Adaptive Behavior

Special Issue Reply

Adaptive Behavior
2022, Vol. 30(6) 589–602
Reflections on the genre of philosophical art © The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10597123221133189
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Erik Rietveld1,2  and Julian Kiverstein2 

Abstract
We organized our reply to the rich set of commentaries on Erik’s inaugural lecture—The affordance of art for making
technologies—around the following five themes. (1) The experience of artworks and whether such experiences can be
described in terms of the affordances of artworks. (2) The possibility that engagement with artworks offers for the
transformation of ourselves and the sociomaterial practices we take part in. (3) The claim that artworks can serve as what
Annemarie Mol describes as “material propositions” that can be used to engage philosophical reflection. (4) The tem-
porality of making practices and how art installations can be thought of as places in which past, present, and future meet. (5)
How art could potentially enable a better embedding of technologies in society.

Keywords
Affordances, skilled intentionality framework, philosophical artworks, visual art, making, material playgrounds
Handling Editor: Tom Froese, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan

1. Introduction The final skill explored in the lecture is the artist’s

openness to unconventional possibilities for living. Art-
We would like to thank all the people who commented on works can make people aware of their habitual ways of
Erik’s inaugural lecture. So many new perspectives have living, and what they ordinarily take for granted. Artworks
been raised that our program for the coming years has been can afford opportunities and spaces to reflect on how we
scaffolded. The aim of the inaugural lecture was to describe could live by different rules. Artworks can make tangible
what the process of making visual art could afford that could how the sociomaterial practices in which people are situated
lead to a better embedding of technology in society. This are potentially transformable if people can conceive, build
question was addressed by reflecting on the making prac- and explore unconventional, and perhaps better ways of
tices at RAAAF, a visual art and experimental architecture living.
studio founded by Erik and Ronald Rietveld in 2006. The We have organized our reply to the rich set of com-
lecture described three aspects of making practices that are mentaries around five themes. In section 2, we discuss the
relevant for embedding technology. The first skill the lecture question of experience of artworks and whether such ex-
described is working with multiple layers of meaning that periences can be described in terms of the affordances of
artworks can open up. Such layers of meaning originate in
sociomaterial practices that people unreflectively take for
granted, and that artworks can make tangible. Artists are 1
Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede, The
skilled at relating deeply to different practices that are
Netherlands
sources of meaning for the works they make. 2
Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC Locatie AMC, Amsterdam,
The second skill the lecture describes is the creations of Netherlands
material playgrounds that afford artistic exploration and
probing the potential of new technologies. Material play- Corresponding authors:
Erik Rietveld, Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Enschede,
grounds set up affordances that the artists freely and playfully The Netherlands.
explore for their aesthetic potential, without concern for what Email: [email protected]
these affordances might offer instrumentally. This kind of Julian Kiverstein, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC Locatie
playful exploration can lead to surprising discoveries of new AMC, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam 1105AZ, Netherlands.
possibilities and meanings that were not previously considered. Email: [email protected]
590 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

artworks. Section 3 focuses on the third of the skills from the affordances can account for how a building makes a person
lecture and the possibility that engagement with artworks feel—their appreciating its beauty or being disgusted by its
offers for the transformation of ourselves and the socio- ugliness. Withagen and Costall (2021) propose to reserve the
material practices we take part in. Section 4 takes up a claim term “affordance” for possibilities for action that are in some
made at the end of the inaugural lecture that artworks can way “functional.” Since an artwork always outstrips its
serve as what Annemarie Mol describes as “material function, they suggest that the concept of affordances is not
propositions” that can be used to engage philosophical well-suited to account for aesthetic appreciation or
reflection. Section 5 discusses temporality in making disapprobation.
practices and how art installations can be thought of as We agree with Withagen and Costall that aesthetic ex-
places in which past, present and future meet. Section 6 ends perience cannot be explained just by appeal to functional
our reply by returning to the main question of the inaugural possibilities for action. The concept of “functional” is not
lecture of how art as an activity for reimagining affordances helpful when considering visual art or other situations in life
could potentially enable a better embedding of technologies in which goals are not pre-defined. Mol and Pols, for ex-
in society. ample, contrast the “functional” with the “generative”
artworks RAAAF makes, which have an open-endedness
that allows for involving others, and for setting new de-
2. Artworks, experience, and affordances velopments in motion.
A number of the commentaries take up the interesting We disagree with what we take to be an implication of
question of the potential of the affordance concept, and our Withagen and Costall’s commentary that the experience of
Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF) (Rietveld et al. artworks resists capturing in terms of the Skilled In-
2018) more generally, for illuminating the experience of tentionality Framework (SIF). In SIF, we make a distinction
artworks. This question concerns how to make sense of the between the landscape of affordances and the field of rel-
peculiar and unique forms of experiences individuals un- evant affordances. The field of relevant affordances is the
dergo when engaging with works of art. The first obser- lived situation for a particular living being. It is a better
vation we want to make is that answering this question does, understanding of the field of relevant affordances that, we
in some ways, go beyond the aims of the inaugural lecture suggest, should allow SIF to accommodate the experience
which was concerned first and foremost with the practice of of artifacts, buildings and artworks. If we are interested in
making visual art at RAAAF, rather than the experiences of lived meaning, what matters is the engagement with rele-
visitors of these works. As we explain further below, to vant affordances, or what Withagen and Costall refer to as
understand the individual experience of art, we would need the inviting character of affordances. As Erik wrote in the
to look at the skills someone has to engage with the inaugural lecture: “People with different interests will have
landscape of affordances and the particular circumstances in different experiences of the meaning of this artwork.” (p11.)
which the artwork is experienced. However, it is also true That is because they will experience different fields of
that the work of the artists at RAAAF, as described in the relevant affordances.
inaugural lecture, does have implications for how to think We would agree then that the concept of affordance,
about aesthetic experience. Van den Heuvel for instance taken on its own, is insufficient to account for someone’s
describes how RAAAF’s way of working displays a pro- experience of an artwork. However, the phenomenology of
found interest in the textures of materials that establish a an entire field of relevant affordances does have the kind of
direct, affective emotional connection between visitors and depth and complexity that can do justice to the experience
the work on display. RAAAF’s site-specific installations of layered meaning works of art embody. Once the concept
aim for “emotional provocation” that he suggests push the of relevant or inviting affordances is supplemented with
viewer outside of their comfort zone. Along similar lines, analyses of the sociomaterial circumstances, the history that
Zijlmans, Mol, and Slors all emphasize that by means of shaped these, and the role that the visitor’s abilities, skills,
their artworks, artists can make us look anew at our situation and habits play in experiencing the world, it is less obvious
and stimulate reflection on what we take for granted. to us why aesthetic experience could not also succumb to
Rob Withagen and Alan Costall raise doubts about the analysis in the terms of SIF (see our reply to Stokhof below
sufficiency of the concept of affordances for making sense for two examples that make this more concrete).
of aesthetic experience. Withagen and Costall agree that, Consider for instance what it means for a place to be
through their interventions, architects are creating affordan- experienced as oppressive. Part of what this means is that
ces (i.e., possibilities for action). They uncover lesser the place constrains us in a way that reduces possibilities for
known quotes from a lecture by Gibson in which he also action one also cares about. What does it mean for some-
anticipates this idea. However, they argue that there is more thing to be poignant with memories in SIF? It invites the
to a person’s lived experience of an artwork than can be reliving of earlier experiences. The Image & Sound museum
captured by its affordances. They doubt that the concept of in Hilversum The Netherlands is an example of this because
Rietveld and Kiverstein 591

