around/work

VINALHAVEN, ME — June 18–24, 2023

If you weren’t working, what work would you be working on? If you weren’t going to work, where would you be going? When asked to work, do you say, “I would prefer not to?” And if so, what would you prefer?

DesignInquiry invites curious makers and thinkers from all disciplines to around / work, a six-day residency designed to consider these questions. Join us in a radical reimagining of work by proposing a project that responds to or frames the work that brings us joy, pleasure, and sustenance. Projects can revolve around your current work or spin into a new orbit; iterate on an existing idea; or benefit from an exchange. We invite individuals as well as collaborative teams to apply.

This gathering might be understood as downright refusal#. In the 24/7 age of non-stop work, it seems more outrageous than ever to deploy Bartleby the Scrivener’s polite response to demands from his boss. In preferring not to work on something, we are implying that we have other preferences, other work we would rather do. We ask, what is the work you would rather do?

We’ll gather for a collaborative design residency on the island of Vinalhaven off the coast of Maine to spin these ideas around and through the work we make. How might a communal gathering impact your work?