Online Talk

Design in the Diaspora

Tuesday 27 September 2022 – Tuesday 21 February 2023

Date

Tuesday 27 September, Tuesday 18 October, Tuesday 22 November, Tuesday 24 January, Tuesday 21 February
Time
18.30 - 19.00
Location

Instagram @newarchwriters
Free

Tune in for our rebooted Instagram Live series!

Developed in partnership with We Are Here Scotland and New Architecture Writers, join us to explore the work of contemporary designers and creatives from diasporic communities across Scotland.

Each month we will bring you a new guest, selected by We Are Here Scotland, paired with a host from New Architecture Writers. Together, they will explore creative practice and career journeys – amplifying and celebrating diverse identities, cultures, and heritages across the creative industries.

The conversation will take place on Instagram Live, last approximately 30mins and there will be a live Q&A where you’ll get to pitch questions to the guests and hosts.

To tune in, find us on Instagram!

Meet the Guests and the Hosts:

Tuesday 23 Aug 2022 – Tune in to Lela Sujani interviewing Kumi McKenna
Kumi McKenna is an Aberdeen based designer from Airdrie with a love of humour, texture and characters. She takes elements from her mixed Japanese Scottish background to implement ‘kawaii’ motifs with some Scottish humour. Recently she has found a love of riso printing which she regularly uses to transform her work from digital to physical. Find out more on Kumi’s Instagram @kumimckenna and website .

Lela Sujani is an Indonesian Architect and writer based in London. She seeks to explore placemaking in the context of the diaspora. Her interests include utilising writing and event curation as tools to critically engage with topics related to the built environment and advocating for underrepresented groups in the public realm.

Tuesday 27 Sep 2022 – Tune in to Krish Nathaniel interviewing Rae-Yen Song
Rae-Yen Song is an artist based in Glasgow. Working expansively through drawing, sculpture, installation, costume, video, sound, performance, family collaboration and any other medium that becomes appropriate, Song’s practice is a long-term exercise in self-mythology as survival tactic. It explores the position of Other within our tangled reality, speaking broadly through fantasy about foreignness, animism, identity, interdependency, and what it means to belong – or not. Find out more on Rae-Yen’s Instagram @raeyensong and website.

Krish Nathaniel. is a spatial practitioner and writer with a focus on free play, transnationalism and social histories. Working at the intersection of urban design and spatial justice, Krish is Principal Urban Designer for the London Borough of Harrow and architect-in-residence at Glamis Adventure Playground, East London. Find out more on Krish’s Instagram @krish.nathaniel.

Tuesday 18 Oct 2022 – Tune in to Teshome Douglas-Campbell interviewing Ade Adesina
Ade Adesina, born in Nigeria 1980, is a full time artist based in Aberdeen. Ade's work is a visual commentary around the ideas of ecology and our ever-changing world. He is a traditional printmaker, painter and sculptor who combines cultures to produce work that makes people reflect on the past, present and the future. Ade studied printmaking at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, is a Royal Scottish Academician, a member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Art, a The London Group and Associate Member Royal Society of Painter-printmakers. Past Artist in Residence at Eton College & Glasgow Print Studio. Find out more on Ade’s website.

London-based architectural designer, Teshome Douglas-Campbell explores interdisciplinary practice that comes as a slightly autobiographical mix of architecture, art and community engagement. He has a keen interest in contributing to green space in urban areas while involving community participation a key impetus for design.

More guests and hosts will be announced shortly!

Design in the Diaspora was first developed by Maryam Deeni.

Image header: ▷▥◉▻ , Dundee Contemporary Arts, 2021. Photo: Ruth Clark