Lecture Series of Design Academy Eindhoven is the student-led forum that hosts monthly lectures in the form of talk, debate, panel, etc. By bringing in diverse perspectives, our goal is to create a space for critical debates and thinking in the field of design, art, and architecture, and especially to how our practices relate to the current and ongoing societal discourse.

 

I joined the Lecture Series during my Master studies from 2019 to 2021. We experienced the dramatic shift in format due to the Covid pandemic and was forced to rethink our position within the student community and educational institution. Despite our initial concerns, we thrived greatly thanks to our well-curated online lectures. Our Instagram account started with around 400 followers and gained up to approx. 1400 followers within months. Moreover, we began with around 90 audiences, which are mostly from DAE student body, in the first lectures; and grew into an average 300-audiences in the last couple of lectures, which consist of students, designers, curators, creatives all around the world. The invited speakers included Thomas Thwaites, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Ruben Pater, and more.

 

My involvement started from behind-the-scene in the first year to taking up the moderator job later on. My task included producing the concept for the year, contacting the speakers, communicating between the team and the DAE Executive Board, moderating the lectures, following up afterwards, and more. Due to this peculiar year (2020-2021), I’ve managed to work with much flexibility in terms of format, speaker, and even moderation style. I have a friendly yet formal approach to moderating which could be found in the Lecture Series archive on the DAE Youtube channel.