The beginning of a new year makes room for new ideas about the content of our education and the way we educate. Therefore, there is a so-called yearly Potluck of Ideas, which takes place in the beginning of January. Bachelor and Master students gather to share their ideas about Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) and discuss their ideas for improving the current educational system.
This years’ theme was ‘Micro Macro’. The Student Council, who organizes the Potluck of Ideas, wanted the students to contribute ideas that are vital in shaping the micro and macro scope of DAE. “We want to help students see that they can become contributors to the culture of the school, thus the main vision of the Third Edition was to move students from consumers to contributors – a movement from getting to giving’’ says Zavier Wong.
The program
The morning started off early with a yoga session hosted by Mona Smits (Mentor of the Bachelor department) followed by breakfast with a croissant and freshly brewed coffee. After some relaxation it was time to start the Potluck of Ideas 2018: the Student Council officially opened the event and there followed a talk by Jurrienne Ossewold, Director Education, Research & Organization, on the current situation of design education at DAE. Jurrienne’s talk was followed by Joseph Grima, the Creative Director, who gave an inspiring presentation investigating how the invention of the telephone changed the way we communicate, the way networks are created and its impact on designers. He ended his talk with an inspiriting vision on design in the network society.
Thereafter, students made their way to the topic discussion.
Micro
- School Culture
- How can we integrate all the years better together? This includes the different years, the different design departments, the different courses (Bachelors and Masters), the teachers and the students, the management and the student body.
- Internal Communication
- What does efficient communication means to us? How can we improve the communication within Design Academy Eindhoven?
- Diversity
- How can we establish a culture for diversity?
- Combatting Stress
- How can we deal with stress, time management and workload?
- Responsibility
- How can we help taking care of the school and environment?
Macro
- Out-Posts
- How can we help shaping the future program of education on other locations?
- Fresh Perspectives
- How could we all help to bring the fresh input from outside into the school?
- Exchange Program
- How can we all help to fulfil the wishes and needs of exchange students?
- External Representation
- How can we all help to find alternative ways of representation?
- Education Structure
- How can we all help to take part in the process of shaping the ideal structure for our education?
This years’ Potluck of Ideas showed the effects on students of living in a time of interconnectedness, the time of always being online, the time of the network. Some of the key trends among the students were about receiving more diversity in education, more collaboration within the departments, more collaboration with other schools and more collaboration with the City of Eindhoven.
Fascinating to see, was that the discussions in the morning led to something in the afternoon: students were inspired to come together and form collectives. One of those collective rose during the topic discussion about responsibility, where one of the participating students had a keen interest in sustainability and managed to rally the other students in this discussion. Another collective came from the macro topic ‘Out-Posts’. Students from this group will continue to discuss and give shape to this future program of education. This is where this year’s vision gets embodied: students become contributors and words become actions.