The Desire of the Medium
‘What is the desire of the medium?’ This is the unequivocally rhetorical, yet fundamental question Marc Boumeester aims to answer in his book. The question serves as a framework for investigating the interplay between the artist or designer and the medium during the creative act. Both work together to render ‘visible’ what is otherwise not there, a process in which the artist or designer and the medium play an equal part. Most of Marc Boumeester’s thinking falls under affect theory, which is a way of understanding domains of experience that fall outside (or refuse to fall within) the prevailing paradigm of representation. Boumeester uses affect theory, which is fuelled by Deleuzian scholarship, to formulate new and contemporary concepts that can be put into action in art and design education through an operational style called ‘intensive thinking’. The book offers many interesting examples of educational programmes and works of art that are accompanied by images relating to how this theoretical approach can be applied in art and design practice. Education in art and design is also about the design of education: what we learn and how we learn are inseparable.