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To spark new thinking. To hear perspectives. For inclusion, connexion, and learning. Together.

In real life

3 April | S P A C E | HCMC, ‘Miniparty’

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

LET’S TALK ABOUT learning. How we discover, find, and make new connections. Ideas, shapes of thinking and the input that comes from places that might not be the ‘usual’ ones. No more boring meetings: What are the containers that make great conversations *happen*? Conversations that lead to better collaboration and better work? Those are important. Let’s not waste time. Let’s make things better, together.

Better and more enjoyable: that’s the key.

How do we design the S P A C E that lets fresh thinking flow? Continue reading “3 April | S P A C E | HCMC, ‘Miniparty’”

A Philosophy of the Moment · In real life

Atelier S P A C E | Opening Reception

Posted on by A. Spaice

Opening Reception

Atelier S P A C E | Spring 2021 Collection, ‘Thoải Mái’

Atelier S P A C E is making zines each week. They are designed by our team in Ho Chi Minh City. The concepts for each week’s issue arrive from real-time conversations with the people we discover, on our daily routines, in search of… the new. Find out what it is, and see our Spring 2021 collection. Each zine is part of a limited-edition set of no more than 4 issues, and you can find out what we have been doing and also how you can join us for the Summer 2021 conversations, ahead.

Tickets are VND 150.000.

Max 8.

RSVP to http://designkompany.com/contact

Details from there.

In real life · Publisher's Diary · The Muse

A sunny day

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

Dear L,

Cooooool. That was so fun.

Photo: Van Tran

I was taken on a journey that transported me out of Vietnam, but also, outside of all the usual boxes that you can find even when you leave the nation-border box. (HT Jiddu Krishnamurthi) For example, the strict thinking that keeps us from trying new things. All the feelings that I have been having here in Vietnam on my own, for a year, unable to articulate because of English I got to completely open up and share. That was amazing, and I got to hear, moreover, something in exchange. These exchanges are what I enjoy most about making S P A C E. They—the exchanges—are, after all, the whole point of it. And fun. ‘If it’s not fun’, as Boss says, ‘then there’s no point doing it.’ Thanks to conversations with MB this year, though I am coming out of the cave. It’s nice outside. Sunny.

Một ngày nắng đẹp.

Cheers, ladies and gentlemen.

To the journeys, then

D
PS A week or so from now, I’ll host another popup, maybe. By invitation for those already in my circle, but for those who aren’t, and are reading this blog post, and want to know more, here is a signup page: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/atelier-s-p-a-c-e-meetup-tickets-146866045295

Photo: Van Tran, Atelier S P A C E HCMC, Autumn 2020. Atelier S P A C E is supported by crowdfunding, in-kind donations, and Design Kompany client gigs.

 

100 Conversations · Desk Notes · In real life · Stories

30-31 December | ‘Everyday English’ afternoon Mini-parties

Posted on by Dipika Kohli
Cụm từ giao tiếp hàng ngày đơn giản..

Học cùng Atelier S P A C E // TP.HCM ..

Học… Tiếng Anh..

Cụm từ giao tiếp hàng ngày đơn giản..

Xin chào ! Cùng nhau nghiên cứu hội thoại hàng ngày nhé. Trò chuyện mỗi ngày về những gì bạn muốn học! Tránh xa điện thoại của bạn và làm điều gì đó mới ..

Những câu chuyện hàng ngày về chủ đề bạn chọn ..

  • Du lịch..
  • Tiếng anh đơn giản ..
  • Kết bạn mới ..
  • Khám phá một cách suy nghĩ mới về mọi thứ ..
  • Đọc những câu chuyện đơn giản bằng tiếng Anh (có bản dịch tiếng Việt)

Hãy cùng nhau khám phá thêm về mọi thứ ..

Cool. We’re looking forward to getting to know you a little. We kept finding out about English centers and getting asked if we wanted to teach at one of them, but it’s just not our thing, teaching in that kind of way. We much prefer the kind of style of learning that begins where you feel like it, just dive in. We’re not teachers; we’re just in Vietnam because… well. Long story ! I’ll tell you, haha! –DK

Hãy gặp nhau, hãy trò chuyện, và hãy cùng nhau khám phá thêm… Chúng tôi sẽ gặp nhau tại một không gian công cộng gần studio của chúng tôi. Studio của chúng tôi là Atelier S P A C E, ở Quận 3, Trần Quang Diệu.

DK sẽ gửi cho bạn ‘S P A C E | HCMC, ‘Quarky,’ để xem qua trước buổi học đầu tiên của chúng tôi.

Book your seat..

