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(the) Automagic Stool
Superdeals, Brussels (7 & 8 November), co-curated and text by Timmy van Zoelen.
2025
A sculptural collaboration by Alban Karsten and Steven Jouwersma, continuing the series of chairs they began with Phantom Limb at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (2024).
As we approach Superdeals’ large display window, we see an archetypal office chair in a showroom setting.
Appendages such as wooden sculptural handles, sound, movement and painted elements are applied to this alleged piece of furniture, enabling Alban and Steven to merge both their art practices into one object.
Behind the sober façade of a “laboratory” hides an improvisatory, semi-utopian playground. The term automagic fuses “automatic” and “magic”, compressing the rational and the intuitive, the mechanical and the affective. It signals an object that acts by itself (auto-matic), suggesting self-organizing, cybernetic systems, and enchants through responsiveness (magic), evoking wonder, embodiment and empathy.
The Automagic Stool is thus not merely a machine; it is a partner in a reciprocal act. It performs but also perceives. It aligns with the ethos of technological empathy: tools that know the user in subtle, adaptive ways. The humour and lightness of the word also resist technocratic gravitas: it’s playful, almost childlike, as though technology had rediscovered imagination.
Supported by Superdeals.
(the) Automagic Stool
more text:::
“(the) automagic stool” — November 2025
a new sculptural collaboration by Steven Jouwersma and Alban Karsten, co-curated and text by Timmy van Zoelen, shown 7 & 8 November at Superdeals, Brussels.
As we approach Superdeals’ large display window, we see an archetypal office chair in a showroom setting, which serves as the basis for a new sculptural collaboration between Alban Karsten and Steven Jouwersma. Appendages such as wooden sculptural handles, sound, movement and painted elements are applied to this alleged piece of furniture, enabling Alban and Steven to merge both their art practices into one object.
Behind the sober façade of a “laboratory” hides an improvisatory, semi-utopian playground. The term automagic fuses “automatic” and “magic”, compressing the rational and the intuitive, the mechanical and the affective. It signals an object that acts by itself (auto-matic) — suggesting self-organizing, cybernetic systems, and enchants through responsiveness (magic) — evoking wonder, embodiment, and empathy.
The Automagic Stool is thus not merely a machine; it is a partner in a reciprocal act. It performs but also perceives. It aligns with the ethos of technological empathy — tools that know the user in subtle, adaptive ways. The humour and lightness of the word also resist technocratic gravitas: it’s playful, almost childlike, as though technology had rediscovered imagination.
Thanks to @superdealsbrussels for support, @tiimmmy for a wonderful text (there is more) and all who came to see the show.
(the) Automagic Stool
