Design, Memory, Myth: Creating, Keeping, and Transforming Collective Memory

Design, Memory, Myth: Creating, Keeping, and Transforming Collective Memory will dig in to the role design plays in the creation and maintenance of myths and memories.

Core Question: What artifacts and archives do we create to store, transfer, or validate memories, and how do they shape ourselves and our communities?

We are excited to host this conversation among designers, cultural anthropologists, researchers, and artists, to discuss how design interacts with the domains of memory.

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Our Speakers

Tamika Abaka-Wood | Tamika is a cultural anthropologist, researcher, strategist, and social-practice artist. Her hotline, , is open to all and will be active for the next 100 years. Tamika’s work is rooted in seeing from the inside out and imagining from the outside in. She engages in critical cultural work that shifts perspectives, using anthropological methods to challenge assumptions and reframe possibilities. For her, research and strategy are not just about understanding the present but about practicing our ways into the futures we want to build.

Instagram | Website

Andrew Dimer | Andrew is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Artist, and Educator from Philadelphia, PA, now based in NYC for over 11 years. He is a Senior Designer at an advertising agency and has spent the past eight years cultivating a zine-making practice through independent presses, side projects, collaborations, and self-publishing. Rather than positioning himself as an expert, he believes that expertise isn’t a prerequisite for teaching this class—curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to explore are what truly matter.

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Daniela Spector | Daniela is a New York-based artist raised in Miami, whose work explores memory, grief, and family history through archival photography. Her series I Forbid You to Forget Me transforms family photos into intricate collages, creating space to both mourn and celebrate her mother, Maggie. Through embroidered phrases, layered portraits, and fabric transfers, she navigates the tension between preservation and reinterpretation. Her latest photographic book, Security Matter (C) – A Portrait of Surveillance, draws from nearly 400 pages of her grandmother Norma Spector’s FBI file who was surveilled from 1949 to 1978 for her activism in communist and anti-nuclear movements. By juxtaposing government records with family photographs, Daniela critiques state surveillance while reclaiming her grandmother’s legacy.

Instagram | Website

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About your Host: Afterthought is a community committed to exploring the thorny, hairy, and complex questions that emerge in contemporary design practice. We delve into the pressing questions that occupy the minds of design thinkers and doers as they bring about solutions that extend beyond themselves – embracing families, communities, and our planet. Follow us on IG for more info! Follow us on Substack for a thoughtfully curated list of readings, films, podcasts, and events that inspire us.

For questions please feel free to email us at [email protected]!

About our Sponsor: School of Visual Arts, MFA in Design for Social Innovation. The MFA Design for Social Innovation program explores design-based practices that facilitate the conditions and relationships resulting in lasting social change. As a graduate department in the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, DSI supports enduring connections in art and design to increase creativity and imagination in all aspects of life.

Host or Publisher Afterthought