Imagining Otherwise encompasses current and past projects at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, and strives toward socially transformative educational and design practices and more equitable futures.
The project started in October 2018, against the backdrop of massive feminist mobilizations, such as NiUnaMenos, Women's March, and Feminist Strike; and the rising demands from the students for design education that counters patriarchal-colonial narratives. Inspired by the research and activism of Palestinian design educator and researcher Danah Abdulla, we joined forces to start imagining design otherwise—a practice that is critical, situated, reflexive, and socially transformative.
Believing in the transformative potential of design and echoing Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar's words, we began asking ourselves: “How can design be infused with a more explicit sense of politics?” How can we participate in the recentering of design education by specifically situating it in relation to structures of inequality, sexism, racism, and colonialism? And how can we disrupt hegemonic epistemologies, ontologies, and systems from within a Eurocentric institution, and strive toward more equitable, pluralistic futures?
On this website, you can delve into different projects realized since 2018. They do not attempt to answer the aforementioned questions, nor to provide universally replicable solutions. Instead, they invite you to open your mind to alternatives, and to open up spaces of potential for change—as expressed by feminist activist and writer bell hooks: “a space where there is unlimited access to the pleasure and power of knowing, where transformation is possible.”
Team
Co-directors: Mayar El-Bakry, Maya Ober and Laura Pregger
Imagining Otherwise was co-conceived by Maya Ober and Laura Pregger. In 2019, Mayar El-Bakry joined the team to co-curate Educating Otherwise, a continuing education program.
This course explored the intersections of feminist thought, design, and political activism, interrogating how design is never neutral but always embedded within power structures. Through a combination of theoretical readings, discussions, and practical engagements, students examined how feminist perspectives challenge dominant narratives in design, from mobility and borders (Mahmoud Keshavarz) to social justice and Indigenous knowledge systems (Jéra Guarani, Antônio Bispo dos Santos). Key topics included the feminist killjoy as a figure of disruption (Sara Ahmed), the colonial legacies shaping Swiss design, and the role of queer use in subverting normative structures. By critically engaging with these themes, students questioned how design participates in the reproduction of systems of oppression and explore how design can be a tool for dissent, resistance, and institutional transformation.
Throughout the semester, students worked both individually and in groups to apply feminist methodologies to design research. They compiled an archive of colonial entanglements in Swiss design, map the intersections of activism, sustainability, and Indigenous epistemologies, and collectively assemble a "Feminist Killjoy Survival Kit" for art and design students. The course culminated in an exploration of bodies, space, and queer use, drawing from Sara Ahmed and Paul B. Preciado to rethink materiality, access, and affect in design. Ultimately, this course invited students to engage with design not only as a professional practice but as a site of political struggle, cultural negotiation, and radical world-making.
📖 Syllabus and the Reading List
Mar 5 🗣Introduction – Feminist Genealogies and Design Politics Intro
Mar 12 Reading and discussion of Design Politics
📚Keshavarz, Mahmoud “Introduction: Design, Politics, and the Mobility Regime.” In The Design Politics of the Passport: Materiality, Immobility, and Dissent, 1–19. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019
🎧 Mahmoud Keshavarz /// What Forms of Politics Are Possible Through Design Today?, 2014. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XUo9tPxAZmcGOaVCdArx4
❓Discuss the following questions in the group of 5-6:
What does design politics mean within your design, artistic, or educational practice?
Reflect on the narratives embedded within your passports or travel documents.
Mar 19 🗣What Can Design Learn from Feminisms?
Mar 26 Reading and discussion of Feminist Killjoy
📚Ahmed, Sara. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. Milton Keynes Dublin: Allen Lane, 2023.
❓Assignment: In groups of 5-6 people try to outline some points for the survival kit of Feminist Killjoy Art and Design Students and write down your thoughts on the etherpad
How do you understand the term feminist killjoy?
What killing joy means in our school, in artistic and design practice?
16.04. 🗣Whose ‘apolitical’, ‘neutral’ and ‘universal’ design?
23.04. Discussion on Social Justice: Intersections of Activism, Design, and Sustainability
📚Guarani, Jéra. “Becoming Savage,” April 22, 2022.
https://futuress.org/stories/becoming-savage/
📚 Bispo dos Santos, Antônio “We Belong to the Land,” April 12, 2023
https://futuress.org/stories/we-belong-to-the-land/
❓Discuss the following questions in the group of 5-6
Discuss the significance of oral traditions and oral contracts within quilombola communities as opposed to written contracts imposed by colonial authorities. How does this relate to their connection to the land?
According to Antônio Bispo dos Santos, what is the difference between organic knowledge and synthetic knowledge? How do these different forms of knowledge impact societal structures and relationships?
How does Jerá Guarani discuss the concept of "becoming savage" in the context of Indigenous culture and environmental activism?
Can you identify any design principles or practices mentioned by Jerá Guarani that contribute to the preservation of Indigenous culture and the environment?
30.04. 🗣 Swiss Colonial History and its Entanglements in Design
07.05. 🇨🇭 Groups research Swiss colonial history in design through their archive
⚒️ Assignment: In groups of 5-6, please bring artifacts, objects, graphics, and practices that perpetuate colonial power imbalances. Consider connections to Switzerland and examine the designed world for manifestations and materializations of colonial practices. Compile this archive and share and discuss it within your group in the classroom.
14.05. 🗣 On Use – Learning Design with Sara Ahmed
🎬 Examined Life - Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor 720p.Avi, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE.
21.05. Reading, Queer Use, Affect and Design – Sara Ahmed
📚Ahmed Sara “Conclusion. Queer Use.” In What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use,
197–230. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.
❓In groups discuss the following questions
28.05. 🗣Bodies and Spaces Final Class
In this class, we will engage in a lecture and a discussion. Additionally, please read the following text to expand the insights on the topic.
📚 Preciado, Paul B. “Trashgender: Urinate/Defecate, Masculine/Feminine.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, September 6, 2017.