Product Review

This book offers a fresh perspective on the popular and acclaimed Amsterdam-based design/art collective Metahaven. Densely illustrated, and very recognizably designed by Metahaven, it is the only survey of its work currently available. Led by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, Metahaven works between filmmaking, art, research and design; it has produced documentary-based works, music videos, books (such as Can Jokes Bring Down Governments? and Black Transparency) and lectures that investigate matters of propaganda, truth and identity, especially with regard to the structuring of our symbolic realm. The book offers a variety of critical takes on the collective's work and examines its recent shift to moving-image work, thinking through the various ways in which its sprawling oeuvre is embedded in the sociopolitical challenges of the present.