PHD DISARMING DESIGN
Politics of Participatory Practices
PhD Defence Annelys de Vet
Promotors: Prof. Dr. Pascal Gielen, Dr. Petra Van Brabandt
Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts
Sint Lucas School of Arts (Showroom)
Van Schoonbekestraat 143, Antwerp
Friday 29 November
2.30 pm Doors and exhibition open
3.00 pm Presentation and public defence
5.00 pm Reception
Image: Production of ‘Identity = health’ facemask, Gaza 2020. Photo: Abed Zagout
In our current political and economic landscape, sustaining an emancipatory design practice—one that aligns with progressive political beliefs and social values—poses significant challenges. My practice-based research explores how political agency can be strengthened amidst these conditions by engaging in participatory design processes.
Both the installation and dissertation extensively document three long-term, self-directed, participatory design projects: a series of books (the Subjective Atlas series), a design label (Disarming Design from Palestine), and a master’s programme (Disarming Design at Sandberg Instituut). Each of these collaborative platforms originated as a counterproposal to activate design as a methodology to amplify voices, mobilise communities, and create new opportunities. Aesthetics play a crucial role in this work, shaping the sensory, material, and emotional dynamics of our spaces, the materials we engage with, and the hospitality we practise.
By detailing the processes and outcomes of each of the three projects, from initiation to materialisation, and from distribution to impact, the dissertation offers an intimate and self-critical insight into the politics, tensions, and possibilities of participatory design practices. At the core is a drive to ask: How can design be liberated from the goal of finding ‘solutions’ and become a practice of agency and solidarity?