‘As a result of my current research, I ask the students the questions “what is your work” and “what works for you.’
Rob Leijdekkers is a researcher at the Cultural and Creative Industries research group and a tutor at the Art & Research programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design.
After studying visual arts (BA), Rob Leijdekkers initially focused on sculptures and spatial installations. Exhibitions and commissions gave reason to shape his practice accordingly. Over the years, he began to question the effectiveness of his work. This issue hadn’t been addressed before; Rob’s focus had long shifted from social engagement to more formal issues. A work’s social/political engagement was a part of the image-making, but had ultimately become a secondary concern to a work’s form. This process had begun to manifest during Rob’s studies and had continued since: a transformation from an activistic attitude to a rather formal and visual approach had taken place, almost unnoticed.
For the past 15 years Rob has been reversing this process. Based on a set of (self-formulated) aesthetic and ethical criteria, he attempts to intervene within existing processes and commissions. The results of these interventions are stand-alone gestures. His name is not associated with them. Since 2017, he has been associated with various collectives that focus on the question of how the arts can engage more effectively with social issues.
Alongside his own practice, Rob has been working as a tutor for the Art & Research programme at St. Joost School of Art & Design, since 1994.
(2018 – 2017) Cultural and Creative Industries / YAFF
This research involves intensive collaboration with ten recently graduated visual artists from St. Joost School of Art & Design. The Young Artist Feed Forward (YAFF) collective is working on research aimed at the increasing value of an autonomous position in relation to issues within the Creative Industry. Instead of ‘artists bringing innovation to the economy’, research is being conducted into how you can bring the skills and know-how that you acquire as a visual arts student to the market. The research is carried out by organising collective work sessions. The aim of these sessions is to give meaning to concepts that play a central role in the research, such as conflict (‘Don’t avoid it, deal with it’).
Dilemmas for Artists and Designers
This research project is a follow-up to the YAFF (Young Artist Feed Forward) project.
Publications
Tempelaar, B., Houben, H. & Leijdekkers, R. (2021) thelongtailof.art, online journal.
Tempelaar, B., Houben, H. & Leijdekkers, R. (2021) Schoonmaakactie voor alle lichaamsdelen, Lucette Ter Borg, NRC handelsblad, 15 September.
Tempelaar, B., Houben, H. & Leijdekkers, R. (2021) Nuummi, kinderboek over overleven en het immuunsysteem, eigen uitgave.
Tempelaar, B., Houben, H. & Leijdekkers, R. (2021) De kunstwereld als immuunsysteem, Charlotte Feijen, Metropolis M, 8 October.
Tempelaar, B.; Houben, H. & Leijdekkers, R. (2020) The Practice of…, Rotterdam: A Tale of a Tub.
Research Group: Cultural and Creative Industries
The research group Cultural and Creative Industries investigates the role of artists and designers as creative innovators and drivers of social and economic change. Affiliated researchers analyse the cultural and creative industries from a critical point of view and examine the conditions under which timely forms of aesthetic expression and social connectedness can actually take place within the precarious reality of this field. What economic models are required by artists and designers to create a meaningful practice within the aesthetic, social, and economic intentions of the cultural and creative industries? What skills sets are required for those artists and designers who don’t just want to follow movements, but actually shape novel social and economic models of the future?
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‘Our research group investigates the role artists, designers and cultural producers in general can play in developing the aesthetics and poetics of a desirable future.’
Sebastian Olma 
‘‘How will our graduates make a living without selling their soul?’’
Sepp Eckenhaussen
‘In social and cultural research there is increasing importance in research methodologies and devices that cut across fields and disciplines, becoming transdisciplinary.’
Jess Henderson
‘How can we disrupt the notion of being human while staying true to being humane?’
Wander Eikelboom
‘How do we live together, how do we work together? How do we give shape and form to ‘being together’ in the broadest sense?’
Bas van den Hurk
‘Disrupting our contemporary society can be a serious design goal.’
Eke Rebergen
‘Within my practice I create spaces for introspection while exploring ethical dilemmas. ’
Renée van Oploo