A glocal design mindset: challenges and opportunities of creative nomads in local and global ecosystems

Abstract

The design landscape –as the world itself– presents ongoing challenging scenarios that evolve hand in hand with technology advancements and the correlated impact on ecosystems and human behaviours. Specifically –at a global scale– it can be observed as a growing trend the emergence of opposing and sometimes colliding creative scenarios: while some design briefs increasingly demand a worldview and adaptable global design mindsets to connect with audiences in diverse ecosystems to deliver value to a challenging economy at scale, others –particularly with an Aotearoa New Zealand lens– are more so inclined to look inwards to recognise, understand and embrace the local indigenous cultures with an empathetic, ethical and mindful approach. With this in mind, what are the challenges and opportunities for diasporic creative nomads to transform these challenges into value-driven participation when adapting to their newly chosen land and related cultural ecosystem? How much of their best natural or learnt empathy –part of their design mindset– can realistically shift, pivot or adapt to incorporate and reflect the culture of the new ecosystem, and how much would they unavoidably still carry ingrained as part of their cultural DNA? Could their cultural background and global experience become an asset to add value as global acumen and –at the same time– help bring fresh perspectives when working in very localised cultural matters? Taking Descartes’ cogito, ergo sum as a starting point (from his 1637 Discourse on the Method, which later was translated into English as “I think, therefore I am”) and weaving diverse philosophical and artistic expressions and schools of thought –such as Wassily Kandinsky, Otl Aicher and Hundertwasser– this piece of research proposes an open dialogue offering insights into how post-diasporic designers could transform the challenges and cultural barriers to add value to their new adopted country or culture.