In 2005 Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel produced Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, an exhibition and publication on processes of democratic representation and public access in the network society and the role of things, of objects, issues and art within these processes. Based on the principle that art and design are core functions of democracy, Open looks at how these can be made present in the public domain and what kind of dynamic relationships they maintain with it. What has changed in how art has been made public since the 1970s? How can the public interest be a subject for art and design? What does an ecology and morality of things look like today?

In 2005 Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel produced Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, an exhibition and publication on processes of democratic representation and public access in the network society and the role of things, of objects, issues and art within these processes. Based on the principle that art and design are core functions of democracy, Open looks at how these can be made present in the public domain and what kind of dynamic relationships they maintain with it. What has changed in how art has been made public since the 1970s? How can the public interest be a subject for art and design? What does an ecology and morality of things look like today?

With contributions by Bernard Stiegler, Peter Peters/Ruth Benschop, Fiona Candlin, Peter-Paul Verbeek, Noortje Marres, Jeroen Boomgaard, Sher Doruff, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Pascal Gielen, Mariska van den Berg and others.