Tag: spacemaking

Issue #85

Dipika Kohli

S P A C E | Battambang, ‘The Week the American Jumped Quarantine’ is a special issue from a team of friends of DK’s along with our founding members.

How people are coping with their situations where they are is one story, how we are finding out about things happening in the places where we have deep, dear ties, and reacting, together, in the cloud, is yet another. This is that jam.

Our conversations across the cloud centered on this remarkable piece of news:

A Cambodian-American woman ran away from a Center in Phnom Penh on the night of July 17, 2020 and was found by the police in a guesthouse in Kampong Cham on the evening of the 18th. July 2020. She arrived in Cambodia on July 15, 2020, on a flight with two US Embassy officials who were diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 16. The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, confirmed that this was the first case of people fleeing from quarantine. KBN

-From Cambodia News English

More to say. Saying it.

The feature photographer this time is DK’s own Akira Morita.

Issue #85 is published today.

You can order it from our store, for USD 7.

Here’s a link.

http://gum.co/space-battambang-wtajq

Thanks! ;)

What DK does best is this

Dipika Kohli

I’m finally going to write about what I do for work.

It’s taken me a little while to figure out what I wanted to focus on, for 2020-2025. I have this five-year plan. They always ask you that in interviews, right? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I just went back and thought about all those five-year milestone moments, when I’d reflect, and find out what it is that the journeys have taught me. ‘Say Hello to DK,’ ‘Experiments in N+1’, ‘Practicing the Unknown, Uncertain and Different,’ and ‘Design + Discovery’ have, so far, been five-year blocked themes.

(See examples of projects completed in each of these phases, they’re listed towards the end of this page.)

I am focusing on the next five years on another theme, which I’ll talk about now. ‘Creativity + Innovation.’

Creativity + Innovation

Why this? These are just buzzwords, right? Actually we’ve come to a place where they can’t be, anymore.

This is why.

The rest of this post is at my personal site.

It’s this page: https://dipikakohli.com/what-i-do-best-is-this/

23 July | ‘Tìm mình trong thế giới’

A. SpaiceLeave a comment

It’s a small, real-life meet up for a max of 4. It’s also a mini-workshop. It’s on FB.

Here’s a link.

https://www.facebook.com/events/281855386383568/

Exact location to be shared by email, since you already know if you got the link to this page that I do not have a handphone.

Email me, so.

Thanks!

 

Creativity vs. Design vs. Innovation

Dipika Kohli

Last night, I was reading a bunch of extraordinarily boring articles online, which made me very tired, and also, reminded me all over again that the internet contains a lot of junk, written by clickbait-seeking who-knows-who, and their poorly paid ‘gig economy’ freelancers who are ‘finding my creative outlet on the side.’ This is sad. And this, too, the feeling that you couldn’t find anything really good to read without being bombarded by popup ads (2000s) or advertorials masquerading as ‘This is my honest opinion’ affiliate-link people, made me feel like starting my own mini-magazine. Which has no endorsements, ads, or BS.

Such a dearth of real-world, real-time information that I could discover, on the spot, also made me feel like hosting parties to get people together and seeing what we could find out, in the real world dimension, too. So that’s part of why I began to convene people in very small circles, in my conversation parties. It used to be really large-scale, but I found out I prefer simplicity. Depth, substance, and progressions over time. With just a few. This is why I make a membership-based thing called S P A C E. It’s so that we—we as in me, and the people who, like me, want what I want, ie quality–could get to the work of talking about things in ways that don’t waste people’s time.

Curating as I go, I’m putting together an August series for Papers, which is going to be about innovation, not in the business-speak sense, but in the live-it-and-talk-from-experience-of-actually-trying-things kind.

It will be published in S P A C E. It’s a special edition of S P A C E. It’s members-only. Memberhip costs. You can find out more about how to become a member of  S P A C E at this crowdfunding  page, under ‘perks,’ see ‘Basic Membership.’

Here’s a link.

http://chuffed.org/project/spacethezine

Thanks,

DK

On Deck

A. Spaice

Be a part of an international conversation in the cloud

About this Event

Since 2017, Design Kompany, or ‘DK’, has been publishing a weekly e-magazine called S P A C E.

The idea is to discover, and share, the stories of us… the people we meet, where we go, and what we find out together. In conversations that last sometimes hours in a stretch, or spill over through multiple days, we get to know our guests at Atelier S P A C E meetups, which are almost always by invitation, only.

The way it works is then we find a theme. Write our feelings, our ideas, our stories. Then, share and discuss them. Together.

When you join us in July, you’ll have a chance to sample this experience. You’ll have a chance to interact with us in this way… only, in the cloud, not in person.

 

Maybe you’ll see your own writing featured in our magazine, one day !

This is a chance to develop your work, explore with others also doing the same, and get the ace advice of our seasoned team of editors, designers, and professional writers over at Design Kompany, too.

Experience it…

Application required.

Apply here. [If it’s a fit, you’ll hear more from us by email…]

Thanks!

A. Spaice

Wine, pistachios, my balcony and Zoom

Dipika KohliLeave a comment

I’m just gonna tell you what it was like. Being out here, where I am. Over… lockdown.

Being known to someone and seeing that person or set of people regularly: that’s been absent, these last four months. It’s a curious and intriguing opportunity, though. To find out things, totally solo, with no agenda, no history with anyone, and even kind of forgetting about the old histories. Which is liberating, too.

