Uncertainty and precariousness are characteristics of our (post-digital) times. The dominant political ideology of neoliberalism has intrinsically linked individualism and personal productivity to economic survival, made possible through complex, ubiquitous and pervasive computational networks and systems.

Technologies demand constant connectivity and perpetual consumption and contribute, according to Mark Fisher, to the current attack on the subject, come consumers of services (educational, political, economical etc).

The next generation of designers will enter this uncertainty and it is not a comfortable place to be: it raises existential questions about living in this complex and fragmented world, as well as requiring designers to consider their responsibilities in designing (for/through/with) uncertainties: political, economic, educational, environmental.

What is a discipline that remains housed in an enclosure?

The pioneers of our time are not taking the world at face value, as a given from the outside; rather, they see the world as something you can pry open, something you can tinker with.

Marleen Stikker

We invite a focused composition of contributors from divergent domains of practice – those who question the provenance of knowledge as well as it’s production, dissemination and digestion – add to this ingestion as we move forwards. These may be practitioners, thinkers, tinkerers, hackers (et al) who traverse disciplinary boundaries and open their practice to other fields.

We are interested in exploring a sharing and collaborative economy as a direct challenge to the capitalist imagination.

We are curious about participatory practices that break down the boundaries between specialists and amateurs.

We seek to discuss the things we don’t yet understand (and perhaps never will).