Position through dialogue

The artist I talked with was Maya Ober, an activist, educator, designer, and researcher. She is the founder of depatriarchise design, and co-director of Futuress.

The first impression Maya had after looking at my video essay was that what I was showing wasn’t personal enough and that she couldn’t see ‘me’ through it. So we discussed it. I explained that it was more or less intentional in the sense that I spent the year developing tools, and my work was very experimental and practical but not yet related to the core thematic of my practice: Black History. She then understood that those tools were to be later applied to the thematic.

The dialogue that I then had with Maya Ober was more about what’s next to come. It is in the sense that she is currently doing her Ph.D. in anthropology. Having a thematic, interest outside the realm of graphic communication design or its close surroundings, I often question myself on how legitimate I am when talking about this subject through my work. Indeed, wanted to focus on Black History but without being a historian or studying African Studies, where is my place? Am I an imposter?
This dialogue gave me confidence in the subjects that I want to develop. Maya explained to me that, in a similar place as I am, Anthropology already had an important place within her graphic design practice. For her, there shouldn’t be any divisions of disciplines because it reduces the acmes of knowledge and the designer should be able to abort any subjects. She also made me realize that my own experience is justification enough for me to talk about Black History.

Talking a bit more, we agreed on the fact that to move forward, I should focus on a thread of Black History and extend it further, alongside deconstruction think of how the two can work together in order to produce a work that is critical and meaningful.

I feel that this talk mainly gave me confidence and the strength to move forward when I was at a point of confusion I would say. In the sense that I could see how to move forward but not as clearly as she made me realize. It was just a very nice chat that strengthen my position and