of its large collection of television and radio programs from understandings of the world. A skillset acquired in the past
decades ago. What does it mean for something to be elegant may allow a person to come up with unconventional re-
in SIF? It invites multiple interrelated responses char- sponses in the particular situation. Sometimes other people
acteristic of participants in the language game that use may also start responding in similar ways, which can
the word “elegant.” These brief observations suggest eventually lead to changes in practices (and of socio-
that skills and the “enlanguaged” affordances that form in culturally established meanings). So an answer to Sto-
language-based practices (Kiverstein & Rietveld, 2020) are khof would be that the meaning of the artwork originates
likely to be an important part of the SIF-based explanation partly from the artwork in its sociomaterial context and
of the experience of works of art. partly from the individual experiencing it. To use Pols’
Martin Stokhof also considers whether artworks are insightful way of putting it, collaborators and visitors
meaningful to viewers in part because of what they afford to “expand” the artwork (its materiality and its meaning) “by
those who engage with them. Stokhof (2021) asks, could the taking it up in particular ways” (Pols p.5). Even literature
possible meanings that an artwork embodies be “anchored” can be expanded materially: examples are underlinings,
in the artworks affordances? Stokhof agrees there is a role earmarks, exclamation marks but also sharing a quote of it
for the affordances set up in sociomaterial practice in in an academic paper or on social media. When the owner of
constraining the intelligible meanings of the artwork. a novel dies the literary work still offers affordances, for
However, he argues that there is also always room for in- example, for the person who inherits the book. Just like
dividual to diverge from practices because of their expe- RAAAF’s Bunker 599, a literary work is also an aspect of
rience of engaging with the artwork. Practices may the shared sociomaterial environment and can, just like
constrain how an individual responds to an artwork but they other artworks, be seen as a nest of affordances. In their
do not fix or determine a person’s responses. Here, Stokhof engagement with it, an individual’s particular personal
seems to be in agreement with Withagen and Costall that to history will contribute to the structure of the field of relevant
understand the meaning of an artwork in terms of its af- affordances and the experience of the work’s meaning.
fordances would be to miss something important such as the Duarte Araújo suggests that the experiences people
feelings artworks elicit. What it could potentially miss, have of RAAAF’s The End of Sitting depend in part on the
Stokhof suggests, is the personal meaning the viewer skills they develop for engaging with the installation. He
generates through their interpretation and understanding of describes how The End of Sitting presents visitors with a
the artwork. We read Stokhof as suggesting that the change space to explore in which they search for, experience, and
to the person resulting from engagement with works of art exploit the affordances of “unconventional technological
and with literature are best seen as originating both from the equipment.” Araújo makes an interesting distinction be-
individual and from the affordances offered by the artwork. tween the exploration, discovery, and exploitation phases
The inaugural lecture agrees that artworks embody of skill learning. He emphases rightly that these phases are
different layers of meaning for a viewer. Some meanings best understood as nested together and not necessarily
relate to the socio-cultural context of the artwork as is the sequentially. We would like to foreground the phenomenon
case with Bunker 599. Others are more personal and unique of stabilizing the relationship with the environment, which
because any person has their own history of engaging with Araújo mentions under “discovery.” Stabilizing can hap-
the world and a skillset acquired in different practices that is pen in different ways: for example, improving one’s grip
unique to them. The challenge Stokhof raises is how to on a slippery glass of beer or, at a larger scale, the ac-
understand the process of meaning-creation that the indi- quisition of a new skill to improve one’s grip on the living
vidual person experiences when engaging with an artwork environment.
or a work of literature. Pols also notices that the affordances Here, there is a link with the commentary by Heft who
of artworks are possibilities that individuals can respond to also emphasized the importance of stabilizing the rela-
in many different ways. tionship between person and world. Following Dewey, Heft
With respect to both Stokhof and Pols, we think it can characterizes the power of making as a way to “establish
again be helpful to make the distinction between affor- order” in a complex world (Heft, 2021).
dances on the one hand and relevant or inviting affordances Both Araújo and Heft call attention to the phenome-
on the other. Certain relevant affordances stand out to the nology of tending towards a better grip: “Part of that ex-
individual as inviting in part because of the person’s past perience [of skillfully acting] is a sense that when one’s
history of engagement with the world. In engaging with a activity deviates from some steady person-environment
work of art, a visitor may get a surprising insight that link, one’s behavior takes one closer to the stabilization.”
transforms his or her world view. Relevant affordances may (Araújo, 2021). Heft, quoting Dewey (1934), writes, “[E]
be an important part of the explanation for the surprising very living creature that attains sensibility welcomes order
insights a person can hit upon that allows them to depart with a response of harmonious feeling whenever it finds
from—and maybe even question—more conventional congruous order about it [ i.e., ] secures the stability
592 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

