“Everyday Experimenting” is a 1-day symposium that will take place on May 24 as part of Finland’s XXII Triennale contribution. At the event, designers, activists, academics, policy-makers, among others will gather to critically dicsuss whether citizen participation and activism in design lead to changes in a world facing unsustainable consumption and growing social inequalities.

Thomas will be giving one of the three keynotes together with Juha Leppänen who is the Chief Executive of Demos Helsinki, leading independent think tank in the Nordic and Fran Tonkiss who is an urban sociologist, based at the London School of Economics.

In his talk Thomas will take point of departure in his newly written chapter for the book Design & Dissent, which foregrounds how activism in the so-called Global north is often unmistakably caught up in Neoliberal politics and agendas. The book is edited by Jilly Traganou from Parsons in NYC and will come out on Routledge later this year.

Commissioner of the Finnish exhibition and Professor of Design Leadership at Aalto University, Guy Julier has arranged the event and invited leading thinkers and practitioners as respondents.

The program and site for registration can be found here