Commissioned by Over het IJ Festival, Merel Smitt was paired with the Salvation Army in Amsterdam to conduct research for a new art project exploring the bureaucratic systems people come up against in their daily lives: the clash between the world of systems and the world in which people actually live.
Merel engaged in conversations, activities and encounters with people who work for the Salvation Army as well as those who rely on their care and support.
In Leuker kunnen we het wél maken (this means “We can make it better” and is a parody on the slogan of the Dutch Tax Office), she shares this research, the stories that were told to her, and the dialogues she engaged in through a hackathon.
A hackathon is a model for quickly generating solutions to problems from a variety of perspectives. Merel uses the hackathon as a way to open dialogue about systemic issues and to propose possible solutions through creative expression. She chose three key issues that she came across in her research to work with during the hackathon.
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Why does earning more often mean losing more?
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How can we redesign the envelope from the tax authority to make it supportive and helpful?
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Why is work, by definition, exploitation?