essential to living.” Whereas Araújo emphasizes this es- 3. The transformative possibilities of
tablishing of stability in the person-environment rela- engagement with artworks
tion mainly in the discovery phase of skill development,
we would like to emphasize that in the SIF, this tendency Annemarie Mol reflects on the proposal of the inaugural
towards improved grip is crucial for all phases of skill lecture to practice philosophy not only by “verbal inven-
learning because the tendency towards improved grip is, we tions” but also through material interventions. Some phi-
have argued, the most basic concern of living beings losophers, she begins by noting, resist taking reality for
(Bruineberg & Rietveld, 2014; Rietveld et al. 2018). The granted but ask instead how things could be otherwise. They
phenomenon characterized by Dewey, Merleau-Ponty, Heft, critique existing social arrangements as being, for instance,
and Araújo is a characteristic of self-organizing life and can unjust, and imagine how they could be otherwise. They
be found at various levels of analysis, including those re- articulate different concepts that may offer surprising in-
quired for understanding the experience of artworks. sights. Mol notes, however, that philosophy need not stop
Whereas, Araújo emphasizes how learning in the context there. She argues that the inaugural lecture shows that the
of an artwork reflects the tendency to stabilize the person- results of philosophical work can also be artworks and that
environment relation, Heft notices that the works by philosophers thus can “present alternative versions of reality
RAAAF “intentionally destabilize everyday actions, and in by playing with stuff, by crafting things. By making ma-
so doing they perturb what Dewey indicates is the ‘stability terials that, rather than functional, are generative” (Mol,
essential to living’.” How can we accommodate these 2021) RAAAFs artworks invite visitors to imagine and
seemingly conflicting claims? We could think in terms of skill reflect for themselves. Here, according to Mol, philosophy
learning taking place when the agent establishes a kind of shares an ambition with avant garde art: the ambition of
relative stability. A perturbation allows for exploring new bringing something new into being.
possibilities and improving on, or learning, new skills. What is What is the character of the material propositions
destabilizing on a shorter time scale (the perturbation) can be RAAAF makes? At first sight, Mol suggests they seem to be
stabilizing over longer timescales (mastering a new skill) an exploration of solid materials such as concrete, wood,
because new ways of living can be explored, tested, and and metal rather than stuff that is adaptable like clouds and
learned from. Where Heft chooses to use a Dreyfus-like meandering rivers “in which solid, fluid and gaseous state
formulation, of reflecting, leading to a break in the flow of mix or flow over into one another.” We note that while many
action, we would rather emphasize that reflection will generate of RAAAF’s artworks do have a solid form this is not
just more responsiveness to affordances and is an activity always the case. Deltawerk//works like an instrument for
characterized itself by engagement with affordances, albeit perceiving the weather thanks to the water that is part of the
involving what we have elsewhere called “enlanguaged” af- artwork. In the Terschelling project, sand is moved by water
fordances (Kiverstein & Rietveld, 2020; van den Herik & and wind. RAAAF’s Mondriaan Fund installation, Breaking
Rietveld 2021; cf. van Dijk & Rietveld 2021). Habits, transforms when one uses the carpeted space to
Araújo suggests that The End of Sitting provides a setting support standing. In any case, Mol goes on to stress the
that produces new embodied sociomaterial practices. possibility for transformation that is inherent in RAAAF’s
Hummels and colleagues agree; they see the power of way of working with solid materials. She writes that “in
RAAAF’s interventions as located in a reimagining of the these artful propositions, solids are loved so much, that they
sociomaterial environment via a sensitive, experiential become adaptable, that they transform. Why take for
exploration of the affordances offered by materials: granted that solids are rigid, hard, enduring? This can be
“pushing the boundaries of the affordances of the material: otherwise. It is otherwise. Look! Sturdy walls are built out
until now, nobody saw a bunker of the Dutch waterline as of flowing sand by transformative bacteria, challenging the
sawable, or the Luftschloss’s concrete as washawayable” boundaries between loose and solid, living and dead.”
(p.3). This kind of materially scaffolded reimagining is Suppose philosophers working together with artists can
indeed an ambition of the artworks RAAAF makes. In make material propositions for how things could be oth-
discussing the visitors’ exploration of the novel affordances erwise. The question then arises of which alternative visions
of The End of Sitting, Araújo notes that there is much more of reality to promote, Mol points out. First of all, as we have
taking place than mere reflection on the artwork. He rightly seen above in the reply to Stokhof, RAAAF’s interventions
resists the idea of visitors to art galleries as “detached do not foreclose possibilities but are open-ended in that they
contemplative cognisers.” However, we suggest that one allow people to find out for themselves what might work for
need not think of reflection as something that people do in them. Second, we believe it is crucial to promote visions that
isolation from the other types of skilled activities that support change-ability: the skill of coordinating with a
Araújo describes. Reflection need not be thought of as rapidly changing world (see Rietveld, 2022b, this volume).
detached, cold calculation but is instead an embodied ac- Humans are currently living through a time of accelerating
tivity that artworks promote. social, technological, and ecological change. To adapt to
Rietveld and Kiverstein 593