Very limited seats. There is a fee to participate. Advance bookings only. Thanks. Here is the place to book:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/noi-chuyen-voi-hang-xom-cua-ban-in-everyday-english-o-tickets-134256210941

100 Conversations · Desk Notes · In real life

‘Last Christmas’

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

Dear D,

It was cool. I enjoyed it. The karaoke, I mean.

The song–I had a reason to be excited that you were singing it. [personal story deleted]

My stomach is fixed, now.

Meantime, I had been thinking over what you said. Unlike your exchange-student friends, I’m not that impressed about the whole language study being ‘sugoi’ or whatever. You and I both know that it’s practice, which is an internal drive to just be better. BETTER than ourselves, we have to compare ourselves to our former selves and just get more and more good. That isn’t something you need patting on the back from others to do. People like you and me, well, we like to study. The studying and learning is in and of itself the reward. For me, anyway, that’s the case. How about you? For me, the accolades, at least, are not for me. Exploration is. Discovery is. Pushing the box out, further and further. Expansiveness. That’s my jam—going there.

[deleted]

Alright, here’s the crux of what I want to say to you. Directly, and after all. Japan: over.

To me.

To me, after studying Japanese for 10 years and whatever, I feel… like… tearer’s… little to get excited about it now. But guess what? HCMC.

Here. What about here? HCMC is an incredible place with its own fountain of potential for showing the world… something new. New and different.

This is my local..

This is where Atelier S P A C E meets. Often. Regularly. Third Space-style. (Google that).

Man, D. I wish you could have studied in Kyoto and gotten it over with and seen that now, well, what Japan has said it is isn’t what it is. If you know what I mean? Same like anywhere.

OK, um.

Are you there? Can you hear me? Let’s talk about this. I’m not kidding.

I think whisky should be part of that. Oh, but 20. Are you allowed to drink? I don’t know the rules here. Let’s get coffee, then.

I’ll leave you with this.

 

Originality refers to the production of a new idea, without any particular care for whether these ideas will be useful or not. So when you’re brainstorming and trying to turn out as many possibilities as you can, psychologists would call this originality, not creativity. It’s originality that is enhanced by positive moods.

16N · A Philosophy of the Moment · Desk Notes · In real life

‘N’ Hồ Chí Minh: NGHỆ THUẬT NÓI CHUYỆN

Posted on by A. Spaice

Another ‘N’.

Is getting designed. It will take place this month. It will happen in HCMC.

 

Relational aesthetics x ‘N’..

I’ve sent, by now, more than 20 invitations here and there through the internet to people and most of those, of course, have gone unanswered. Though there is always the magic of the follow-up note, I’ve found, in my past explorations in hosting ‘N’ in other cities. Phnom Penh, to start, and then London, Copenhagen, Bangkok, Hanoi.

 

‘N’ is your masterpiece, DK
-AM, 2017, Phnom Penh

‘N’, an invitation, is here, if you are curious. I’m always open to hearing from people who just simply find out about it and get in touch. Cool! That’s what I do! So yeah. Most welcome to initiate a conversation with us, if you like what you see at the link.

Design is trying things,
then trying them again..

You try it, you find out what works, what doesn’t. You adjust and adapt the next set of things so that you optimize for what you want. In the case of ‘N,’ right from the start, I was designing for: making it happen. Who has time to send 67 emails trying to meet for coffee? Not me. So I just invited 16 people to meet at the same time and at the same place so they could all have the guesswork and admin time neatly removed from their lives and simply show up for a party. That. Was. The idea. And it still is, six years later.

‘N’ in Hồ Chí Minh
set for December 2020..

If you have already been in touch with DK about this, at some point in the months of September or October, when we hosted our small four-person meet ups, then you can come to this one and see what you missed. If you got an invitation, and were wondering, here is your second-chance. I don’t usually do that, but due to covid, 16N has been recast as a series of mini-parties instead of the giant ‘big blind date for 16 people’ that it used to be. Still and all, I’m curious to see what will happen when we do this, again, this month. Some are registering. Some are going to be there. Will we see you? Let’s find out. Email us back if you got the invitation, or just go through the links from the invitation page.

 

Curious?..

The page is here: http://designkompany.com/16n

Let us know.

‘Tell me more, DK.’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Like, what would be the hashtags?’

‘#whynot #sayyes #play16n.’

Desk Notes · In real life

10 Nov | ‘Start with Something Simple’

Posted on by A. Spaice

This is a conversation salon. A dialogue. A discussion. A conversation in which we have no ‘sides’, but just a ‘center.’ Sharing as we go with those who are open-minded, curious and not seeking to change other people or push an agenda. It’s your chance to relax and discover, together with others who opt-in to join this. Google ‘open space technology’ and learn more about our style of seeking those who find this interesting and wnat to be a part of… something different. Past events we’ve hosted include: Rooftop Philosophy in Phnom Penh, BEAUTY, Self, Choices, and Flow: How to Effortlessly Rise to Your Peak Productivity in Less than 90 Minutes.

