February 03, 2021
Professionals
“Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world […] And stop worrying about big, deep things such as ‘to decide on a purpose and way of life…’ […] but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT.”
These were Sol Lewitt’s words to Eva Hesse in a letter in 1965
Chances are the first half of 2020 made you too (re)consider what it is you are doing and how you are doing it. For some, that line of questioning is not so much the forced exception, as it is the rule. Throughout the magazine, you will find correspondence from artists, curators, writers, architects, designers, and students speaking to practice as a form of constant interrogation of the self, of failure and experimentation, of leaps and stumbles, of adaptation and restlessness. Never constant, often unknown.
Under the title of Non-Professional Practice, this series was sparked by 3 years of conversations at Harvard GSD, and by Sol’s advice to “learn to say ‘Fuck you’ to the world once in a while”.
Left: JIM JOE x Klelia Siska, Yasong Zhou x Jiangpu Meng — Right: Carlos J. Soto x Kofi Akakpo, Jiangpu Meng x Yasong Zhou 
Left: Malkit Shoshan x Eva Lavranou, Karen Wong x Connie Trinh — Right: Jennifer Bonner x Elif Erez, Durga Chew-Bose x Arta Perezic 
Left: Troy Conrad Therrien x Eva Lavranou, Antwaun Sargent x Jeremy Benson — Right: Faris Al-Shathir x Klelia Siska, Oana Stănescu x Arta Perezic
Nonprofessional features designers, curators, writers, architects and students who took part in the Non-Professional Practice course at Harvard GSD.
With Åbäke, Antwaun Sargent, Arta Perezic, Carlos J. Soto, Connie Trinh, Durga Chew-Bose, Elif Erez, Eva Lavranou, Faris Al-Shathir, Felix Burrichter, Jeremy Benson, Jennifer Bonner, Jiangpu Meng, JIM JOE, Karen Wong, Klelia Siska, Kofi Akakpo, Malkit Shoshan, Oana Stanescu, PLAYLAB, INC, Troy Conrad Therrien and Yasong Zho.