such a sociomaterial reality, it will prove necessary for both process of making is to learn how people might respond to the
individuals and communities to break with many of our artwork by having people hang out in test spaces, by making
habitual modes of engaging with the world, to develop them wonder, and by incorporating the lessons learned.
change-ability. In becoming more change-able, we become RAAAF’s artistic interventions are different from the
ourselves better able to coordinate with a rapidly changing technological innovations of engineers then because of their
world; we as people become less entrenched in our river open-endedness. People are invited to engage with the
beds and ready to meander more freely. We become less artworks, try them out experientially, hang out in them in
solid, and better able to adapt and transform. the case of Breaking Habits. Art also inspires us to ask the
Jeannette Pols compares artworks with technologies that question of how to live differently “with stuff that is already
aim for a sometimes violent and revolutionary break with here, also morally dubious stuff like Nazi-towers and am-
traditions and practices. She describes how RAAAF’s munition plants. How to live with this heritage as best as
approach is playful, experimental, provocative, and open- possible?” (Pols, 2021) Engineers can potentially learn
ended in contrast with the engineering of new technologies important lessons from artists in creating continuity be-
whose innovations would make everything better or more tween historical patterns of behavior and possible ways of
efficient. The work of the artists is to reveal or disclose living in the future, to see new technology not as a finished
layers of meaning that would otherwise remain hidden, like panache but as something as open as a material playground
in the opening up of Bunker 599. Pols describes how the that visitors can use to explore possible futures and wonder
artworks RAAAF makes are open-ended processes or ex- about them, to learn about the affordances their structures
periments. It is uncertain where Sandblock is going if offer and the ways of behaving they invite from people, both
anywhere but this does not matter. The art in this example is, individually and collectively.
she says, to be found in the relations the work assembles, the Paul Voestermans describes how artists and architects
people, bacteria and materials it involves, and the new play in the process of making, a theme that is also present in
future it helps to shape. the commentary of Pols. Voestermans (2021) suggests
Given RAAAF’s tight collaboration with craftsmen RAAAF’s artworks can profitably be interpreted as playful
building their artworks, it might seem in the inaugural explorations of different dimensions of sociomaterial
lecture as if what comes first is the imagination of artists, practice from the conventional to the unconventional. One
followed second by the building of the artworks by dimension of practice is conventional, routine-like, poor in
craftsmen, and finally the audiences get to experience the innovation, such as the sitting society explored in The End
finished artwork. However, the reality of the creative pro- of Sitting. Other artworks, such as the installation in Het
cess is more complex because RAAAF’s capacities as Hem and Bunker 599 work, are artful explorations of layers
makers are interwoven with the capacities of the craftsmen of cultural meaning (as is also discussed in the commentary
and others they join forces with. Materials, different living of Sutton). As artful explorations, these works fall on the
beings, including people like collaborating craftsmen, cu- unconventional end of Voestermans’ dimension of culture.
rators, journalists, media, audience members all help to Voestermans (2021) emphasizes the importance of
make and expand the artworks. thinking about cognition in general, and aesthetic experi-
The skills and ambitions of the craftsmen they have ence in particular, in terms of sociomaterial affordances. He
successfully worked with before are influencing what the describes how philosophers and artists can work together to
makers at RAAAF can imagine. Moreover, there is a explore new possibilities for engagement with the world. By
continuous back and forth in the process of embodied inviting us to reflect on taken-for-granted practices, such
testing of the material affordances under construction. An interventions can, for example, help us to break habits. He
art installation organically develops and grows in the rightly sees that from a SIF perspective there is a lot of work
making of it. The artists’ feeling for what is there at each still to be done for all kinds of practices in society (a point
stage of this developing process is not a passive experience also made by Mol). The practices that are everyday in nature
but the result of actively setting up material (and social) like sitting, sharing resources like commons, but also for
conditions, often driven by a desire to improve aspects of understanding courtship, political debates, sex, and
the installations that still cause discontent. Crucially, the boardroom meetings to mention only a few. We agree with
artist is not the solitary hero working in isolation in their this and would welcome ethnographies that try to under-
studio, Pols notes. The process of making is joint, with artists stand these practices in terms of skilled intentionality,
and craftsmen working together to probe, adapt and “grow” perhaps building on the work that we have done in the
the installations. Pols sees that in the case of RAAAF the art is practice of making art and architecture (Rietveld &
located not only in the final outcome of this process but just as Brouwers, 2016; van Dijk & Rietveld, 2018, 2020, 2021)
much in the process of making itself, in the artistic practice and in the medical practice of treating patients with Deep
“that creates links and ties between things, audiences/users Brain Stimulation (de Haan et al. 2013; Kiverstein et al.,
and different places and meanings.” An important part of this 2021; van Westen et al., 2019).
594 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

Marc Slors asks how works of art can open up uncon- Echoing many of the points in McGann’s commentary,
ventional affordances, a theme also explored in the com- Laura Mojica describes how human forms of life and their
mentaries of Lysen, Van Saarloos, Pols, and Voestermans. possibilities are shaped by shared sociomaterial practices.
Slors (2021) draws a contrast between how established This does not mean that the rich landscape of affordances is
socio-cultural practices shape our selective openness to necessarily conservative because the possibilities it fur-
affordances unreflectively and unobtrusively, and how nishes can be transformed through action (see also our reply
RAAAF’s artistic interventions question established prac- to Stokhof above). In particular, artists and artworks make
tices. Making use of a different, more provocative tactic, those possibilities visible and show how they can be rad-
artists create new, unconventional affordances that “force” ically transformed.
themselves on the visitors so as to make them reflect. Think Mojica (2021) points out that opening up to the possi-
of how affordances for sitting were removed from The End bility of having radically different practices can make
of Sitting environment. Paradoxically, Slors notes, it is the people “more alive.” Mojica (2021) suggests RAAAF’s
conventional unobtrusive way of socializing that offers less practices of making show how matter can be a source of
freedom to people than RAAAF’s artistic interventions that activity, a powerful and active force that can contribute to
typically make people reflect on their established practices, shaping of an under-determined reality. We see this in the
but also offer alternatives by showing materially how things use of material playgrounds at RAAAF which explore the
could be done otherwise. Slors (2021): writes, “It is pre- potency of materials (see also Van den Heuvel (2021)). In a
cisely the fact that [by the artistic route unconventional material playground, matter responds to us, and in this
affordances] are forced on us rather than sneaked in via the material engagement, the artists experience the activeness of
backdoor of slow and automatic enculturation, that makes it the materials they explore. Material playgrounds provide
possible for us to reflect on them.” the opportunity to enter into genuine dialogue with nature
Artworks can forcefully impose certain constraints on rather than trying to dominate it, Mojica suggests. She takes
viewers while at the same time giving the viewer the freedom her reflections on the practices of making to correct for
to determine how to respond (see also the commentary by anthropocentric assumptions, common in traditional cog-
Pols). We agree with this point by Slors but would like to add nitive science and philosophy.
that part of the freedom that is opened up by the artistic in-
terventions does not only derive from the invitation to reflect
on the taken-for-granted socio-cultural practice and norms, but
4. Material propositions
also comes from the fact that they materialize some real al-
ternative possible courses of action (see Rietveld, 2013). In this section, we return to the theme articulated most
Marek McGann agrees with Slors that practices can clearly in Annemarie Mol’s commentary that RAAAF’s
induce a kind of behavioral inertia making certain patterns artworks can act as material propositions that can be used to
of behavior probable in everyday life. McGann (2021) practice philosophy by showing materially, by means of
emphasizes that the approach to making at RAAAF is re- built artworks rather than through text-based, written
lational and offers a conceptual framework that sheds light philosophical arguments, that the taken-for-granted could
on the “relationship between art, technology, culture and be otherwise. Hummels, Van der Zwan, Smith &
habit.” The landscape of affordances, he argues, is a “to- Bruineberg (2021) compares their work as designers with
pography not only of what is possible but also of what is RAAAF’s method of working. They are interested in the
probable, of confidence, uncertainty, what repels and at- possibility of philosophical thinking that is practiced non-
tracts.” The structure of the landscape of affordances is discursively through the process of design. Although they
therefore that of a dynamical system composed of basins of make use of stories, and thus think discursively in designing
attraction, unlikely peaks, and probable valleys. McGann, in things, the possibility they explore is that the design of
common with a number of commentators, also emphasizes things could itself be the medium for doing philosophy
the potential of artistic practices to transform this landscape. rather than say the construction of logical arguments in
He makes the distinction between what is possible, and what texts. One similarity with some of RAAAF’s projects is
is probable. What is probable is influenced by the estab- making possible futures experienceable in their design
lished sociomaterial practices. The artists at RAAAF, by work. They emphasize the investigation of the things and
contrast, explore the possible, providing the possibility to practices they have designed. This is indeed a useful thing to
overcome stabilities imposed by tradition, and other forms do and we have some experience with it at RAAAF when
of cultural inertia. Practices of making, as McGann char- we do free material explorations in material playgrounds,
acterizes them are inherently radical enterprises undertaken without presupposing in which practice the materials will be
“in the full knowledge of…the ethical demands that it places used. When carpet is transformed and made strong enough
upon us, to consider what peaks in the landscape of our form to support standing, non-sitting positions made out of such
of life need flattening, and what ruts need digging.” strengthened carpet could be developed further for offices,
Rietveld and Kiverstein 595