WHO IT IS FOR. It is for people who are interested in exploring new ways of thinking, and meeting others searching for new perspectives, too. English-language dialogue hosted by Design Kompany‘s Atelier S P A C E team in HCMC. Come and see what 20 years’ experience discovering concepts for our cleints looks like when we bring that to a living-room setting at a cozy, off-the-main-track cafe with a modern aesthetic. Like we said: new things. Not for everyone.

WHO IS DK. DK is Design Kompany, a boutique studio that bounced around from Seattle to Durham NC to Phnom Penh to…. HCMC. Simply. Exploring. DK publishes a weekly e-mag, S P A C E. It’s about design and discovery.

‘S P A C E quests S P A C E.’

Details: http://designkompany.com/ateliers

100 Conversations · Desk Notes · Found in the Field · In real life · Innovation Consulting + Design Thinking · Publisher's Diary · The Muse

Atelier S P A C E // HCMC process.. HT V & D

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

Atelier S P A C E // HCMC is an Autumn 2020 project of DK’s that is co-created by photographer Van Tran and DK Creative Director Dipika Kohli.

‘Studio Day’ by Van Tran / Ho Chi Minh City, Oct. 2020

.. this page used to be a notebook for a grant application that I was going to apply for…

There are so many important questions that pop up when someone who knows how to ask you if the thing you’re making is deserving of wider attention can ask.

Atelier S P A C E // HCMC’s collaborating team is loose and changes, and the people who come bring what they like to the tables. We started to share more there about ideas, mostly philosophical things related to space, time, distance. A-ha!, that’s it. Questing.

chuffed.org/project/spacethezine

 

Found in the Field · In real life

Issue #97

Posted on by A. Spaice

The lead story for this issue is ‘Bờ Biển 1999,’ or ‘Seaside 1999’. It’s by Quân Nguyễn.

This story is in Vietnamese and in English.

Special thanks to DS Phong for editing.

Two images made by Boss are included in this issue, too. Cover image is a show of new works that is a collaboration to make new kinds of zines and art books. This project is led by team members of Atelier S P A C E / HCMC, who are, so far, Văn Trần and Dipika Kohli. 

Feature writer: Quân Nguyễn

Quân Nguyễn writes about his reflections on visiting his home country while returning to his life abroad, in Denmark. On his way to Aarhus, in this quiet moment, he looks back on childhood, and recalls a friend. A dear friend, whom he has not quite lost touch with as they maintain a digital connexion. Yet, somehow, he feels far. A short flash fiction work, in both English and Vietnamese.

Here’s a link.

https://gumroad.com/l/space-saigon-ngaybaygio

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'S' is for Sincerity · Found in the Field · In real life · The Muse

Issue #86

Posted on by A. Spaice

S P A C E | Đà Lạt • ‘Tìm Mình Trong Thế Giới’ is the next in our weekly e-zine series. It is set to release on Tuesday.

DK Director Dipika Kohli made the drawing on the cover this week. The drawing’s title is: Chúc Ngủ Ngon & Chào Buổi Sáng / Good Night & Good Morning.

A line artist for many years, Kohli has rekindled her old style of drawing by putting pencil to page again. This [cover] drawing is part of a series of more than fifty new pencil and colored pencil works. These were created in quiet moments, on the spot, in several cafes and brightly lit atelier spaces she discovered while in ‘The Great Lockdown’ (so far) in Đà Lạt, Việt Nam. Kohli had plenty of time alone to write, draw, and reflect, whilst also working on a new book, End of the Rainbow (Kismuth Books / forthcoming 2020).

This  effort has come out of the slowing down, a natural outcome  resulting from the first and second waves of covid19-related measures to maintain social distancing, and self-isolating, in the era of this, the Great Lockdown, so far. Kohli has been in the Central Highlands since April—and continues to discover and make. In bursts, that is. And only when inspired by the chance encounter and surprisingly enriching dialogues with the people in the places where she goes. S P A C E is a weekly zine. It is created by Design Kompany, which was started in 2004 in Seattle and today is based in Phnom Penh. DK are intrigued about how to design the space for an aesthetic moment to happen, on the spot, for unexpected and random connexion, with the people, objects, and places where they go, in S P A C E.

You can order this week’s issue.

