That was the title of the first ever
piece of work I had to produce for my MA.
I’ve spoken about it before; the small poster project that was meant to
relay our reasons for choosing to do our respective MAs, the anguish it gave me
to try to sum up myself succinctly, and the fear I had of presenting my
achievements to the group. I saw myself
as two distinct halves – the engineering side, full of technical accomplishments
and project management successes, and the art side, which was taught out of me
when I took on the giants of physics and maths.
I see now that in that first project
I never really answered the question.
Who are we? Where are we going?
This question asks me about my
future, and the crux of my being. It
doesn’t ask me about my achievements or the certificates on my wall; it asks ‘what
are you about?’ It’s not your practical
skills, it’s your passions. At the time,
I felt defined by my CV. I had spent 4
years studying how to be a logical, accurate thinker and what felt like a
logical progression to me (engineering to design) seemed hard to justify to
others – I was afraid of my future, I had no idea where I was going.
Now, after fielding questions from
outsiders consistently throughout this course (“what do you design?” “what job
will you get?” “what is product
design?”), I finally have to face up to the fact and ask myself...
Who am I? Where am I going?
I have to sign a Learning
Agreement. It’s essentially a contract
written by myself that outlines what I will be doing for my Final Major
Project, but it is my chance to fully represent myself – to explore the
concepts that define what I want to do, and showcase them. So I find myself again asking these two
questions, only now I have a duty to myself to answer them.
