Just do it! The New Institute’s Aric Chen calls for design experiments

Chinese-American author and curator Aric Chen is the new general and artistic director of Het Nieuwe Instituut (The New Institute), that weirdly intriguing place for design and digital culture, with one of the largest architecture archives in the world.

As globalization brought us a climate crisis that we’re just now beginning to fully understand, we find ourselves with a globe that isn’t the borderless adventure land we once hoped it would be. In this episode, Chen shares his belief that manifestos are part of how we got into the mess that we're in. For too long we have been beguiled by their deceptive clarity. Instead, Chen shares his passionate plea for experimentation in design.

Chen studied architecture and anthropology at UC Berkeley, followed by design history at Cooper Hewitt in New York. On a whim he moved to China and was the creative director of the Beijing Design Week. He built a collection from scratch for M+, a brand new museum in Hong Kong. For the past 13 years, he lived happily in China and had no intention of leaving Shanghai. What drew this explorer to a young institution in Europe that nevertheless has a long history; a story that he has admired for years?

Memberful Design is a show about firestarters sparking initiatives that have a lasting impact, creating meaningful connections. Formerly known as Verwondering, the No.1 design podcast of the Netherlands. Now, we’re bringing this award-winning series to the international stage in English. 

And we want to hear from you too! We’re researching what makes communities, memberships, and movements so powerful. Or in short, how to better design for belonging. You can help by sharing your own experiences in our first listener survey. 

Go to memberful.design/community to complete the survey. It only takes a minute to share your wisdom and it’s completely anonymous. We’ll share takeaways on a future show. So keep listening and let’s learn together.

Memberful Design is crafted with love by the team behind the design studio Momkai. At Momkai, we've learned that building experiences that empower communities create durable initiatives. Over the past 20 years, we've put this knowledge into practice on projects from all over Europe, the US, and Japan. Are you looking for a fresh perspective or want to join the team? Go to momkai.com and get in touch.

Memberful Design is hosted by Harald Dunnink, Momkai’s founder and co-founder of journalism platform De Correspondent. As a creative director, he loves telling stories. With the birth of his daughter he finally found an audience that’s always demanding more. 

His guests on the show help you think like a designer, decide like an entrepreneur, and dream big like an optimist. Discover what it takes to let your plans succeed and create meaningful connections, through Memberful Design.