a sensible resilience
A SENSIBLE RESILIENCE

Design is a quintessentially critical discipline, since its practice is rooted in research. From the mechanic activity of gathering visual references for a project to immersing oneself in a brief to create something new, critical thinking is at the heart of our process. In trying to feed this habit of constant analysis and constructive criticism, this platform has given us the freedom and flexibility to touch upon different dimensions of our new shared reality through the perspective of design. However this intensive modus operandi is non-exclusive to our proposal, as creatives worldwide have been producing through isolation, overcoming a physical barrier imposed by the pandemic.

As the lifting of lockdowns and reopening businesses begins to be cautiously implemented in some parts of the world—teasing us with the illusion of «normality»—we begin to question how our practice is going to be affected in the coming period, and whether our role as designers will be changed.

This issue is thus dedicated to the realm of design. We wish to critically think about these questions by putting design, both as a discipline and a practice, under the magnifying glass. In the same manner design-oriented platforms have been doing, we wish to generate a debate and put things into perspective—but by also trying to bring different views from what has been circulating so far. Are we still being haunted by the duality of print and digital? Is the post-pandemic period going to reshape the design industry or cripple it? Will designers take action to mitigate the precariousness of our industry? How will the global recession affect our practice? Why are ideas of «community» trending? Have we been too focused on ourselves as individuals and as the human race? In raising such questions, we aim to point out the sensible resilience of design. The barren air and harsh winds are not bringing down this foundation—but how may we make it stronger?

We would also like to specially thank our guest contributor, Joana Pestana, for embarking with us on this contemplative journey through the future of design.

Hiatus Collective.




Notions of time and space are altered. A disease spanned the globe, and its consequences are unprecedented. We are witnesses to a Global Pandemic crisis. Putting on hold the debate on borders as a physical and geographic limit and its implying crises of identity and conflict, countries turned to fences and walls as a means to mitigate an inescapable quandary common to all worldwide. It is no novelty that millennials and Gen Z are characterised by distancing and alienation, but the new order imposed by the pandemic has imposed a revival of the "bedroom generation" in the post-digital era. Everything is reduced to the display screen and the simulated reality within it.

A digital magazine entitled RIFE—initially created within the discipline of Editorial Design in the MA of Communication Design at the Fine-Arts Faculty of Lisbon—emerged as a response to the pandemic condition and its global effects on the individual, social, political, ambiental and cultural levels, raising questions surrounding what we know as our reality at this day in age. These questions are made and answered by designers, now being opened to a greater spectrum of creatives. This is pertinent as we creatives operate within our contexts, and in order to render ethical alternatives to realities presented, we must investigate and understand them. At the moment we were quarantined, we were physically inhibited to circulate freely, so we turned to question how to circulate content digitally—not by option but by necessity—, thus revealing a doorway to cultural production in the digital world and simultaneously embracing the democratic distribution of the open source medium that is the internet.


RIFE Magazine — Issue 3, A Sensible Resilience

Social Media Management
Beatriz Pinta 
Nádia Alexandre
Rafael Cavaquinho

Editorial Board
HIATUS COLLECTIVE

Project Orientation
Sofia Gonçalves

Operations Director
Nádia Alexandre

Creative Directors
HIATUS COLLECTIVE

Editing and Contents
HIATUS COLLECTIVE

Copy Editor
Beatriz Pinta

Webdesign
Mariana Cordeiro
Manuel Silva
Rafael Cavaquinho

Development
Mariana Cordeiro
Manuel Silva
Nádia Alexandre

Development Support
Rui Sampaio

Guest Contributor
Joana Pestana


DISCLAIMER
Collective HIATUS does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of all information. Reproduction of whole or in part of the published contents requires written permission from HIATUS.

RIFE Magazine believes in freedom of speech and thought thus, it does not exercise censorship on its contributors. Signed contributors do not necessarily represent the opinion of the collective HIATUS.

© 2020