Hilde Talstra

→ Can you tell me what a coordinator does in the Masters Department ?

Hilde Talstra: The English expression is to be a spider in a web. I’m the one connecting all the threads, all the dots and keeping in touch with everyone. There is also the practical side like, doing the schedule and allocating and keeping to the budget. Making sure we can use certain spaces, finding certain spaces and liaison with different people. The care side is very important to me too, making sure the students are comfortable. Making sure I can connect them to the right people, making sure the students have someone on their side who can fight for them. We want to evolve and improve the curriculum so listening to the students’ voices is most important.

→ How do you think your career in journalism led you to working at DAE?

HT: I worked in journalism for about 10 years after my studies and in the end I worked mostly for radio and television. I got stuck there for a long time and in the end I was disappointed by how it was.

They were constantly looking at the metrics and numbers and how many people were watching or listening, which I really didn’t enjoy. They didn’t seem to care about the actual content, just the viewership. I stopped relating to it and I started having other ideas about how I could live my life. I wanted to get out of Amsterdam because of the job and also the politics so I decided I would move to Sweden with my now ex-partner.

Together we moved to a very remote location in the northern part of Sweden. Because of the different political landscape and being truly in the countryside it gave us the ability to start something new. We started a small communications bureau connected with tourism. I lived there for 8 years but then the relationship broke down. So, I was 40 not sure what to do and I decided I would go back to the Netherlands.

I came back to Amsterdam and worked in journalism again for around 3 years. Then through a series of connections and people knowing each other and who knew Louise (the former Head of Contextual Design) I got offered a job as the MA Contextual Design Co-ordinator. I never worked in DAE or for design education before. But with my skills as a journalist I am capable of entering different areas, asking the right questions and working in them.

→ What were you doing with the communication bureau?

HT: We found these old pilgrim roads in our garden and we discovered that the province where we lived was putting money into restoring this path that was from the east of Sweden to Trondheim in Norway.

It’s called St Olafs path and there’s this story about St Olaf who was actually banned from Norway and sent to Russia because he was a Catholic. Then he came back and brought the Catholicism system to Scandinavia because of that there was a lot of fighting and killing over this situation, then somehow he managed to become king. Catholoismim became forbidden in Scandinavia and then this path actually disappeared.

We wanted to resurrect this path again so we worked with tourist programs in the Netherlands and Germany to get people to come and use the path and walk it. We made videos, wrote blog posts and invited journalists to come and review and investigate the path, so many more people started to become aware of it. We started to organise packaged trips for people and also film and food festivals in the area to bring a new younger demographic. But a lot of the ideas we had really just came from having lived in Amsterdam and being younger than the rest in the province. But the council there had all these funds and wanted to give us money to make an impact, and that was great.

“As a coordinator however I am doing my bit to make a difference, I’m facilitating the students to enable them to work on these projects, in the easiest and most efficient way possible, it’s small but it makes a difference and creates change.”

→ You went to Sweden to escape all these societal problems. How is it now being a coordinator and listening to all these societal problems brought to light by students?

HT: Haha! Well, one reason I wanted to escape it was because it really gets to me. It becomes so overwhelming, and in the Netherlands I never felt like I could actually do anything and make an impact. But in Sweden I felt like I could do it on a really small scale, and I stayed trying to do it until it felt like I wasn’t making an impact anymore.

So, to answer your question, well the issues all the students are working on inspires me and i’m really interested in all the research, the solutions, or just the general discussion makes me very happy. Of course, the organisation and coordinating the budget is an important part of the job, but really, midterms and finals are the most enjoyable part. I love seeing the students work. As a coordinator however I am doing my bit to make a difference, I’m facilitating the students to enable them to work on these projects, in the easiest and most efficient way possible, it’s small but it makes a difference and creates change. This is what is keeping me in this job, I definitely wouldn’t be doing this job in a bank.

“By connecting people together, I’m making change in a practical way.”

→ I know that you also run your own business next to being a coordinator, so I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about that?

HT: Well honestly, I like communicating and I like to bring people together. That’s actually what my shop is about, it is a shop within a shop.

Different people have their own shops inside my shop. Specifically, the shop focuses on sustainability, circularity and local produce. I’m like the owner of the market and these people have stalls inside. So they have their own tables and spaces and they rent it from me. I provide a service for social media and also sell their stuff. I’m connecting them to other people and building a network amongst these salespersons. You’re right though, I’m really coordinating here and also at my shop ‘Warenhuis Strant’.

Before I left the Netherlands to go to Sweden I was becoming a writer. Sometimes I feel that I am just coordinating everything, and I should create something myself. But actually I’ve started to realise that I am creating a lot. Clearly it’s not my own creation but I am creating these opportunities and networks for others. I’ve created this shop, I am creating! I’m not only selling or renting out space, I’m trying to change the mindset of these people in a nice way. By connecting people together, I’m making change in a practical way.

“Make a schedule! It’s so simple.”

→ You are known as the super coordinator, how would you or what advice would you give to recent graduates?

Make a schedule! It’s so simple. Just at the beginning of the week make a schedule that you can follow and act upon what you want to do, find out what’s important for you and follow that, and don’t adapt the schedule to people that are pulling you in different directions. Of course react on what others want, but stay true to yourself. That’s my advice, that’s what I try to do, but, now go talk to my boyfriend!