
The short answer to that question (“Why make a book?”) is: I am a book designer. This is what I do. Making books — conceiving, editing, designing, publishing — is my practice, my way of making sense. (Or trying to do so, at least.) But since short answers aren’t necessarily the most interesting ones, let’s complicate this a bit by asking another question, pointing into the direction of what the artist I just mentioned brought forward, and taking their criticism seriously: Is making a book not contradictory to the very ideas and ideals of feminism? Is making books not a way of conflicting oneself, and also of being complicit with the updating and continuation of existing narratives and hierarchies in the process of meaning-making that any feminist strives to abolish? Am I not risking to further stabilize structures of exclusion and oppression by participating in a capitalist production model that reduces the book to a mere commodity — when, for instance, Stéphane Mallarmé called it a “spiritual instrument” (Mallarmé 1998: 254) once?
…r criticism seriously: Is making a book not contradictory to the very ideas and ideals of feminism? Is making books not a way of conflicting oneself, and also of being complicit with the updating and continuation of existing narratives and hierarchies in the process of meaning-making that any feminist strives to abolish? Am I not risking to further stabilize structures of exclusion and oppression by participating in a …
Design thinking is a problem solving methodology that is used to address ‘wicked problems’. What is a wicked problem? A wicked problem means that the nature of the problem is highly ambiguous. Think of it as a highly complex problem where there are many knowns and unknowns. “Playing chess is a complex problem. Having your in-laws over for dinner for the first time is a wicked problem. You are having dinner but there are lot of other issues going on.” Udaya Patnaik, Founder of Jump Associates. Wicked problems do not have clear yes or no solution. There are only better or worse solutions to …