Amsterdam at war in 2030? This terrifying projection into a possible future aims to expand our thinking about tolerance, fear, security, censorship and urban politics. Naming no specific enemy, theorists and artists ask questions and sketch scenarios: what are the implications of warfare in a Western city?

"Open" 22 investigates how transparency and secrecy are intertwined in modern-day society and explores how they relate to the public and the civic, using WikiLeaks as a test case. The contributors consider transparency as fetish and the ideal of the free flow of information.

Artist and photographer Joke Robaard, originally trained in fashion, investigates human configurations (e.g., networks of friends or neighbors). After "directing" individuals into certain positions and patterns in relation to one another, she photographs them, using clothing to illustrate where connections lie and how they constantly shift.

In today's hypervisualized culture, has every message or social agenda been usurped by styling, commerc, and fashion? What position does art occupy in conveying the meanings of everyday design? What position "should" it occupy? And how do we make meaning--that which is invisible--visible? In "Open 8," guest editors Willem van Weelden and Jan van Grunsven introduce this debate. Further examination comes courtesy critic Brian Holmes, who explores (in)visibility as a tactic in art, and Dieter Lesage, who critically examines the proposals by design firm OMA for a new iconography of Europe. Among these and other thought-provoking essays is an account of a round-table discussion centered around legitimating "Art and the Public Space," courses in designers' academic training, photographic essays and book reviews.