Equal Table

Equal Table is excited to present an Open Discussion Night questioning boundaries of amateurism

Self-taught experts and full-fledged creators, in this new era, amateurs have broadened the field of design and ultimately questioned the place of professional designers within their own field. The etymology of amateurs presents us with a tension, considering the question of whether anyone can be a designer and complicates the popular image of a single amateur movement in the digital age. On the one side, the amateur is associated with the privilege of pure passion. On the other, the amateur is defined negatively as lacking professional skills. To understand the changing relationship between amateurs and professionals in Design, we need to look at the conception of amateurs within social processes. Of its particular relevance in the process of differentiation between work and leisure, with implications for how creative practices such as design are organized and rewarded in society.