theaters, and lecture halls. In this process of engaging with colleague’s (Hummels et al., 2021) proposal to practice
materials, some episodes are non-discursive. philosophy through design. Both share the ambition of
Hummels and colleagues are right to conclude then that moving philosophy beyond text-based means of thinking
“Imagination is a socio-material and therefore tangible and arguing. Philosophy need not be an abstract theoretical
practice, which can be scaffolded and designed” (p. 3). The activity but can instead involve the practical business of
way that the sociomaterial environment is set up, influences making things that spark interactions between science,
the processes of imagination that occur (Hummels et al. engineering, design and philosophy.
2021). Hummel and colleagues use short speculative stories Tim Ingold takes issue with non-discursive ambitions
on everyday life in 2050, as well as physical tools that make and argues that words should not be seen as the problem in
up a “playing field” placed on a table, to materially scaffold philosophy. Words do not necessarily hide reality from us
the imagination of the participants around the table. but can disclose reality through the bodies that speak or
Whereas they were focused on what Voestermans calls write them. The problem, according to Ingold, lies with the
“ordinary living,” RAAAF’s installations that scaffold academy and its draining words of their meaning. The
imagination, tend to focus on the extraordinary or un- challenge is therefore to bring words back, in their fullest
conventional. Moreover, a difference is that they were expressive potential. Ingold argues for moving beyond the
working for a large client that seeks transformation, division of the “verbal and visual.” Crucially, we agree that
whereas RAAAF is working autonomously. The two ap- words can be crafted, just as artworks can, to generate
proaches are complementary and offer the potential to have sensitivity to phenomena and possibilities.
impact on the embedding of technology in society. Ingold argues the project of combining philosophy with
RAAAF’s approach gives more freedom to the makers and, visual art, a theme in the inaugural lecture, is already un-
by creating photos, movies and other images of the work, derway in the field of anthropology. Anthropologists are, he
sets up conditions for using the power of media attention tells us, “philosophers in the questions they ask – about life
for the artworks to generate awareness of the newly de- and death, materials and meaning – but they do their phi-
veloped possible futures. losophy out of doors, drawing inspiration not just from the
Tim Feiten, Kristopher Holland, and Tony Chemero people in whose lives they share, but from everything else in
explore the possibility of intervening materially in the their surroundings […] Thus the world itself becomes a
philosophy of embodied cognition through the process of place of study” (Ingold, 2021). Furthermore, art and an-
making artworks and developing the genre of philosophical thropology make common cause in seeking to address the
art installations. They emphasize the importance of what we philosophical question behind the inaugural lecture of how
call the “artwork-first approach” to embodied cognition, on to live differently and perhaps better with technologies.
which the inaugural lecture is based. By embedding our- Discussing Erik’s call for a philosophy that is experiential—
selves in these processes of making at RAAAF we, as visual and tangible—and not only text-based, Ingold calls
philosophers of embodied cognition, can craft new concepts into question the implied separation of word or text and
and integrate them in a conceptual framework well attuned image. The craft of the philosopher in finding the right
to the particularities of these practices, yet also of general words is he contends not on a different plane from that of the
relevance for understanding embodied cognition (see, for calligrapher who artfully traces lines with brush and ink.
example, Rietveld & Brouwers, 2016; Van Dijk & Rietveld, We agree with Ingold that art can be found in what
2018, 2020, 2021). As Feiten and colleagues notice, the (some) philosophers do with words. However, we suggest
artworks-first approach brings philosophy the benefit of that there are potential differences in what it means prac-
improvising a way forward in the trail of artistic inter- tically to think philosophically with a text and by experi-
ventions, which allows for better attunement to the turbulent encing a site-specific work of art like Bunker 599 or The End
and unpredictable contemporary living environment. If we of Sitting. There is no doubt something texts and these
understand embodied cognition as skilled coordination artworks share, which can be described as the potential to
with, and intervening on, the sociomaterial environment engage philosophical reflection. Unlike typical (non-
then we could also try to foreground the option of inter- anthropological) philosophical texts, site-specific artworks
vening materially in the philosophy of embodied cognition. can connect the past, present, and future in the local living
Thanks to this approach, new possibilities materialize “that environment of people. Such artworks make us think
could not have been planned in advance” (Feiten et al., philosophically through the tangible possibilities they
2021). generate as Mol describes so well. Experiencing the af-
They illustrate how embodiment can determine the form fordances of concrete material-spatial configurations can
of artistic-philosophical work by means of two art-science invite different forms of embodied engagement and read-
projects they have developed at the University of Cincin- iness compared with reading a philosophical argument. Mol
nati. There is an interesting convergence between their makes an instructive comparison between artworks as
artistic Strange Tools Lab projects, and Hummels and material propositions and avante garde art. Both are
596 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

