Beyond Representation
"What if representation is only the beginning?"
I recently joined Charlene Prempeh, Joy Yamusangie and Thomas Aquilina at the Design Museum for a conversation titled Unseen by Design: Representation, Belonging and the Cultural Void, exploring how design might respond to historical erasure and create spaces for belonging.
What stayed with me most wasn't the panel itself. It was the conversation that followed.
During the Q&A, people spoke openly about the different forms the "void" takes in their own lives. While our discussion had begun with questions of cultural representation, it quickly became clear that the void extends much further. It exists around disability and access, around class, around who feels invited into designed spaces, and ultimately around who feels they belong.
That evening left me wondering whether we are entering a post-representation moment.
Representation remains essential. Seeing ourselves reflected in museums, public spaces and institutions matters. But representation alone cannot create belonging. Too often it risks becoming symbolic—a visible gesture that leaves deeper structures unchanged.
Perhaps the question is no longer simply who is seen, but who is understood.
For me, design has never been only about objects. It is about the relationships those objects create. The spaces we build, the materials we choose and the stories we tell all have the capacity to invite people in—or quietly remind them that they were never considered in the first place.
The real challenge, then, is to move beyond visibility towards participation. Beyond inclusion towards genuine commune. Beyond representation towards shared ownership of our cultural and public spaces.
That feels like the work ahead.
