Making Space & Questioning the World – Publishing Lab

Eva Gonçalves

As artists, designers and human beings, we tend to question everything around us. What do we see? How does it makes us feel? How can we intervene? Is there something I could help solve? We learn to see, to question and to communicate. But the fast pace between our studies and later our jobs, often leaves us with little time to address things that really matter to us and figure out how to combine them with our professional or artistic practises.

How can we find the time and space for meaning and playfulness in our work?

This seminar is directed at the curious minds. It is designed partly as a laboratory, partly as a workshop and partly as a publishing studio(1). It is aimed at those of you who constantly question yourselves and the world around you, wondering how you can use your curiosity, creativity, knowledge and tool set to put your ideas to work, to participate in the world and create a more engaged professional and/or personal practice.

We will look at ways in which to combine our technical skills with our knowledge and experience to help you build the projects you’ve long been thinking of or shaping the ideas you don’t know how to translate into a project. Hopefully this will be our break from the world of responsibilities, for mindful playfulness, a playground for testing ideas and learn how to turn them into reality. Through a series of discussions, analysis and reflective, mindful and playful exercises, each student(2) will aim at concluding the seminar with a finished project ready to be released in the world. Projects will use publishing as a medium. They can range from a book to a concept for a magazine, a zine, or any sort of experimental online publishing format backed up by a strong concept.

The program is based on a balance between guided and self directed learning, is collaborative, and aims to equip you with the tools and knowledge to be resourceful in the “real” world beyond these five days.

What we will learn

• How to structure our ideas and bring them to life
• Investigate methodologies that further critical thinking about our culture and society
• Explore the possibilities to do socially engaged (political, artistic) work in combination with our practices (architecture, design, fashion, visual arts, etc.)
• Discover and explore creative ways of working
• How independent publishing can build community and networks of collaboration amongst artists and designers

Objectives

• Investigate and define our personal work ethos and ethics.
• Grow confidence in own ideas and interests.
• Experiment with using self-publishing as a tool for communication and personal expression
• Outline, develop and implement a personal project from start to finish (be it a magazine, a book, an activist campaign, an instagram-based project)
• Troubleshoot ways in which we can maintain our self-initiated projects during our studies or future jobs
• Experiment without fear and limitations.

Who is this program for? 

(One or more below)

• You have an idea for a personal project but you don’t know how to get it started.
• You are interested in politics but never felt comfortable discussing it with friends.
• You would like to figure out ways of combining what you’re studying with a socially engaged practice.
• You want to spread awareness about (topic of your choice) but struggle to find your voice.
• You don’t consider yourself an activist (or maybe you do) but you are interested in world affairs and would like to contribute something to the discussion.
• You are curious about books, magazines, zines, or any type of publishing (1) and play with the idea of creating your own.

(1) Throughout history publishing has been a privileged way of spreading ideas. Through books, magazines and pamphlets, political ideas, scientific findings, fiction and poetry have been connecting artists, scientists, journalists, writers with readers all over the world.

In our days, with the event of the internet and social networks, publishing became more accessible than ever, but it also takes newer and creative shapes. We are all publishers, regularly publishing to instagram, Twitter and Facebook. At the same time, traditional publishing also developed. Anyone can publish and distribute their projects nowadays. You only need an idea, a home printer and a social media presence for advertising and distribution.

(2) Depending on the size of our class, we might have to work in small groups in shared projects. We will make sure to try and match people with common interests, if that is the case.

Schedule:

Mon–Thursday: 10:00–16:00
Sat: 10:00–16:00