generative in crafting what was previously unspeakable. Anna Barona and Lambros Malafouris share RAAAF’s
Artwork-first philosophical work can be done by materially love for materials and the way that engagement with them
“presenting alternative versions of reality” through “playing can “open up room to be attentive to unexpected, new or
with stuff,” and by “crafting things” (Mol, 2021). We agree indeed unconventional opportunities – both for the mind
with Ingold then that the line between what philosophers and the material – blurring the boundaries between human
and artists can do is blurred. We also think Mol is right to imagining and material affordance.” (Barona & Malafouris,
highlight that artworks have a generative potential: they can 2021). Artworks as material reconfigurations of space and
make tangible and concretely real different ways of living, things, they argue, can put forward tangible propositions for
in a way that a (non-anthropological) philosophical text will possible futures. Echoing Ingold, they make the valid point
struggle to achieve just through verbal invention. An art that for making humane technologies, and to better un-
installation can propose a different way of living or invite derstand the material dimensions of creativity and imagi-
you to stand in a possible future, a situation that is set up to nation, it would be useful for the affordance-based approach
allow you to be more alert to feeling what the artwork does to art to learn from archeology and anthropology. Barona
to you. and Malafouris emphasize that for understanding “creative
Kitty Zijlmans discusses how the concept of affordances imagination as a situated phenomenon” we need to pay
can help her field of art history to make sense of how it is the attention to the materiality the maker is engaging with, and
artwork in its material presence that provides the possibility to other aspects of the sociomaterial ecologies in which
to respond. Zijlmans (2021) asks if the same is true of the “material imagination” emerges. Creativity and imagination
genre of site-situated performance. To answer this question, do not only happen in the head. They are situated processes
she calls attention to the work of the artist k.g. (K.G. distributed across brains, bodies and affording materials.
Guttman) who works in choreography and creates perfor- Centralizing this situatedness of imagination requires what
mances that involve members of the audience. To under- we have elsewhere called a “philosophy of the particular,”
stand this performance, we need to see how the artist invites which can be realized by ethnography and embedding
the participant to engage with a multiplicity of affordances. philosophy in practices of making over the course of many
For example, the participant is invited to engage with the months (Van Dijk & Rietveld, 2018, 2020).
possibilities for action offered by a package they receive, the
instruction note, the smartphone, the glass of water, and
the selected room, to mention only a few. In other words, 5. Temporality in making: Connecting past,
understanding a performance requires us to see that it is the
present, and future
engagement with multiple relevant or inviting affordances
on multiple different timescales that is necessary for un- In this section, we discuss how artworks can be thought of
derstanding the performance in affordance-based terms, we as places in which past, present, and future meet. John
suggest. These inviting affordances include possibilities for Sutton (2021) offers a rich reflection on historically bur-
linguistic activities: reading the note, understanding the dened heritage and how places, buildings, and objects can
instructions as instructions, etc. Abilities are crucial here: a accumulate and sediment their own histories. He invites us
person can only be responsive to affordances on the basis of to consider how the layers of meaning of a place can be tied
the various abilities, skills and habits one embodies (see to the place’s history, and how can they be changed over
Novak et al., 2022, this volume). It also requires one to time. Like Mol, Sutton is interested in how RAAAF’s
engage with the affordances offered by the particular space artworks can take something seemingly solidified like the
in which one is doing the performance, such as possibilities historically established meaning of an artwork and trans-
for taking up different positions within the room. Place form it (see also Hollis 2009). He talks of the “inherent
affordances help us to do justice to the role of the site or dynamism of matter, places and artifacts.” Sutton starts from
place, which is an important part of the context in within reflection on Franco’s monument—The Valley of the Fallen,
which “meanings erupt” (Barad, 2003; Zijlmans, 2021; on which was built to celebrate Franco’s victory and host the
place affordances, see Kiverstein & Rietveld, 2012; bodies of his soldiers. However, it has since been discovered
Bruineberg & Rietveld, 2014; Rietveld et al. 2018). There is that thousands of Republican soldiers, Franco’s enemies, are
a link between Zijlmans’ piece and that by Marc Slors: both also buried at this site. The remains of his enemies now form
emphasize that by means of their artworks, artists can make the foundations of a building constructed to glorify his
us look anew at our situation, and stimulate reflection on legacy. How could the meaning of this monument be
what we take for granted. To use Zijlmans words: “Each transformed? Sutton agrees with RAAAF that the meaning
house, each place is […] affording an exploration through of burdened heritage should be challenged and reopened,
human locomotion and the ongoing process of emerging not ignored. He reads RAAAF’s interventions using the
new relationalities between humans and between human interesting concept of “memoryscopes” engineered by Ross
and non-human.” (Zijlmans, 2021). Gibson (Gibson, 2015). Memoryscopes are interventions
Rietveld and Kiverstein 597

that “focus the forces of the past” channeling “feelings in the Such research, combined with frequent site-visits, allows us
past” to people in the present in ways that stimulate the to see better, in the process of making, what qualities are
imagination. present locally, and what these afford. For RAAAF, cultural
Related to this, Harry Heft (2021) describes how heritage historical research allows establishing a path along which
artworks like Bunker 599 can help to anchor us in time, future activities can unfold by coordinating the present
which is important ethically for individuals as well as situation with affordances offered by past activities of
communities. He articulates beautifully the way an artistic people. Van den Heuvel recognizes RAAAF’s care about
intervention can bring history in the present and allow one the cultural history for the future and characterizes the
to experience one’s own place in history: “Bunker 599 … approach as “a futurising of the past” (Van den Heuvel,
expose[s] a hidden history, awaken[s] in users an appre- 2021).
ciation for their own place in it, and in doing so offer[s] an Van den Heuvel also picks up on something that we have
orienting anchor in time” (Heft, 2021). The artwork brings elsewhere called the “internal horizon” of the meaning of
out two complexities: “First, there is a complexity relating the interventions RAAAF makes (Rietveld & Rietveld,
to how things work, which in turn fosters an appreciation of 2020). The material textures of these artworks contribute
design, technique, and system relations.” For example, the strongly to the experience on site of the artwork and the
thickness of the walls of the ceiling reveal something about engagement of people with them: “[C]oarse, and punctured,
the military system in which it is supposed to function as a scratched, burnt, coagulated, and then also […] cut with
defense structure. If there would have been stronger diamond saw blades. […] These textures aim for another
weapons in 1940 the size of the walls would have to have kind of meaning, they aim for a direct, affective, emotional
been even stronger. “[S]econd there is the complexity of the connection between the visitor and the work on display
history of place, which can ground individual experience […]” (Van den Heuvel, 2021). Van den Heuvel points here
within past events and, in some cases, orient one toward the to the affective effects that materials can have on people
future.” and, crucially, to the layers of meaning that the textures of
Heft offers an example from his own local surroundings materials can add.
of a Native American bunker. Such a historical site allows
one to connect with the deep past of the soil on which one
lives and “widen our sense of where we exist in time.” Heft 6. Transforming the landscape
ends by wondering how RAAAF’s Hardcore Heritage ap-
of affordances
proach would be able to give “visual and affective prom-
inence” to these important objects from the Native How does art, as an activity for reimagining affordances,
American history, to “slow us down” and provoke reflection enable a better embedding of technologies in society? We
on past, present, and future. Answering that question would have discussed above already how artworks can potentially
require RAAAF visiting the particular site and similar sites, contribute to shifting overly rigid norms and practices. The
studying the historical and regional context, and a process of question we take up in this section, and raised in a number of
artistic research to come up with an intervention. This would commentaries, is how this change in norms and practices
be a process that would take many months, so we hope Heft might translate into the better embedding of technologies in
does not mind that we leave that question unanswered. society.
Dirk van den Heuvel discusses some of the connections Janna Van Grunsven wonders how art could help to get
with historical precursors of the relational, affordance-based her engineering students to reflect on how they are shaping
approach to art developed in the inaugural lecture. He the material world. How could artworks afford the design of
mentions the work of architects like Herman Hertzberger, more ethical technologies. She argues that the ability of
Jaap Bakema, and Aldo van Eyck. Van den Heuvel also artists to reimagine the future is normatively ambiguous.
discusses how an affordance-based approach can throw “a One and the same artwork can serve as an invitation to
whole new light on the historical legacy and [recharge] it reflect, but also as a source of inspiration for morally and
with new meaning and possibility” (Van den Heuvel, 2021). politically problematic technologies.
An important link between this legacy in his field and the RAAAF’s artworks do not aim to provide specific
“artwork first”-based philosophical approach sketched in prescriptions for moral action but rather to provoke a
the inaugural lecture is the emphasis on the importance of questioning attitude and to encourage exploration of what a
the relation between material-spatial configurations and the good life could be. The artworks invite people to reflect for
behavior of people. Van den Heuvel also recognizes an themselves on the sociomaterial practices in which they are
important aspect of RAAAF’s artistic interventions: the situated, which they often take for granted, and on how to
deep research into the history of the locations in which we live differently and possibly better. RAAAF’s artworks
intervene because of the material foundation and layers of invite people to reflect on the sociomaterial practices of say
meaning some of these qualities might add to the work. the relation between reuse of vacancy and sustainability; or
598 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