 

Up

My balcony hotel room on the fifth floor was a gift, for three solid months. I am lucky. I think my favorite part was the amazing wifi. I also had a view of the sky, and some stars, on the days before rainy season got going in full swing. Part of why I left there, finally. Also, you were allowed to move around again. And so, me being me, I got in a taxi, then a bus, then another bus. [deleted]

The only things missing are the balcony, wine and the pistachios. Also my Zoom kind of broke. A bit of a story, but… I prefer it this way. [deleted] I’m happy writing. And, a lot. And zining, of course. Setting things up for 23 June and 30 June‘s issues. They’re called ‘Continuous Partial’ and ‘Start with Something Simple.’

 

Also, I was playing new music, while talking to old, old friends on Zoom and asking after them, also just snacking away on pistachios, because these are good. And it felt quite cozy, too, because this reminded me of a different moment, in another hemisphere, and another decade. Seattle. And with pistachios, that time, too. Also, water. I didn’t have wine, then. I was just so happy, that day. Played some of my favorite music, enjoying the simplicity of it. Knowing what feels good, and setting things up. (HT… well, you know who you are… it’s been more than a decade since we met, wow. I suppose that’s how it goes sometimes.)

It was good, then, and it is good, now.

The next things are coming up now. Wineless, pistachio-less, and balcony-less and even kind of zoomlessly… but what that does is… it…

Makes…

S P A C E.

HT Guests of ‘Papers‘. Thanks for being there and sharing so, so much. I appreciate it! <3

 

Papers | Saigon

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.

 

An update on ‘Papers’

A. Spaice

Papers is a *thing* now, as in, it’s going.

Quite beautifully, too.

Good conversations, with depth and substance, are taking place behind the scenes here at DK’s blog. Wanted to share a little of the backstory of how this whole ‘Papers’ idea got invented. Working on that, this month. Thinking, sharing quietly, 1:1 on email with the people I feel most ‘get’ it.

S P C | ‘There Is No Next Time’, an exclusive for guests of ‘Papers’

 

Late registration opportunity for June Papers..

Here’s what it is.

For the very curious.

A conversation in the cloud with new and different others. Guests are from DK’s 2006-2020 network of friends, collaborators, past clients, and newcomers. Make a space and discover your stories. As usual with DK’s spaces, *anything can happen*. But, given who has already registered, it looksl ike writing and poetry mostly, for June. 

Try it? More information here.

Papers | ‘Dear M’

Dipika Kohli

About a year ago at this time, you gave me a pen, M. It came up in a conversation a few weeks ago, about the ‘giving of the pen.’ It also featured in ‘Expanding Windows,’ where I did a live mini-theater re-enactment of that day when we were fated to cross paths, the stuff of this issue of S P C.

There were four people I talked about at Expanding Windows: you, R., C., and N. I’ve been in good touch with the others ever since parting ways with each of them, in recent months and weeks and even days, it’s like that, on the road. But you… where are you, how are you? Did you quit? I wonder. As you are the fourth corner of this very square Square of who inspired me most with Atelier S P A C E in 2017-2019 and why (new, different, changes, ‘the character realizes something’, etc), I wanted to post this. To let you know. In case you see it, that you are missed. I really do wonder about how you are there, now, and how you are faring. Hopefully safe, sound, and well.

If you want to know more about what I’m writing lately, I used the pen just today, and I can send you a picture of the text. Thanks for the great inspiration, once again. I hope you are doing the things you said you would, and if yes, cool, and if not, well, then I hope some of my new friends in your town came by your workplace to pester you about it. I said it would be cool with you. I hope I was right.

Dipika
PS Emailed you.

What is ‘Papers?’

Dipika Kohli

For the very curious...

For those who are curious about Papers, thanks for asking. Attention, time, replies: I am happy to converse about this project to gather us for moments of remarkable connexion in the cloud. It’s a natural segue from our real-life 2-year roving project, Atelier S P A C E. From that we got to know a hell of a lot of people and have invited handfuls to connect, and meet, and converse, and make, with us, issues of our mini-magazine, S P A C E. Sometimes it’s just email, sometimes it’s a whole collaboration on a complete issue of S P A C E. See some of the things we have done in our online shop. It’s meant a lot to me to know there are some people ‘out there’ who got something out of conversations with me. We’ve come a long way since starting S P C in 2017. To our early supporters: thank you. To our recent guests and collaborators, welcome. I really appreciate all this, and I’m excited to share more, soon, with those who are interested in keeping up with us in S P C. Last week we published one of the best issues, so far. I really love it. It is Issue #75. Wrote a little bit about it here: https://designkompany.com/issue-75/
S P C | Bangkok, ‘The Last Copy is for Reading Here.’
Sometimes we share messages with people in our small but growing network. Which, if you know DK, and all our things since Seattle in 2004 (gosh, really, that long!?… who is reading us from there! HT LT, JK, and EG, if you guys are reading), then you already know, our network is highly self-selecting and also rather closed-invite, too. Focusing on the people who are most interested in what I am interested in. Questing. S P A C E quests S P A C E. Can you dig it? Here’s the set of zines that came of conversations in May’s ‘Papers.’ They are a mix of digital zines, and printer-friendly ‘make it at home’ black and white versions, like the first one, below.

Next up, is June’s ‘Papers.’

On deck, is June’s edition of co-creating in the cloud. Making fresh, new and fun conversations *happen*. In S P A C E. We’re planning these, for example, in June..

‘Papers’. It’s going to be very simple this time. Email. Just email. I know. Real simple. It’s called ‘backwards innovation.’ (I did not make that up!)..
Thanks!
DK