by Danielle Arets
The Nous Sommes evening at Design Academy Eindhoven aimed to give students and staff a deeper understanding of the Charlie Hebdo debate. Via a series of workshops, speeches and a plenary discussions we explored how designers can relate and respond to the broader issues impacting on the lives of people.
“5 minutes after Paris was attacked I sent a tweet: ‘There has been a terroristic attack #CharlieHebdo #Paris,’” says Stefan de Vries, opening the Nous Sommes event at the Design Academy Eindhoven last week.
De Vries, correspondent in Paris for a.o. RTL4 news, was one of the first journalists to arrive at the crime scene and provided ongoing commentary to the Netherlands on how the shocking event effected France as well as the rest of Europe.
In France the concept of Laicite, the strict division of church and state, is practically a religious notion so it has been interesting to watch how the debate around freedom of speech developed. De Vries explained to his DAE audience how this belief in freedom is deeply rooted in the French DNA and impacts upon all aspects of political life.
The Charlie Hebdo magazine, which has always struggled with dwindling subscription numbers, now stands as a metaphor for this strong belief in freedom of speech. But to “be Charlie” as it turns out is a complicated position to take and what does it really mean anyway?
It was this question that over 100 students and tutors sought to tackle in the workshops, which varied form meditation and yoga to
more philosophical discussions about the constitution. We heard debates with Muslims and talked about the more personal impact of the media on how we think. We also creatively explored the issue with our own cartoons and slogans.
It was concluded during the plenary discussion that “open mindedness” was critical. Abdou Bouzerda, lawyer and freelance journalist at VPRO-radio, reminded the audience that a minority of Muslims respond with aggression, while a larger proportion continue to explore how they relate to the notion of non-Muslims portraying the prophet in a less than respectful way. One participant in the Loesje workshop came up with “god is an imaginary friend” as a slogan. Francis van Graafeijland, who gave the yoga workshop, emphasized that we should all train ourselves to step deeper into other people’s shoes.
Most interestingly none of the participants felt that they were participating in #NousSommes as a designer. Alice Twemlow, chair of the D-crit (design criticism) programme at the SVA in New York stressed the importance of designer better relating to the outside world: “Of course you are involved as designers; that is what you are here for; you have to relate to current issues; that is your obligation as a human being; and as a designer you can try to shape the debate with tangible interactions.”
As for Thomas Widdershoven, it became very clear that this event was just the start of a larger discussion on how designers can relate to current issues.
And that debate will certainly continue. “Can we design god?’ he asked.
See our student’s #DAENousSommes tumblr roll on the event. http://dae-nous-sommes.tumblr.com