DesignInquiry Amsterdam / 2025
Ben Van Dyke + JJ Van Dyke
The Nowotny Machine is a collaborative filmmaking process that revels in uncertainty as its primary method for producing content. Drawn from the work of Austrian sociologist, Helga Nowotny and her book, The Cunning of Uncertainty, the Nowotny Machine is a deliberately absurd set of rules that co-participants must learn to navigate and decode. The machine appears systematic but deliberately avoids algorithmic thinking, forcing co-creators to confront ambiguity in their creative decisions. The resulting film emerges from this tension between structure and unpredictability, producing outcomes that could never be predetermined or reproduced. It is a practical embodiment of Nowotny’s argument that uncertainty is a generative force toward and within knowing.
Actors: Steve Bowden / Mary Banas / Nick Benson / Tijs Bonekamp / Dora Bowden / Christopher Swift / Douglas Degges / Ben Gaydos / Peter Hall / Lucy Hitchcock / Lana Le / Javier Munarriz / Ann McDonald / Charles Melcher / Katarzyna Nestorowicz / Marcin Novicki / Isabel Overby / Markus Paloheimo / Leslie Parker / Krzysztof Pijarski / Chris Sancomb / Louise Sandhaus / Alice Twemlow / Joshua Unikel / Oona Zurolo / Mark Zurolo
More about the project → FUTURE FRAGMENTS
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, and wire, 2014
Contaminated Patterns: Solo Exhibition, Loomis Gallery, Mansfield University.
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, and wire, 2015.
Tidal Shift: Department of Art, Art History & Design Faculty Triennial, Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University.
Digital prints on perfect-bound paper, 2015.
DesignInquiry, Portland, ME. Available on: DesignInquiry / Draw Down Books / Amazon
Digital prints on heavyweight matte paper, 2016.
Exhibition of posters in Varanasi, India
Curated by Manish Arora, Banaras Hindu University
DesignInquiry Warsaw / 2024
Ben Van Dyke + JJ Van Dyke
The Nowotny Machine is a collaborative filmmaking process that revels in uncertainty as its primary method for producing content. Drawn from the work of Austrian sociologist, Helga Nowotny and her book, The Cunning of Uncertainty, the Nowotny Machine is a deliberately absurd set of rules that co-participants must learn to navigate and decode. The machine appears systematic but deliberately avoids algorithmic thinking, forcing co-creators to confront ambiguity in their creative decisions. The resulting film emerges from this tension between structure and unpredictability, producing outcomes that could never be predetermined or reproduced. It is a practical embodiment of Nowotny’s argument that uncertainty is a generative force toward and within knowing.
Sea-foam, ash, pencil, and my hand
Collaboration with Hanneke Minten at NLXL: The Netherlands.
Alliance Graphique International, Annual Meeting and Exhibition, Amsterdam.
Steel, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, wire, and butterflies
Duration: A Solo Exhibition, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY
Digital prints on heavyweight matte paper, 2016.
Upcoming exhibition of posters in Varanasi, India
Steel, vinyl, paint, ink, acrylic, paper, and wire, 2015.
Volatile! Group Exhibition, Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL.
Former board member, lifetime devotee.
DesignInquiry is a non-profit educational organization devoted to researching design issues in intensive team-based gatherings. An alternative to the design conference, it brings together practitioners from disparate design-related fields to generate new work and ideas around a single topic.
Steel, vinyl, paint, ink, acrylic, paper, wire, 2012.
Uncertainty: Department of Visual Studies Faculty Exhibition, Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, and wire, 2010
Uncooperative: Solo Exhibition, Banvard Gallery, Knowlton School of Architecture, Ohio State University
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, and wire, 2010.
Lecciones de Anatomia: Solo Exhibition, Casa Vecina, Mexico City, Mexico.
Steel, vinyl, paint, ink. rubber. wire, acrylic. and paper, 2013.
Knowledge Systems: Solo Exhibition, Rowe Gallery, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, and wire, 2011.
Improvesensationalism: Solo Exhibition, Flor Y Canto Gallery, San Diego State University.
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, wire, and plastic, 2008.
ERROR!: Solo Exhibition, Goldman/Greenfield Gallery, Daemen College, Buffalo, NY
Digital prints, Five spreads, 2013.
Beyond Category: A Hybrid Forms Special Issue of Seneca Review, Eds. Kathryn Cowles, Joshua Unikel, David Weiss.
Digital prints on large-format paper, Series of five, 2011.
East-West-East: Solo Exhibition, BKG Gallery, Amman, Jordan
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, wire, and pins, 2010.
Fulbright: Solo Exhibition, Fed Galleries, Kendall College of Art & Design.
The culmination of my Fulbright research (NL) was an exhibition at my alma mater, Kendall College of Art & Design.
Steel, wood, vinyl, paint, ink, rubber, wire, and mesh, 2009.
Des fleurs pour decorer: Group Exhibition, Brich Libralato Gallery, Toronto, ON
Digital prints and mixed media on paper, 2003-06.
Posters were commissioned by the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan during my time there as a graduate student.
Workshop
Maine College of Art
2014
COLLAPSE
There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling unoriginal or insignificant. On the other hand, there is nothing more powerful than the willingness to be misunderstood. Over the next three days we will work toward the darkness and toward uncertainty. Toward chaos and disorder. In a very brief time, we will discuss the virtues of doubt, fear, pain and failure. We will work toward a state Benevolent Flux — the ultra-rare combination of frenzy and ecstacy found only in the bones of the very passionate and the very reckless.
Digital prints on paper, 2006-On.
