encouraging introspective practice

concept statement

Encouraging introspective practice offers an intimate look at my own personal journey to understanding what it is to design in current times. Designed as a non-exhaustive collection, this volume comes in the form of an offering of essays, resources, and theoretical considerations aimed at divulging what it can be to mix the deeply personal with the collective for collaborative means in making and speculative design. 

The volume acts as a starting point for considering one’s own intrinsic motivations, and how they play out in tune with our deepest desires and what drives us, as designers, to make. Most importantly, it asks why. I offer some of my own context in hopes that it would encourage other designers, new and storied, to go back to their own beginning. The very core of introspective practice lies in our inner worlds, in the in-between spaces of human experience where we merge what is with what we wish it could or might be. In this sense, it asks us to sit in the speculative space, to consider what pieces of our own selves we want to play out most in our creations for the world and potential futures.

The exhibited volume is simplistic and comes with a pad and pencil for those interacting with a selection of pieces to reflect or create whatever the writings encourage. The idea, in the end, is for the volume itself to be collaborative — for people to write or draw in the margins, send a voice note, or simply take the time to intake and introspect. The full work is available as a digital magazine, linked to the side.