(2024–today) Activism/Community
Designgewerkschaft
We are a group of communication designers who have one thing in common: we are often angry about the working conditions in the creative industry. Unpaid internships, unpaid overtime, poor salaries, no regulated hourly rate as a freelancer, unpaid pitches, non-transparent tenders and awarding of contracts, registration fees for competitions, residencies, etc. We are convinced that things urgently need to change and that (self-)exploitation must end!
We want to bundle the interests of many individual designers in a solidarity-based and intersectional way to support each other.
Font by Giulia Boggio (thank you for the support!).
(2022–today) Newsletter
Soft Intentions
Welcome to Soft Intentions – a space to explore, play, and connect. At the end of 2022, I started writing a newsletter. Originally intended to inform people who are interested in my ceramics about new developments, it has evolved into a casual format that I fill with snippets, thoughts, work, and life reports.
The start of the newsletter has been accompanied by a physical Riso printed postcard that I sent out at the beginning of 2023. A little note to write down thoughts or things to focus on, whether in the new year, within the moment, for oneself, for others, or the world we live in¹. For me, 'soft intentions' is not only a mindset and work mantra. I also see it as a possibility for collaboration and exchange; a community of like-minded souls. Or in other words: a space for exploration that is ready to blossom².
¹ Soft Intentions No. 02: Peace and Quiet
² Soft Intentions No. 03: Blossoming
(2023) Talk at Kunsthochschule Weißensee
SprechenÜber
I was invited by SprechenÜber, a series of student-organized gatherings at Kunsthochschule Weißensee (Berlin), to talk about my relationship with nature and how it can influence our work as artists and designers. I talked about both my graphic design and ceramic practice, my newfound passion for vegetable gardening, as well as some thoughts on the general mindset I'm striving for in my professional life. At the end, students were encouraged to present and discuss some of their own work on the subject of nature.
(2022) Workshop
Pinching Pots
"Discovering the basics of hand-building with the pinching technique and getting an intuitive feeling for clay and its many possibilities. The goal is to create unique pots and tableware for a common meal with many small, shared dishes that will take place after firing the pieces."
Ellipsis is a summer school, art residency, and temporary community in the south of Portugal initiated by Eva Gonçalves. Each year in September, 10–15 people — artists, designers, illustrators, writers, architects, urban planners, activists, from countries as diverse as the US, Canada, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Japan, and Azerbaijan — meet for 10 days and share a countryside house in the south of Portugal. Together they are responsible for creating a program of activities (…), teaching, and learning from each other. The project aims to explore the possibilities for community creation on the fringes, as well as what happens when a group of strangers come together and share a space and a common interest — that of rethinking what collaboration, education, and community mean nowadays.
Text by Eva Gonçalves
(2020–2021) Collaboration with Nele Neubauer
Cooking with friends
A culinary exchange at a distance: triggered by the pandemic, this project is based on a shared love of cooking and eating with friends.
