The great but loopy dutch

After the many months of slow application forms, total bewilderment of subject selections and slight anxiety over pitiful savings in the bank, It was surreal to arrive

In Eindhoven 3 days ago. To be honest, TU/e wasn’t my first choice – TU Delft was, however after the past few days I could not be happier at how things turned out.

Arriving here 2 months of adventures in Spain, Italy, Norway and Denmark, it is safe to say I was a little nervous. Not at the living far away part, or at being in a foreign culture, more at the work I was about to take part in at uni. Studying industrial design, I knew TU/e had a very different stance than UTS. I’m in my third year of industrial in Sydney and while many assignments cause all nighters in the DAB labs I was at least use to the structure and way of thinking required. Coming here I knew eindhoven was another story, having read subject descriptions where you build lighting installations based on human interactions for example. Far from the logical brief where you find a solution and make a hand held product, this was weird. Very conceptual, a little loopy.

Anyway, I started this bizarre course on Friday thinking I would be completely out of my depth in not only skills but way of thinking. Being a more practical person I knew this was a side I had to work on, and felt inadequate as a result. Design was ingrained into this amazing culture. It turns out my nerves weren’t required and I ended up having one of the most inspiring lessons I’ve had at university. While it was odd (we had to race down a long room to win cake at one point), how they thought about design and it’s future seemed extremely logical and intelligent, taking a more wholistic approach in the education of their design students. I’m not saying UTS has it wrong – if I had of come here straight out of high school I probably would have cried and left design forever, but after a couple of years of practical thinking I think I’m ready.

My first task is to design a system and device allowing group music improvisation. This may seem useless to some it’s the thought behind it that is really inspiring. I’m incredibly excited for what is to come – scary learning, totally new skills, much travelling and so many new people thinking in this brilliant way.

Nicola Charlesworth