Hope in the In-Between “minifesto” pamphlet written as a member of The Storybox Collective and in collaboration of the William Morris Society. Written in Summer 2020 and printed in Hammersmith
June 2021
Written during the spring and summer of 2020, “Hope in the In-Between” was written in response to the archives at the William Morris Society as a member of The Storybox Collective.
The essay is a response to Morris’ views on the roles of work, leisure, and learning in our lives in the context of how the pandemic forced all three into our homes. It’s a provocation to the reader to re-imagine both the physical and emotional spaces in which we conduct these three activities – to invite the reader to imagine the spaces “in-between.”
Drawing on essays and his own speculative work News from Nowhere, the themes Morris interrogates are still (if not more) relevant today, and the Covid lockdowns we’ve felt have left many people feeling physically and emotionally drained, and hopeless.
“Hope in the In-Between” is a “minifesto” of hope about our futures by taking inspiration from the past. A “minifesto” in the sense that even the layout and length of the essay is designed to emulate the penny pamphlets & ephemera Morris printed in Hammersmith as part of the Socialist League.
Workshop as part of the Collective Design School by Ella Britton at the Victoria & Albert Museum
September 2019
During the London Design Festival 2019 I participated in Ella Britton's Collective Design School at the V&A Museum. A week of experimental and experiential activities and workshops that challenged what the role of learning design is in our lives and our world.
Design is empathy. Design is thinking. Design is process. Design is a part of the human condition. Contemporary education does nothing to cultivate empathy, thinking, or process. We are taught information, not how to learn. I want to spark conversation about the relationship between design, learning, and the development of compassion and self-awareness.
This workshop built on the themes explored in my Major Project: collective making, the relationship between visual and verbal communication, and how we can build empathy and understanding by exploring different ways to present what we know.
Make Shit Together research and manifesto written as final major project for MA Communication Design: Graphic Design at Kingston School of Art June 2019
Make Shit Together is a call to action for educators of all types. The way we learn doesn’t prepare us for the future of work. Contemporary studies show that ‘soft skills’ like communication, emotional intelligence, and creativity are endemically lacking in businesses of all sizes. At the same time, ‘creative’ subjects are being undermined and underfunded at all levels of education.
Written in three parts: Make, Make Shit, Make Shit Together, I first explore the value of developing visual literacy not as a subject confined to a studio, but as a method to explore subject specific learning just as we do with verbal literacy. Following that, I build on the importance of experimentation, or ‘making shit’ as an integral part of the learning process that is inherent in creative pedagogical practices, but less common outside of the studio. Lastly, I conclude with the value of making shit together as a means to develop communication skills and empathy. By attempting to talk through an inherently non-verbal process with another person, you have to articulate your understanding and your process, which might differ from others’. This is where the deeper development of interpersonal skills and reflection happens. As part of my research I ran a workshop with a group of American university students and include this case study in the manifesto.
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