Thomas Widdershoven opens 2015/2016 Academic Year:
My plan was to talk to you today about optimism. About how designers are always so sanguine, and not in a superficial way, but in a way that runs deep into our DNA.
But then that image of a three year old Syrian boy lying dead on the beach kept flashing before my eyes and the topic of optimism felt somehow inappropriate.
And yet it is not … wherever this generation of students look, they see crisis – religion, economics, politics, the environment – everywhere the systems seem to fail us. And still design, unlike art, remains optimistic. It stays focused on betterment, on improvement, and on doing things differently for the greater good.
Every year at our graduation show we see this. We see students who have delved into some of the most serious issues confronting society, but their engagement with these subjects stays positive.
To really acknowledge these crises and to be optimistic at the same time seems like a paradox.
Yet I think it is for good reason that designers have a positive outlook. Our optimism comes from an unconscious recognition that design thinking lies at the heart of so many of the new ways and innovative alternatives applied to social and economic problems. This familiarity provides a sort of validation as it suggests that our design methodologies really do work. Surely this is a good reason to stay optimistic.
But also it is because design thinking is free thinking – we, as designers, openly question and challenge what we see and find. We are not burdened with the obligation to be always presenting solutions - it takes a narrow mind to narrow down a problem and to solve it. Rather, what we do is present alternatives. And it is this freedom that affords us the room to stay optimistic.
Since becoming creative director of this academy I have been researching other paradoxes, particularly in our exhibitions at the Van Abbemuseum during Dutch Design Week.
We began in 2013 with Self Unself about the unselfish inclination of present day designers. And in 2014 we presented Sense Nonsense, which embraced the irrational as a creative force. This October we will open Thing Nothing – the conclusion of the trilogy and a research into the constantly-evolving tensions between the material and the immaterial in the production and existence of things.
Together this trilogy explores and forecasts how you as the next generation of designers will be positioning yourselves in this always-evolving field of design. And it is important to keep in mind here that questioning a problem can lead to many different outcomes – from the practical to the very poetic – and all are equally relevant.
And I say always-evolving because it really is. Design is not static but constantly changing. You will be at the forefront of the next generation of designers who will be showing the broader reach of this discipline.
Design education at our academy is not confined to a bubble. We will never protect you from the harsh realities of what is going on out there. Rather we do the opposite. We push you into the world to connect and engage. We want you to participate in what you see around you, with what you see outside these four grand white walls. And then to respond using the skills, and mentality we equip you with inside these four white walls.
It is in this extended reach that design is really changing. We have gone from being an industry more concerned with the production of cultural goods to being a creative practice that connects to the broader world. Yes, designers have always been focused on the creation of a better world, but the limitations of that world are, I think, broader than what was believed to be the case. Our design mentality can extend exponentially and have an impact almost everywhere. There is no limit to how you can use the sort of education you are getting here.
I see from their projects that our student’s start-points have gotten deeper. They are tackling healthcare, media, politics, refugees, environmental disasters, economic models – as well as a more extensive pursuit of form, colour and function. They are looking out at the world ignoring hierarchies and trampling, when necessary, on established ways. You will come out of this academy knowing how to engage and yes I am optimistic of this.
That is where I see your path.
And with these words I open the academic year 2015 2016.
Good luck.