on their own relationship to historically burdened heritage building industry to climate change. It invites people to
(see the commentaries by Sutton and Heft); or on the re- think about the way we build and the CO2 footprint that
lation between the affordances offered by the environment building has on the world. Two of the main components of
and the behavior that is enabled and constrained by the reinforced concrete, cement, and steel, used for building,
available affordances. Such reflection has the potential to have an enormous contribution to climate change. The use
translate to a better embedding of technologies in society. of these materials is a reason why there is a lack of what Van
Artworks facilitate non-conventional activities as Paul Saarloos calls “a sustainable home to live” (our italics).
Voestermans and Duarte Araújo notice, but it is yet to be Moreover, in earlier work at the Venice Biennale RAAAF
established whether or not they contribute to the living of a has made a plea for adaptive reuse of vacant buildings as
good life. Stabilizing the practices that can contribute to the one of the most sustainable options (see Rietveld et al.
good life is better seen as a complementary skill to the three 2014). We are therefore completely on board with Van
skills outlined in the inaugural lecture. The three skills are Saarloos’ call to increase people’s access to empty build-
not meant to be exhaustive. Moral expertise is something ings. Unfortunately, however, that will not be sufficient
one typically develops in different practices than the practice given the need for sustainable housing now and in the
of making art. Ethical reflection is a somewhat distinct skill, future. If we get stuck in romantic images of sand “lazily
and visual art is not aimed, primarily, at developing that skill. hanging out” on the beach and stick to the status quo in
There are limits to what one can expect from visual art. building technology, we miss the opportunity of discovering
However, an open challenge for SIF would be to develop an more sustainable ways of building by actively ex-
affordance-based account of ethical reflection. A recent perimenting with materials, including sand on the beach.
collaborative paper with Jasper van den Herik on “reflective Van Saarloos suggests that “[d]eclaring ‘the end’ of
situated normativity” does some groundwork for such a sitting is discriminatory to those who use a wheelchair for
development of SIF (van den Herik & Rietveld, 2021). mobility” (Van Saarloos, 2021). The End of Sitting is,
Van Grunsven suggests that The End of Sitting “as an however, not a verbal declaration to do away with sitting,
experience” was only accessible to a limited group of people, but the title of a project to materially explore how radically
a point that is also made by Van Saarloos. Van Grunsven changing the affordances available could potentially lead to
worries that it is only a certain type of body that is able to different working practices. If one wants to change existing
affectively experience The End of Sitting. Those of us who power structures, as van Saarloos does, one way to ac-
are “able bodied, slender and (relatively) young” (Van complish this is by transforming the landscape of affor-
Grunsven, 2021). The installation’s power is therefore dances, for example, by breaking down the constraints of
only available to some, and the lived perspective of peoples, existing affordances. With The End of Sitting, we gave the
who are already habitually overlooked by engineers shaping broader public an easily understandable, material and tan-
society by the technologies they design, was unwittingly gible example of that by taking away the constraining force of
excluded. We agree that The End of Sitting accessibility for chairs. The message was that if we radically change the
all can be improved upon. However, it is important to note affordances available in a certain place, we can generate
that the visitors to the installation included elderly, children, individual and collective behavioral change. As van Saarloos
and all kinds of body sizes. By offering a multiplicity of notes, “Walls stabilize power” (Op cit.). Crucially, it is by
possibilities for supported standing, we increased the chances dismantling the affordances provided by walls that power
that people with different body sizes and bodily abilities structures can change. Breaking down the affordances that
would find positions that could spark their imagination. maintain the current sociomaterial dynamics does two things
Simon(e) van Saarloos raises a number of critical points. at once: it changes current power structures and materially
Before we respond to them, it is important to make a general creates imaginaries for new worlds; new living environments.
clarification: an important aspect of RAAAF’s work is to In discussing The End of Sitting, Flora Lysen wonders
point out that things could be otherwise, as Annemarie Mol whether RAAAF neglects the crucial economic and political
notes. RAAAF’s artworks as explorative material inter- context for sitting behaviors. There is an interesting con-
ventions question the taken-for-granted and have the po- vergence with the challenges raised in van Saarloos’
tential to set new developments in motion. commentary. Van Saarloos notes how society disables
Responding to the Sandblock project, Van Saarloos people with different bodily abilities through its exclu-
writes, “I sincerely wonder: do we really have a housing sionary practices. For Lysen (2021), offices as corporate
problem, or do we mostly deal with a problem of distri- spaces control and discipline those who work in them to be
bution and a crisis of speculative value? There are plenty of maximally productive employees. Part of this disciplining
empty houses and too many people without a sustainable of the body by corporations comes from seating behaviors.
home to live.” (Van Saarloos, 2021) However, the Sand- The barriers to behavior change are therefore not only on the
block project does not attempt to solve the world’s housing side of individuals but also stem from political and eco-
problem but to create awareness for the contribution of the nomic institutions and norms, Lysen argues.
Rietveld and Kiverstein 599

