Design Map · Eindhoven
Full Circle, Clockwise – Counterclockwise
Graduation project by Finn Leijen at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
Dutch national identity is shaped by its maritime history, with the ocean seen as a domain to be dominated through both engineering and conquest. Against this backdrop, ‘Full Circle, Clockwise - Counterclockwise’ follows the legacy of two interlinked case studies. The first is the Pioneering Spirit, the biggest ship in the world today by volume. The second tracks a K-class submarine used by the Royal Netherlands Navy to patrol the coast of occupied Indonesia, up until its wreckage during World War II. The research culminates in an installation featuring a choreographed robot projector, from which a spatialised documentary is projected outwards onto three wooden screens, each oriented towards the compass points of key sites found in the investigation. Together, these narrative anchors trace a lineage between Dutch colonialism, Nazi Germany and the extractive industries that dominate the seas today.