Annelys de Vet
Annelys de Vet (1974, NL, she/her) is a Belgium-based designer, researcher, and educator with a practice for long-term, participative design projects that actively engage in social and political struggles.
Currently, De Vet is a PhD researcher at ARIA, a practice-led doctoral study at Sint Lucas School of Arts and the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on the conditions of design pedagogy to counteract oppression and injustice through design. She teaches in the master’s program in a social-political context at the Sint Lucas School of Arts, and regularly lectures on alternative cartography, critical pedagogy, and relational design practices at various institutions worldwide.
De Vet established the temporary master’s program Disarming Design (2019–2022) at the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam, dedicated to design practices in situations of oppression at the intersection of design, crafts, politics, pedagogy, community, and activism. She edited Design Dedication (Valiz, 2020), a publication exploring adaptive mentalities in design education informed by heading the MA in Design ‘Think tank for Visual strategies‘ at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam from 2009 to 2019.
De Vet initiated the publishing initiative Subjective Editions, which provides publications mapping countries from the inside out, offering a human perspective. Notable publications in this series include the Subjective Atlas of Amsterdam (2023), Subjective Atlas of Brussels (2018), Subjective Atlas of Colombia (2015), and Subjective Atlas of Palestine (2007).
Additionally, De Vet co-founded Disarming Design from Palestine, a thought-provoking design platform developing artisanal products from Palestine that convey alternative narratives about life under occupation. This initiative started in 2012 in collaboration with Khaled Hourani and the International Academy of Arts Palestine. In 2015 it continued as an independent non-profit organization based in Belgium and Palestine since 2015.
As a total, the body of work explores the role of design in public and political discourse, seeking to develop methods, structures, and tools that empower a pluralist society through design. The different projects explore how design can be a powerful activism and social change tool. The approach encourages critical thinking about the role of design in society, challenging dominant narratives, questioning preconceptions, and prompting discussions about the ethics and responsibilities of designers in addressing complex social and political problems.
Subjective Atlas of Amsterdam
Below you can listen to the podcast Scratching the Surface with Annelys de Vet:
