she/her/they
(please do not think this is my own design aesthetic, now or then) 😉
As of 2045, 68 years old, Queer since birth (more or less) Mother, designer-researcher-lecturer, Optimist —— Coordinator International Cross-disciplinary Masters Course: Care (since 2026) A School of Arts, Flanders Mother of 2, wife of 1 —— Keywords: design education, social design
Background story
Fran is not really a code name. It’s a shortened form of my real first name, which seems fitting as I go by my second name. This sorta-real-life seems more plausible as I’m pretty poor at drama.(not poor at the other version of drama, but less good at the drama of the theatrical sort).
Think of Fran as [Patricia Moore](https://medium.com/@rhodaismail/the-lifespan-design-challenge-with-patricia-moore-484b6ea847bc#:~:text=In 1979%2C 26-years old,an 85-year old woman.), though without the makeup.
I am 68. I am about ready to retire from teaching at a School of Arts in what was formerly Belgium, but since 2031 is now referred to as the country of Flanders. (Something no one expected to happen except for the nationalists and my mother-in-law. The drought of 2022 and the eternal winter of 2023 didn’t help.)
In 2026 I started, along with a small team of colleagues, a new European Masters programme on the subject area of Care. This idea of cross-discipline was part of the programme’s foundation. We wrote it in a way that the programme could be very flexible and would hopefully always dare to reflect on ‘are we doing this well’? As well as adapting to cultural progress: early adoption of gender neutral pronouns, prioritising students from emerging nation backgrounds, incorporating feminist-design strategies as the gold standard, creating safe and open spaces for students, seeing students as colleagues instead of less-than counterparts, encouraging self-expression as well as self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
It has gone well. There will always be issues: a year when the group of students didn’t go well, the year we couldn’t travel because of the energy crisis that impacted all transport or that unexpected situation that we incurred when US-xit happened (when the US broke into three countries) or the year we went to Ukraine trying to help rebuild the country’s services through design together with a local higher education art and design institution that resulted in our feeling like maker-colonisers, which was awful. But we took awful, reflected on it, and took it as a fail meant to learn from.
Conflicts/Issues/Insights
I’m a bit old and still conflicted by the terms Art and Design. In the programme we have only had 3 ‘artists’ since its inception in 2026! It isn’t that our students are not ‘artists’ as we have had a wonderful collection of designer-makers who are gifted at image and sound-making, gifted at narrative creation, etc. It’s just that there is a border between these things. We also have issues with the role of aesthetics; from who the fuck cares as long as it works to who will want to be here or use this if its ugly even though it works great?! As well as struggling with the presumed expectations of what designer-makers are and the roles they can have in society. I mean, after all, what impact are we trying to have?! I like doing instead of theorising about it all.
Because the programme is tackling social issues, we have had issues with technology enthusiasts who claim that technology is an island in itself, whereas they see technology as a tool. We have also gone a bit 20th century hippie and done a lot of work in the role of reflection. Our first students were generation Z students, and this group taught us a lot about balance while prioritising self and at the same time prioritising others (planet and people).
There has been a notable shift in our graduates, however: one of the issues. is regarding the dependence of relying on AI for making design decisions without really understanding the power of editing or implications of choice and the programme is struggling with how to integrate this into their curriculum.
I am also ever combatting the slowness of education to respond to shifting cultural, digital and educational landscape: have school where school is needed.
Based on a student’s project, we are currently trying to convert the programme into something wholly mobile; school buildings as something wholly arbitrary.
Every year we reflect and discusses the concept of design disciplines and how it has evolved and the resistance of disciplines to ‘let this happen’. And we discuss the ridiculous concept of grades and the title of ‘master’ (though my ego really likes the old-school title ‘Doctor’!) Finally, my team and I are very close to changing the idea of ‘grades’ internally and I hope we, like our northern Scandinavian neighbours move away from this soon. But the question remains; what is a school if it doesn’t have a credit system? It strikes fear into the hearts of politicians and budget-minded folk.
If these topics sound interesting to you, and you have a background in cross-national, social design with a focus on socialised care concepts and are interested in applying to be my replacement. Let us know!