Design & Opressão is a network of students and professors fighting all kinds of oppression in and through design. The network includes an online weekly reading group, a series of Youtube videos, and an orchestrated participation in design events and conferences. The network is weaved by an expanding group of volunteer complicators spread across Brazil. The history of the network was presented at PIVOT 2021 Virtual Conference.
Video series
In 2020, we have studied and discussed the work of Paulo Freire, Frantz Fanon, and bell hooks in relation to contemporary design issues such as participation, social justice, bias, and dialogue. We held a live dialogue on Youtube about each author’s potential contribution to design.
Collaborative, participatory, and emancipatory design
The network activities are all weaved together through horizontal collaborations between its weavers. The network has an open #metadesign activity every week to change and add new interaction structures. The intention is to provide an experience of anti-oppressive and liberating design within the network itself.
Participation in events
The D&O network members participate in various academic and professional design events pushing forward a critical, liberating, and progressive agenda.
Hope for a better future
The network is driven by the dream of living in a world that is free from any kind of oppression. The network weavers experience this dream coming true during events and encounters promoted by the network. These are not completely free of oppression neither is the rest of the world, however, participants replenish their hope to keep fighting for that utopian future.
Fact sheet
- 800 Youtube subscribers + 5,000 combined views
- 230 Newsletter subscribers
- 20-50 weekly participants
- 13 complicators
- 5 conference participations