Workshop | Stretch (Y)our Future with Dutch Creatives

How can we recognize "future" standing on our feet rather than imagining it somewhere far away? As a twenty-something, "future" is such a fluid yet drastic concept to get to grips with. Whether you have completed a study, started working, or found a passion, the road constantly involves hurdles and new choices.

As a part of the publication project featuring creative professionals from the Netherlands, we held a dialogue-based program for young adults, “Stretch (Y)our Future with Dutch Creatives.” Working together with Faezeh Mohammadi from Pakhuis de Zwijger and Bobo Ophuis, we have tackled the question of how we may release excessive pressure for the future and stretch our sense of ownership in cultivating the life path as a young adult.

"Future" as Present 

Following pre-dialogue events with people aged from 18 to around 30 in Tokyo, we invited two guests from the Netherlands who share the same age group to co-organize the workshop with us: Faezeh Mohammadi, a programme maker of Pakhuis de Zwijger; and Bobo Ophuis, who currently works as a junior editor at openresearch.amsterdam, joining with her initiative. 

In the workshop, we set the core value as “the future is present,” under the three themes: understanding societies through personal stories, defining yourself anew, and improvising "our" culture.

▪︎Whither the Perspectives?

In Bobo’s workshop called “Curiosity Creates Connections,” she introduced us to the term "Banana Generation," meaning yellow/Asian from the outside and white/Western from the inside. Each participant delved into their perspective and background by turning seemingly prosaic surroundings into a new world with the concept model: observe, analyze, share, and observe differently. Through the experiment of drawing objects from an outside viewpoint and sharing opinions, Bobo asked participants to explore how they may see our surroundings differently tomorrow.

▶︎Bobo Ophuis led the workshop "Curiosity Creates Connection"

▪︎Designing Where We Live?

Faezeh brought up the concept of design in a broader sense, stating that everyone is a designer in this world. Posing the question of whether you are familiar with "masking," a survival strategy in which a person assimilates oneself to the built environment by certain actions, the awareness of how we may have tried to fit into certain circumstances arises. Bringing some examples from her project “Designing Cities for All” in Pakhuis de Zwijger, participants discussed how the sense of belonging may be proactively (re)designed, or sometimes, even without designing it. Once we set a proactive attitude to redesign where we live, the ownership emerges.

▶︎Faezeh Mohammadi moderated a program on a sense of belonging and the role of design in a city

▪︎Dialogue...?

In addition, the program touched upon some key topics, such as creating intercultural/intergenerational dialogue, embracing fragility and empathy in creating connections, and redefining success to something closer to their heart. The former induced personal stories of the participants from different parts of the world, revealing how geopolitical and sociocultural aspects of a community influenced them. In the latter, all participants reflected on how society conceptualizes "success" with what criteria, and were asked to redefine and visualize their version of it with drawings and an imaginative job title they would dare to pursue. In the end, it drew a sharp contrast between the structured career view and the organic nature of their sense of life satisfaction. 

▶︎Participants shared their personal stories and perspectives not only through keywords but also with visuals, framing core ideas behind

Note on Intercultural Collaboration

The workshop explored the power of dialogue in an intercultural setting; through words and drawings, with others and yourself. Rather than highlighting the cultural difference at the forefront, we began with an introspective approach to what everyone at the table has in common: generation. The deeper a dialogue went, the more to the core each person's story was unlocked.

While sharing the universal struggles as young adults, it was a beautiful experience listening to each other to explore the cultural contexts they live in. We look forward to more international collaborations and working collectively in creating dialogue that matters.  

🔗LINK

↗︎ Report from Pakhuis de Zwijger