Esmée Jakubowski

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Interior and exterior: Biotop 80 gr/m2
originally handwritten with a parker pen in blue, extra thin and a pentel japan pencil
in 0,5 mm on moleskine paper (with grid)

Drawings: pencil on grid paper, 210 x 297 mm.
Paintings, both 1400 x 770 mm, acryl on linen. The one in black and white is an ongoing project.

(Snippet) When speaking of the blue square as a (metaphysical) subject, the term implicates that the blue square, that it indicates in this situation, is an object that we can “know” and/ or it’s something we can “act” up on. The essential characteristics of this subject are also called attributes. (Braeckman, Raymaekers, & van Riel, 2010, p. 311) Something we have to keep in mind, is that we can always find other ways to interact with the subject; there’s two attributes of IKB 3 that a layman would consider “as essential visual characteristics” to this painting. It’s blue (1) and a rectangle (2).

By mixing up words form “The Spiritual in Art” by Wassilly Kandinsky (1912) and “Research and Destroy” by Daniel van der velden (Metahaven, 2005), I created a new dialogue in words, with Af Klimt's work as the third element to this conversation.

I’ve always been fascinated by these three artists: both their visual art, as well as their writing. It brought me a lot of insights within the field of art, but also made me wonder how I could connect these to Graphic design.

Specifications zine:
Folded: 150 x 210 mm,
unfolded: 420 x 595 mm
UV print at the DDWP (HKU, Utrecht)
Satogami 90g/m2

When researching the paintings of Hilma Af Klimt, I found out about her big interest in theosophy and anthroposophy. Just like her, Wasilly Kandinsky was quite close to Rudolf Steiner (the founder of anthroposophy). It fascinated me that Kandinsky and Af Klint knew each other, but managed to keep her works a secret, not only for Kandinsky, but for the whole world except for Steiner.

The collection of all the research on this project made in to a small publication.

For the identity of this event I took photographs of the plants and flowers from the Tolhuis “tuin” (garden). When making this poster i’ve focussed on rythm, contrast and a natural looking finish which I achieved by using riso print.

This publication is a visual translation of KNSM’s history, the peninsula which is named after the Royal Dutch Steamboat Company (KNSM: Koninglijke Nederlandse Stoomboot Maatschappij). Parallel to this narrative, the publication shows how one of it’s first residents, a young couple, grew out to become a family.

Specifications:
Size: 297 x 210 mm
Laser print at the DDWP,
scans of risographs
(HKU, Utrecht)
Binding: black elastic
Paper: Papyrus 120g/m2

These days the KNSM island in the east of Amsterdam houses close to 2400 residents, and is seen by many as a serene place to live.
In the late 80’s the architect Jo Coenen was asked to design housing at this location after it was used as a harbour. His projects embraced the couple left over buildings from the KNSM-era, and refferd to the past while creating space for new things to emerge.  

“Tussen de woorden” (Eng: “Between the words”) is a collection of various texts by artists, writers, or anyone who wrote something that caught my eye.
When editting the text, I used tabs to create a new narrative to read within the existing one. Every story comes with a collage 

Specifications:
Size: 180 x 254 mm,
Interior: Laser print,  
Cover: UV print (HKU Media, Utrecht)
Binding: Swiss binding, sewn and cold glued
Material, interior: Recystar 160 g/m2
Cover material: Orange rest material

Together with four classmates, and two students Cultural Anthropology, we’ve started Ginkgo Collective in the beginning of 2020.
I was responsible for the concept-development and research, buisness strategy and copywriting. Together with the whole team we’ve created content such as podcasts, interviews and collages. 

Team:
Anke Verbeek
Juul van der Zandt
Valentino Angela
Annemijn Catshoek
Esmee Jakubowski

In partnership with KunstOnderzoek

Website
Instagram

Our mission and vision:

Ginkgo is a place for dialogue between (aspiring) scientists and artists to explore their meaning of research through dialogue: we are looking for people to explore an open language with us!
Ginkgo offers a platform where dialogues can take place, a space where you can find and add references coming from your own discipline and a place for asking questions when you don’t know where to start looking for an answer. For the moment our platform is still online, but in the future we’d like to create a magazine that continues the online conversation and gives designers, artists, scientists, and writers the opportunity to publish their common thoughts: Our fuel is curiosity!

Ginkgo’s core consists of seven aspiring professionals in graphic design and cultural anthropology and development sociology: through some philosophy, trust, a big interest in interdisciplinarity and an open mind we try to bring people together. We are continuously refining and building our platform with the ideas and expertise of professionals such as professors, artists, designers, but most importantly students themselves. We believe that art and science might be seen as parallels and that meeting in the middle is seen as something quite impossible. However, we believe putting the two together could lead to new approaches of research, perceptions, collaborations, discussions and resources.
As students, mistakes can be made without any big consequences. So look at Ginkgo as if it were a playground. Here you can play with things you cannot find in your own discipline, but yet seek feedback and help from other students and experts from different fields of knowledge and translate this to your personal practice.
Our aim is to find the synthesis we call Ginkgo: approaching knowledge that’s not goal directed, neither exploratory based, but just takes the good stuff from science and art in all its forms while it still respects the core identity of each discipline and each person.   


As a platform, we value trust, open mindedness, acknowledgment, adequate sources of information, your values as a person and as a professional, transparency, constructive feedback, understanding and honesty: a safe space where mistakes can be made.
As a part of our community we ask you to stay open minded, try to look at structures of thinking beyond your own and give attention to the way such structures are created. We encourage members to trust this open space and to engage in new learning possibilities by meeting new people and ideas.
Stay true to yourself and your profession while enjoying a conversation with someone that has an opposite approach: Welcome to a place behind the parallel where we’d like to meet on an open ground.

A small collection of texts and scans  from a notebook. 

Specifications:
Size: 148 x 210 mm,
Laser print at the HKU in Utrecht
Binding: Stapled
Material: Recystar 120 g/m2, Cromatico transwhite 110 g/m2

Specifications:
Size: 330 x 330 mm,
Interior: Laser print (HKU Media, Utrecht)
Cover: Hand painted cartboard
(off-white Acrylic paint)
Binding: Cold glue
Material interior: 
Papyrus 120g/m2
Glass Mirror (300 x 300 mm)
Hand painted cartboard

Specifications:
Size: 297 x 420 mm
Acrylics on paper