In his Eindhoven based studio Bas van Raay brings together the disciplines of Design, Philosophy and Cultural Trend Research. At the heart of his studio lays a deep understanding of the time we live in and the understanding of how we can relate to it’s ever changing zeitgeist. All essays, conceptual works, lecturing, and research are expressions of this understanding.

Upcoming Solo exhibition: At spirit level

13 Oct – 13 Nov 2023 (Also open during Dutch Design Week)

At Cova Gallery Philitelaan 73, 5617 AM, Eindhoven

At spirit level

We live in a time of secularization, of seeing first then believing. Structures are blurring and the cornerstones of society are no longer level. 

Instead of devotedly following a god, new generations can randomly ‘follow’ many others on social media. The other does not necessarily have to be holy anymore but must be nice. The word ‘follow’ changes its meaning and so does the sense of belonging that came with it. And accompanied by that change, we have entered a time in which local communities are falling apart and digital communities have become commonplace.  

Those digital communities entail that we have entered an immense digital factory, where we log on at any time and then produce unpaid data for the big data companies. We no longer stand at the assembly line, but lie on it and have become the mass product ourselves. We are all connected but we are still barely in connection. 

These times challenge us to reload the term connectedness.

This new connectedness starts with a deeper connection with ourselves in order to connect with others from there on. Reloading connectedness is in a different kind of holding, a stranger kind of religion, a deeper kind of balance. 

We live in a time in which a spirit level is no longer just a ’tool for the construction site’ as it is categorised at the hardware store, but takes on a deeper symbolic meaning, namely our search for connectedness. A connectedness ‘at spirit level’.

Bas van Raay ’23