Eugenie de Lariviere

Department: Contextual Design

MY EDUCATION FRUSTRATION

Dear Creative Director of Design Academy Eindhoven,
I am a student in design. With this letter I wish to start an education discussion in which students are included. I do not pretend to speak for ‘the group’. On the contrary, this is the result of my personal reflection.

Over the past months, I have looked deeply into design education. I am not a critic,
a theorist or an intellectual. I am a student and a designer. As such, I believe in
the potential of institutions to evolve based on what happens within them.

I want to be considered as an active participant of my education, and I need to be given
the trust to experiment with my projects as much as with my education. I wish to start
by defi-ning my own formation.

Schools need not only to be more attentive to the contemporary world but to strive for greater communication collaboration. Most importantly, we, students and professionals,
need to re-affirm design schools as places to produce culture. Constantly bringing
existing knowledge into question, schools need to dare to create again.

It is because I think the changes must come through the making, and because
I believe they will come from the students that I want to affirm my position as a student.

We need to take education matters in our hands, away from the academics’ monopoly.

It is time to reshape structure, redefine content, reinforce community, and reinvest environment. It starts with the students, it starts within schools.

Sincerely,
Eugenie