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Derk Ringers
Derk Ringers is an industrial designer and design researcher based in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He explores the role of design by investigating the societal and environmental forces that situate the practice. He goes beyond design models for a consumer-led society, by developing new ways of understanding and operating within complex realities. His work has a strong anthropological focus, a critical look on ethical positioning and it demonstrates aesthetic decision-making as a way of engaging with complex problems as well as communicating them. Using analytical and playful approaches, he has a rigorous and empathetic way of engaging with people and complex matters. Examples of how this is applied are through creative ethnography, design experiences and material investigations. His work has addressed problems such as climate change adaptation, repression within civic participation and the influence of media narratives during the pandemic. For Derk, design is as much a means to an end, as an end in itself. Being a tool to engage, and collaborate, in order to create new possibilities and positive change.