Are you comfortable sharing your opinions?
If your answer is, “it depends,” then let’s talk. Depends on what?? Some people are naturally introverted, others are extroverted, some are eloquent and others fear saying something silly. Gender can have an impact. Height, weight, personality, life experience, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, accent… All the aspects of your identity can interact with a specific context to make that you either feel welcome and safe or alone and excluded.
Today I want to examine the experience we have of sharing opinions, be they personal, radical, mainstream, or unpopular. Words are cheap; words are wind. But many of us still have trouble claiming our space. (How) can we have an equitable, democratic society if only some of us can claim their space? And is a society where everyone is heard equally necessarily better?
EXISTENTIAL TUESDAYS
Existential Tuesdays are small weekly* lunch discussions in the Nook of the TUD Library. Practice your critical thinking skills, learn to see the world from different perspectives, and hang out with your fellow deep thinkers in Delft.
Interested in other events in the Nook? Sign up for the newsletter to find out what else we’re planning.
* no sessions during exam weeks or study weeks
Explore SG’s related events this quarter on the theme: (Re)Claiming Space
How does design—of streets, campuses, digital platforms, or lecture halls—shape who belongs and who does not? And what happens when we use these spaces to speak out, resist and make ourselves seen? When presence turns into protest, these spaces become political.
In this series, we explore how political spaces come into being: why they matter, how they are designed, and how they might be redesigned. SG invites designers, philosophers, activists, and students to explore how we might design for difference.
9 September 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: Is everything political for Gen Z? @ TUD Library, The Nook
16 September 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: How do you claim space? @ TUD Library, The Nook
23 September 17:00 | Is the campus designed for protest? @ TUD Library Hall
1 October 12:45 | Current Affairs Lunch Lecture: Male Violence Against Women @ TUD Library, Orange Room
8 October 16:00 | Driving societal change through inclusive STEM research processes and outcomes @ TUD Library Hall
13 October 19:00 | Critical Mass: Woke Design @ Theater de Veste
15 October 16:00 | ‘Flying Solo’ Opening Reception @ TUD Library Hall
13 November 12:45 | Kiting Huddle: Write for the Wind @ TUD Library, Blue Room & the Greenroof
4 December ttba | Non-humans and public space @ TUD Library Hall
