I divided my starter kit into two sections:
On the left side, I portray skills, knowledge and characteristics that I possess and express which I feel might be useful to me and others in this course. On the right, I portray stuff that helped me get here as they have helped me function to the best of my abilities up unto this point. I decided to express all these things via drawings because that in itself is one of the core skills I am bringing to the course. In the following abstracts, I will explain the symbolism and function behind each element in a clockwise direction.
1 + 2 + 3 = 6
With this, I am portraying my ability to create intersectional and holistic concepts from a variety of different sources. This is one of my core strengths and also one of the main reason why I am excited to work on MA SISF, as I feel like the whole course is designed to work with this ability.
Medication
Without my medication, I would not be able to attend this course.
Sketchbook + Pencils
Drawing and art, in general, help me to both quickly express ideas in a design environment and are useful for me to take my mind off things, recharge and express myself.
Passport
The passport is used as a metaphor for the privileges I hold, that allow me to be in the position that I am in.
Games
… are useful to me because they help me disconnect from real world issues for a while and allow me to reset my mental state. I also find that they can be a great source of inspiration and an important tool for teaching that transcendes language barriers.
Storytelling
Building on the final point I made in ‘Games’, I believe that storytelling is not only a great way of getting ideas and concepts across but also helps with teaching others about the significance of the topic. This sort of teaching allows them to relate to the story. You can find varying amounts of storytelling in a lot of my previous projects.
DIY + Anarchism + Collectivism
These are all philosophies that are integral to me as a designer. Both DIY and Anarchism inherent an important portion of self-empowerment rhetorics paired with the idea that one doesn’t need to ask for anyone’s allowance to start bettering the world or even just one’s own circumstances.
Collectivism then provides the additional factors of learning through others, working together, and progressing through others having different and important skills that help with achieving things that no single person would have been capable of.
Notebook + Digital Toolkit
Definitely one of the more practical sections. With this, I am trying to portray my skillset as well as my way of working. I am proficient at most of the Adobe CC programs and also some other software like Maya. Working digitally on shared documents and projects is something I have a lot of experience with.
Optimism
Is the core reason of why we all are here. After all, why try to create a better world if you don’t believe that change is possible?