The 4th Issue of Leida “Care After Care” Brings Care into Focus

On June 14, the new issue of the design journal Leida titled “Care after Care” was published. The issue looks at care and how to provide it through different practices and perspectives. “Care after Care” asks how designers can take better care and what tools they can provide, so all the rest could also take care of themselves or others. Care is not something that can be neglected. Care should avoid carelessness. Care needs to be empowered, which is what this issue of Leida wants to do. “Exhaustive and stressful care work is being standardised and automated; therefore, care-related tasks are increasingly becoming the responsibility of other people and technology,” writes the editor-in-chief of Leida Taavi Hallimäe. “We are making care work more efficient, safer and more convenient for both the recipient and the person providing it. But what happens to compassion in the process? We tend to skip the fact that machines cannot include it and people tend to become exhausted due to overabundance of compassion. Technology and the social redistribution of care work may reduce the level of inconvenience but it definitely won’t guarantee the presence of care itself. Care needs attention because if care becomes passive and taken for granted, it will disintegrate.” “Care after Care” opens with Ave Mets’ interview with Robert Rosenberger, one of today’s most influential philosophers of technology, who introduces post-phenomenology as a philosophical approach defining the relationship between man and technology. Artist Hsuan-Hsiu Hung and designer-researcher Kristi Kuusk explore the ability of multisensory objects to provide bodily care while asking how touch can enhance our self-awareness. While artist Laura Põld emphasises in her writing that we should pay more attention to the time we dedicate to (self-)care, artist Tõnis Jürgens shows how the self-care industry has become increasingly attentive to our sleep. Designer Jaana Päeva takes us back in time and reminds us that there is hidden potential in reappropriating past techniques with modern tools. Design historian Liza Sedler discusses how kitchen design has changed over more than a century and how this is reflected in the changing image of women in society. Graphic designer Carlo Canún’s visual essay raises the question of how queer history should be written and read, and the role of our personal experiences and preconceptions within this. Designer-researchers Julia Valle-Noronha, Marta Konovalov and Elina Määttänen introduce care practices related to the repair and recycling of clothing that go far beyond the limitations of the gentle cycle on modern washing machines. Hannah Segerkrantz, MA student of Craft Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts, brings together the fields of ecology and feminism; she explores the links between caring for nature and women as caretakers. The closing piece of the current issue is a panel discussion between Priit Tohver, the head of the Sustainable Development Department at the North Estonia Medical Centre and designer Ruth Melioranski. The panel discussion is moderated by Daniel Kotsjuba and it views the recent design practices implemented in Estonian healthcare, while also discussing new collaborative projects and future goals. Leida’s graphic designers are Oliver Long and Alexandra Margetic, web developer is Alejandro Bellón Ample. The cover image for “Care after Care” is by Hanafi Gazali. Leida is an online journal published twice a year. Leida is initiated by the Faculty of Design of EKA, the journal is supported by the Architecture Endowment of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Research Fund of EKA and the Faculty of Design of EKA. leida.artun.ee

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