from the DeepMind of Josh Plough

Bring me back to the Collective DeepMind

42.

And finally, there are of course the hugely important and needed parts of design criticism that tackle the decolonisation and depatriarchisation of the industry and culture. They come hand in hand with the approach mentioned above. I have left these subjects untouched, although acknowledge deeply the excellent work being done by so many in the field. It’s best to stick to what we’re good at and others are far more erudite than me when it comes to those subjects.

The terms mental health and depression are used in this essay to shine a light on a hushed up aspect of creative education, internships and professional precarity. They are loaded terms and ones that should be taken seriously. It’s this seriousness that I wanted to impart in this essay. While the design practice is not the only thing that affects one’s mental health, it is a large enough factor in the way we’re told we can function in the world. We’re sold the promise of agency only to find that reality is far messier than the academy suggested. The mental health of most of the interviewee’s had been affected by their education. To use such terms adds a weight, an urgency, a severity to the subject. And hopefully gets people to prick up their ears to the low murmur of burnout bubbling below our projects.

Finally the label of designer also includes writers and curators.

This essay too is an intention. If you want to help it transition to action then get in contact at josh@ziemniakii.eu

Josh Plough (UK/PL) is a writer, artist-editor and curator. His areas of intrigue include the sordid world of design, its curation and evaluation and the webs of folklore, identity and futures. Currently he is based in Warsaw where he has founded the cultural NGO Ziemniaki i (Potatoes and). The aim of which is to work out how we can embed design research and practice into local and governmental structures. As well as researching the contemporary relevance of myths and folklores by locating them in a constellation of politics, the internet and creativity.

Thank you to Koen Kleijn for editorial assistance and support.

Footnote:
All the text that is standalone and in italics is a direct quote from either re-FORMAT’s laureates, Linkedin users, designed theory writers, anthropologists, etc. The idea was to quote directly without creating a hierarchy between the reflections and opinions.