Becoming a Collective – An Exploration of Togetherness as a Design & Arts Collective

Facing graduation and the art & design industry that comes after it, we asked ourselves a question that felt both personal and political: What if we worked together? And following on that, what does it actually mean to work together? As a way of being, which resists dominant & lonely ways of being an artist & designer.

“Becoming a Collective” is an open-ended exploration of togetherness situated within a broader concern with the progressing individualisation in society and the creative industry. It touches on how communities and spaces are strangled by capitalism’s need for consumption & loneliness and how collective working is strangled by the societal progression towards individualism.

 THE MOST RADICAL THING WE COULD DO IS WORK TOGETHER

The final output of this exploration has become a video-essay, that articulates how we work together, how we host ourselves, others, our different backgrounds and the air between us. Sometimes a messy and fragmented process, it is a playful attempt to articulate and facilitate togetherness and the becoming of a design & arts collective.

In our attempt to facilitate togetherness, we branched into rituals, conversations and manifestos. We reflected on seemingly democratic fields such as participatory design & community facilitation. Through our exploration we emphasize how slowness and inefficiency is needed for facilitating togetherness and creating intangible spaces.

The video-essay hopes to mobilize those who have ever felt the pull towards creating differently; collectively and playfully, for

Loners

Artists

Designers

Space-Makers

Space-Seekers

Lovers of ambiguity

Those with or without hope

“Our space provides a rug to dream on

a curtain as a lens to look through

and a table on which to work 

Create your own spaces

Watch movies together

Cry together

Create together

And go from there”