The Morning Studio
Opposing by proposing, patient but stubborn, as a group if we can, fully autonomous if we must. At times with humour and irony, always with great attention and care.
Society and our direct surrounding serve as our exploration field. Whilst analysing the structures and systems we are all part of, we rely on our intrinsic motivation to identify opportunities for change.
We design for concrete situations and want to address a real audience. Rather than ‘design thinking’ we prefer ‘design doing’. Fieldwork and hands-on experiments are taken as a welcome opportunity for deepening insights and sharpening skills.
By looking for the common ground in between we’re building a narrative of interdependance over time. In doing so every design becomes a node within a larger web of transformative action(s) in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. At the end of each semester we carefully archive our work so that all embedded experience and knowledge can be passed on and serve as a breeding ground for the next group(s).
Students taking part in The Morning Studio should be driven by a desire for change, a strong interest in collectivity and collaboration, and a special attention for the mundanities and extraordinary occurrences in everyday life.
Working methods
Within the studio:
- Collective research offers a shared fundament for everyone to build upon
- Street-level experiments force us to ‘leave the bubble’ from the very beginning
- Real project partners confront us with the questions we all prefer to avoid
- (Shared) frameworks facilitate focus and allow us to better ‘read’ each others work
- Series shift the attention from the ‘perfect design’ towards the learning in-between
- Design projects are mostly individual but also in group
- Mixed (level) groups allow us to learn from one another
- Teachers are (more experienced) students
- Everyday practice, the potential to enjoy the process, is key and therefore carefully taken into account
- Feedback is organised horizontally and will require your engagement
- Presentations are opportunities for exchange and reflection, and therefore prime moments of learning
- End-term is organised by you
- A studio archive brings all research and projects together
Objectives
To be able to:
- Dissect ubiquity - to stay curious to the obvious
- Manage complexity - to map our surroundng in order to reveal gaps and opportunities
- Introduce proposition – to change from within (rather than opposing from outside)
- Spread enthusiasm – not to fear radical optimism
- Abandon the individual – to make each other stronger by inter-relating and (re-)connecting
- Bridge disciplines – to welcome complementary perspectives
- Embrace diversity – to accept different solutions in order to distill wisdom from their shared mindset
- Materialize opportunity – to condense wild ideas into concrete products, services and/or spaces
- Respond to challenge – simply to act
Collaborative Projects
2020: Collaboration project with Hermès’ Petit h. 2021: Collaboration with the municipality of Valkenswaard and Corso Valkenswaard 2022: Collaboration with Werkwarenhuis. Check out the outcome here. 2023: Collaboration with RICK and museum De Wieger 2024: Collaboration with Timelab in Ghent, Belgium