distribution of its publications and attracts 15,000 to 20,000 visitors every year.
On the front side being a public institution, Onomatopee spotlights current cultural issues by mediating between progressive tendencies and inflexible conventions. Being a research centre on the backside, Onomatopee reflects, discusses and experiments with and within the professional practices. Onomatopee mediates toward a progressive, professional audience as well as a general audience, operating between theory and practice, between autonomous creativity and applied skills. Specific professional communities, such as marketers, urban planners, politicians, architects and designers all encounter in Onomatopee their respective challenges. By means of its publications, Onomatopee offers them, as well as a general audience, the necessary background and insight.
Perspective and experience
As an independent institution, Onomatopee nourishes the integrity of our culture through thorough reflection and stimulating (re)form. Onomatopee stimulates individual opinions and cultural discourse; offers incentives to both individuals and the industry. Onomatopee productions are characterised by a sensitivity for both fashionable stimuli as knowledgeable, cultural insights. People that are looking for a mere experience are at the same time invited to deepen their understanding. People aiming to broaden their horizons are simultaneously offered amusement within a stimulating and carefully designed environment of visual context and critical, constructive contours.
Platform
Onomatopee welcomes the initiative of cultural producers: designers, curators and theorists, people who think and act. Concerning both content and production Onomatopee enjoys being a host for great ideas and to offer a platform through mediation. The conditions of a fruitful co-operation depend on several aspects: the cultural urgency/embedding of the idea, the professional quality related to it, and a clearly formulated central question that can be mediated to an audience. Onomatopee always combines publications with presentations.