Lysen (2021) wonders what kinds of artworks could There is also an important reason why in our philo-
effect change in social institutions? Like van Saarloos, she sophical work on making we have been more interested
thinks the disciplining affects of power on the body and the in the artists and architects at work than in the users of
constraints on behavior that come from affordances need to places. We are interested in shedding light on how co-
be distinguished. Intervening on or removing the latter ordination with multiple affordances simultaneously in
constraints still leaves in place the disciplining effects of these practices of making can help us shed light on what
unjust political and economic structures on us. Lysen is right is traditionally called “higher” cognition. Making
to point out that we had discussed The End of Sitting mostly something that does not yet exist is typically seen as a
in relation to individual behavioral change, but that change- form of “higher” cognition. So it has been important for
ability of sociomaterial practices requires collective be- the SIF approach to show that once one has the right
havioral change. Most of the excellent questions she raises conception of affordances, making can also be under-
will be part of my new Change-Ability research project (see stood as just more engagement with affordances
Rietveld, 2022b in this volume), so it is too soon to answer (Rietveld et al. 2018).
these here. For now, it is worth observing how The End of Andrea Jelic sees that the affordance-based account
Sitting also changed collective patterns of behavior of the presented in the inaugural lecture can increase makers’
people in the installation. That happened in part by re- “sensitivities for understanding and incorporating the di-
moving all chairs and other sitting affordances and offering versity of users’ needs and abilities in their designs” (Jelic,
a wide spectrum of alternatives. Second, The End of Sitting 2021, our italics). The concept of affordances is she argues a
had a political dimension in that it was originally aimed at “useful pedagogical tool” that can increase student’s sen-
the Chief Government Architect of The Netherlands and the sitivities for the diversity of users’ needs and abilities, al-
people who make policies at the ministeries that affect the lowing them to imagine others bodies, abilities, and
lives of hundred thousands of civil servants. Sitting Kills experiences as “a rich source of creative inspiration.” This
was the provocative title of the movie we made for them, so point connects nicely with Van Grunsven’s interests in
that policy makers would not be able to say that they did not educating engineers.
know about the harmful effects of societies organized The starting point for design Jelic suggests should be
around practices of sitting.1 the question “what a body can do (in space)?” The value of
Ed Baggs & Sailer ask if RAAAF’s projects tell us such approach for designers-to-be lies in acknowledging
anything about how to build functional everyday spaces. the necessary variety of user’s perspectives with very
However, the ambition of RAAAF is not to make architecture different body skills (Jelic, 2021). Our (Rietveld &
but to make visual art. Whereas architecture often strives Kiverstein, 2014) relational notion of affordances helps
indeed to make “functional everyday spaces,” RAAAF’s art people to realize the variability of the available abilities
installation aim at something that visual art can do: to put (including dis-abilities, see Toro et al. 2020) and available
established practices on display (Noë, 2015). In this way, forms of life. Once one takes the variety in the “richness of
RAAAF’s installations invite reflection on what we take for our skillful actions” as our starting point for making, then
granted, which typically are both our ingrained habits as the process of creating of affordance-based interventions
individuals (say habits of sitting) and our established com- becomes one of weaving layers of meaning that enrich the
munal ways of acting, that is, sociomaterial practices like our landscape of affordances. We can look carefully at the
sitting society. The artworks are indeed well characterized by diversity of abilities available in our form of life and even
Baggs and Sailer when they see them as playfully subversive, imagine bodies with different abilities than currently
although their point is to explore what different systems could known.
look like in the future, what could also be good ways of With respect to education, we think it is important to
living, including different collective ways of living. see the opportunities offered by material playgrounds as
In discussing the playfully subversive character of discussed in the inaugural lecture for educational setting.
RAAAF’s work, Baggs and Sailer (2021) write as if any- An advantage is that it allows the potential of a selected
thing could be the object of an intervention. But whereas material to show itself in a playful process of experi-
there might have been an irrational or random aspect to the mentation, rather than reducing a material to a resource
Dada playfulness they mention, RAAAF carefully selects for a specific task. Rather than presupposing a goal, task
its interventions so as to address societal challenges like or function, material playgrounds can help one to figure
sustainability, healthy living, and historically-burdened out what one’s project or ambitions could be; what
cultural heritage. RAAAF combines playfulness with would be worth working on given the potential of the
criticism of established practices in a non-random way. We material, given one’s own fascinations and collabora-
do not use, say, a blindfold to randomly select a practice to tions, and the bodily abilities of the form of life one cares
intervene on, which might have been more the Dada-style. about.
600 Adaptive Behavior 30(6)

7. Conclusion Note
We would like to end by again thanking the commentators 1. The video Sitting Kills is archived here: https://www.raaaf.nl/nl/
on the inaugural lecture for their rich and inspiring re- projects/927_the_end_of_sitting/933.
flections that offer us many new directions for research in
the future. What are the next steps for this research program References
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Declaration of conflicting interests
design. Adaptive Behaviour. Advance online publication.
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with re- https://doi.org/10.1177/105971232198909
spect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Hummels, C., Zwan, S., Smith, M., & Bruineberg, J. (2021). Non-
discursive philosophy by imagining new practices through
Funding design. Adaptive Behaviour. Advance online publication.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10597123211006463
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for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This
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research is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Sci-
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Jelic, A. (2021). What is architecture for? Designing as enriching the
European Research Council Starting Grant (679190).
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About the Authors

Erik Rietveld is a Socrates Professor at the University of Twente and Professor in Philosophy at the
University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam UMC, Dept. of Psychiatry / Philosophy). Earlier he was a
Fellow in Philosophy at Harvard University. He works on the philosophy of skilled action, change-
ability, and ecological psychology. Rietveld has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant and VENI,
VIDI and VICI grants by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Together
with his brother Ronald Rietveld he founded the multidisciplinary collective for visual art, ex-
perimental architecture and philosophy RAAAF in 2006. RAAAF’s artworks have received nu-
merous awards and have been exhibited widely at international museums and biennales for
contemporary art. They were responsible for Vacant NL, the successful Dutch contribution to the
Venice Architecture Biennale 2010. Rietveld is a life member of The Society of Arts of The Royal
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Julian Kiverstein is Senior Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam University

Medical Centre. His research is concerned with the ecological and enactive nature of cognition and
experience in humans and other organisms.