What happens when two different minds interconnect and get to think about how they think? The ArtScience Monthly is about putting our curiosity into action and learning from one another via collective exchanges.

On July 20, we’ll explore how design and aesthetics determine our connection to our mind and body and our experience of the healthcare systems. We’ll have the pleasure of being joined by artist Stiliyana Minkovska and researcher Stephanie Forkel. Stiliyana is a qualified architect and multidisciplinary designer passionate for human-centric, empathetic and ethical design, whose work is primarily focused on maternal healthcare. Stephanie is a Marie Curie Fellow working at the CNRS at the Neurocampus in Bordeaux, who dedicates her research to individual brain anatomy, its clinical impact and brain variability.

This event has been curated by our Curious Minds Community members Bella Spencer and Judit Agui. Bella and Judit are based in London and both work in the intersection between science and art. The speakers are pulled from their networks of scientists and artists who use creative tools to explore topics in science with new audiences.

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ABOUT THE ARTSCIENCE MONTHLY

Every third Tuesday of the month, we invite you to join in these open and informal evenings, where we create playful situations for interactions with other participants. We share thoughts, practice open-mindedness and create new bonds, while imagining alternative futures by crossing perspectives beyond disciplinary boundaries. Each session starts with impulse talks by an artist and a scientist; just enough to get inspired and start off an exchange.

These events are organized by STATE Studio in the framework of Curious Minds: a community program that aims to explore new forms of collective thinking, learning and acting at the intersection of art and science.

STATE Studio is a public gallery, showroom and event space in central Berlin. It’s a place for creative synergies between science, art, and innovation to discover and explore the breakthrough developments that shape our future.

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PROGRAM ON JULY 20

18:00 Introduction

18:15 Inspiration Talks by Stiliyana Minkovska & Stephanie Forkel

18:45 Interactive Sessions in Breakout Rooms

19:30 Collective Exchange and Q&A’s

20:00 End of the evening

During the Gender Equality Series at HOK Architects, Stiliyana will be presenting her work and journey to motherhood and procreation through the multicultural prism of design. She will share her interwoven experiences as a mother, architect and designer navigating through the healthcare system and her diverse encounters with the medical realm through series of spatial, product, experiential and service design offerings.

This event is available only to employees at HOK Architects

How can we use design to become: Pro–Creators — using human-centred design to fuel our thinking and innovate change?

In this workshop, we aim to develop a panoramic view of 'pro creation' through open conversation, facilitation, and imagination.

We will place emphasis on the various perspectives of the human–creating experience, with a focus on the first 9mo. Using role-play, structured debate, and case study exercises, we hope to inspire participants to identify, consider, and analyse a diverse range of pregnancy experiences from both an individualistic and collective approach. 

In the workshop, there will be a series of exercises that encourage participants to work in teams to explore the positive and negative aspects of procreation, before brainstorming potential solutions to the identified challenges. 

We will consider what impacts decision-making and influences biases surrounding pregnancy and will be thinking about how we can work to minimise stigmatism through shared knowledge and experience.

This is an interactive and discursive workshop, open to all RCA students of all disciplines with some, or no, knowledge about procreation. If you’re interested in maternal healthcare, user-centred design, and community wellbeing, then this is the workshop for you!

Register with your RCA email.

The workshop will be lead by Stiliyana Minkovska and Jazzy Olive as part of the PGR Worksop Series.

Stiliyana Minkovska (MRes Healthcare & Design)

Stiliyana is a qualified architect who has a strong passion for women-centric design and maternity healthcare environments.  She is currently doing her second masters with the RCA in  Healthcare & Design, where she looks to redesign the designscapes of childbirth in a wholesome ecosystem that caters for the needs of childbearing and birthing people. Her passion for the topics surrounding the reproductive system are inspired by her personal story of becoming a mother.

stiliyanaminkovska.com 

@stiliyana / @ultima.thule.partum 

linkedin.com/in/stiliyanaminkovska

Jazzy Olive (MRes Healthcare & Design)

Jazzy is a Graphic Designer, Researcher, Mentor, and Ethical  Design Lecturer with a passion for human-centred design. Jazzy makes up one half of the Ladies, Wine & Design initiative, and very much believes in #CollaborationOverCompetition. She aims to inspire and empower the next generation of creatives by providing free mentorship for local students and is collaborating with scientists and designers to develop Edna, a platform to support victims of domestic abuse. 

jazzyolive.com 

ladieswinedesign.com/southampton 

@jazzyolive.me @jazzyolive.co

@ladieswinedesign_southampton

linkedin.com/in/jazzyolive

As part of today's VDF's collaboration with Design Museum, London-based architect Stiliyana Minkovska is hosting a panel discussion on designing for pregnancy and childbirth.

The talk is the second instalment in the Design Museum-curated program, which features four virtual events from the museum's 2019 Designers in Residence – Minkovska, Mále Uribe, Marta Giralt and Robert Johnson.

Minkovska will speak to design historian Catharine Rossi, writer and critic Shehnaz Suterwalla and London-based designer Ab Rogers, who will elaborate upon a variety of projects and personal experiences to explore the current pitfalls in designing for motherhood.

Arper presents a new initiative in partnership with the Design Museum in London: Designers in Residence on Soft(er).

This event aims to foster debate on how being, living and thinking soft(er) can enrich our lives, as selected Designers in Residence 2019 explore this theme to develop new, thought-provoking ideas.

On October 24, Designers in Residence 2019 Mále Uribe Forés, Marta Giralt and Stiliyana Minkowska will present in our London showroom an intimate salon and unique display exploring the design of new, soft(er) spaces: spaces that are manifestations of human values – connection, sensitivity, comfort and ease – and designed with humanity at their core. By invitation only.

Designers in Residence on Soft(er) will be on public display at Arper London showroom from Friday 25 October until Friday 8 November.