Here’s a link.

http://gum.co/space-dalat-tmttg

Thanks! ;)

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In real life · Papers

Papers | Saigon

Posted on by A. Spaice
For the very curious. This is a real life event.
It will be held on Friday, 19 June…
in Saigon.

About this Event

An interactive, hands-on workshop. Write. Discover. And perhaps be featured to share your work one day, if there’s resonance and rapport, in our weekly e-mag S P C.

DK is in Saigon for a set of time to find new voices and select and edit stories.

A. Spaice hosts. Experience S P C.

Will we meet you?

Let’s see.

No experience necessary. Writers, artists, designers, and illustrators are welcome. No photographers, please. Just too much of that, these days. We want to slow down and make a space to discover, quietly and together, what’s interesting about *right here*, and *right now*. Note: we will ask you to put your phone into a box, when we begin!

Secret location, District 1, public space. Bring a +1 for free.

Agest 20+. Advance bookings only. Register here to confirm. Location details and agenda to follow by email, from there.

 

In real life

Reality & Trust

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

‘Reality & Trust’ will take place in either Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, in late June.

What’s real? Who decides? Let’s talk about it, offline.

REALITY & TRUST. What’s real? Who even knows, anymore. But let’s parse it out, in real life, together. The way we consume information now becomes how we read and experience and interact with each other. But I remember a different time. When you would walk into a place and see people like actually live-talking together with facial expressions and eye contact, with no dinging and ringing things in their pockets, just hanging out, maybe telling jokes? without having rehearsed them, hello, why do people do this, or just simply laughing out loud, and not being so overly concerned about ‘reactions.’

This was the other house plant that Susan loved to photograph, when she made her journey to the Northern European climates that offered that oh-so-perfect wan light. Read ALTIY >

 

EVOLUTIONS. In June 2017, I was in Hanoi and hosting a popup installation in real life that was called ‘N’ Hanoi: Narrative.

‘N’ happened in Hanoi on 27 June 2017

There were tickets. Limited seats. And, a *secret location*. Which I shared only after people committed to it. Why? Trust. The idea was, you didn’t quite know what was going to happen but you trusted enough in the concept (or me, if I met you in person) to show up on the day and say, ‘OK. Take me on a journey.’ It was beautiful. There’s even a selfie. Now, here we are in 2020, the exact same month, and let’s move on to Reality. Real life is great, and for me, the best channel for conversation and real connexion. The quality ones that I most enjoy. ‘Make what you wish existed’ is advice I got from Saleem Reshamwala, who has that pinned on his twitter, and I think for me these events are *it*.

HANOI OR SAIGON. Now I’m Vietnam. I have been, since February (guess why!), and I have two weeks left. Shall I come to Hanoi, or Saigon, and host a conversation salon for those of you who are reading this and saying, ‘Yeah, we need to discuss things in real life spaces with people whom we don’t aleady know?’ Right now I am a 12-28-hour bus ride away from either spot. But!, I will go there, if people are ‘on’ for this. I know, right? Random. Yet. I like it this way.

LOCATION. I’ll share the location of ‘Reality’ with registering guests *only*. Min 4. Max 8. Advance bookings only.If 4 people book, I’ll get the night bus from where I am and tell you where ‘Reality’ will be.✨✨✨✨ This event will take place either in Hanoi or Saigon. It just kinda depends on who says ‘yes’ first and confirms with a booking. Min 4. Max 8. Advance bookings only. Old school, keeping it real. Meet other people who appreciate showing-up-ness. Right? Crazy.

Why am I doing it like this? Well, you can read all about ‘N’ if you want a mini-manifesto on ‘The Culture of Maybe’. Note: I’ll refund any tickets 100%, for you if the city you book for isn’t as ‘in’ as the other one. Of course, I’ve also seen people travel for these. Distances like from Paris to London, once, and other times, too, but it’s really because they are already familiar with the kind of jam session DK makes space for. It’s not like anything else. You have to experience it, because I am not posting a ‘sell it to me’ glossy instagrammy piece of junk here. I’m posting… The Invitation…

'S' is for Sincerity · Found in the Field · In real life

Issue #68, S P C | Rīga, ‘This is This’

Posted on by Dipika Kohli

A year ago at this time, DK was getting set to jet set from Bangkok to Rīga.

Why Rīga?

Art nouveau, for one. Conversations, for another.

Put them together, and you get… This. This week, S P C | Rīga, ‘This is This’.

Cover art is by Nils don Sihvola. (Discover his emotive digital photography works at instagram @nils_don_sihvola.)

Writing and inside graphic art is by Dipika Kohli.

It’s members-only, this one.

Start your subscription and learn more about the issue at the link.

Here’s the link.

http://gum.co/space-riga-this

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