At the beginning of 2018, we shared a need to distance ourselves from the institutional limitations of the Design Academy Eindhoven and exercise a self-organised education program. We called it OFFFENCE.

Driven by dettachment and contextuality, we landed in the rocky landscape of Matera, Italy, in September. Each one of us arrived with a list of intentions, and creating a support system for experimental learning processes was a shared goal.

Different tools, techniques and approaches were created to allow and assist the practice of freedom and to enhance the power of making. Seeing that change can be a parallel happening of the self, the collective and the contextual opened windows to new understandings.

We questioned and negotiated everything. From voting systems to interaction filters; from dinner menus to splitting bills; from note-taking to archiving; from heated arguments to non-violent dialogues; from workshops with materials to immaterial recordings; from games to dances; from ever-changing housing schedules to sacred private spaces; from techno music to desired silence; from the birth of initiatives to the graveyard of failed proposals.

Unanticipated possibilities unfolded on a daily basis, teaching, or reminding us about our open paths. It was up to us to make sense of success and failure. Peer feedback became a cornerstone. And we designed ourselves in the meantime.  

— Diogo Rinaldi