This is the research blog for the PhD trajectory of visual artist Alexandra Crouwers. The Appeal of the Unreal is part of the research proposal title, and concerns, amongst other things, the emotive quality of dead things, simulations, screen culture, and virtual nature.

Alexandra Crouwers is member of the Deep Histories Fragile Memories research group, part of the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre (KU Leuven) and the Intermedia research unit of Luca School of Arts, Brussels.

This blog is here for several reasons: the posts collect all that has to do with the research, it functions as a reminder, and as a way to communicate progress and findings. Please keep in mind this blog is a work in progress.

Early 2020, the research has taken a new turn. The project will investigate ways to deal with solastalgia, or ecological grief.

Solastalgia has its own sub-site. Find it here.

Latest posts


Emoji proposals

Attempting to make artistic additions to the internet and consumer technology: the emoji.In June 2020, I submitted two proposals for emoji, to be added to the expanding digital pictogram vocabulary.
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195.1 million views

Preface An animated GIF consumer technology exploration: 16.03.2019 – 22.05.2020 Between March 2019 and May 2020, I made a series of works on my iPhone 5s, using a combination of digital ready-mades – publicly available …
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Mistakes: the artist talk

HD, colour/sound, 20’20”, 2020 Wednesday, April 29, 2020 anno covidii, I was supposed to give a talk over lunch at the end of my two months involvement with Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York. …
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AMNH part 1

March, 9, 2020. First visit to the American Museum of Natural History. We’re about 6 weeks into the Covid-19 corona virus frenzy, which became global right before I traveled to the U.S. as …
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