When do we (did we?) become part of the establishment?
Last night was the annual Sir Misha Black Awards convened by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. We won the award for Innovation in Design Education in 2020 for our body of work, including Fixperts and #FixCamp. We felt like outliers in a room of incredible institutional partners and stellar awardees. But we were there. And we now are invited back every year and we turn up.
But for me, I'm never quite sure. Our work in what can broadly termed 'Open Learning' is deliberately small. We do exploratory work, which tries to connect ideas and people, and fit into the gaps where needed. It's always a bit hack-y and DIY. It doesn't help to be big in doing what we do and we're agnostic at best to the associations that mean you can be considered 'part of' a discipline. We can get through doors because of this - we've been seen as culture, design, STEM, STEAM, design thinking, engineering, service design, systemic design, experience design, innovation and change, creative problem solving, PBL, SEL, Skills 4.0, 21st Century skills - the list is actually endless.
So anyway back to last night, as the rockstars that are Dr Patricia Moore and Zowie Broach of the RCA were awarded, alongside a lifetime award for Mary Mullin, the formidable presence (and amazing human being) that has stewarded the award over 30 years, I found myself again not sure. But that's ridiculous right - sitting in Imperial College London with the great universities and institutions, could I be more establishment?
So I'm thinking some thoughts. The diagnostics are not impostor syndrome, it's definitely not because I'm unconfident in our work, the importance of or quality of it. But maybe there's an idea that we're challengers and on the margins, that I'm comfortable with, and I like, in a slightly egotistical way. And perhaps (reflecting on some recent conversations) I'm being lazy in not stepping up, opening up and recognising the potential of my situation. They've invited me in the room, why am I not working it?
I suspect I'm not alone in this - anyone else care to share?
