Jack Self

Please contact me. I am always keen to meet people with a shared resonance.

Instagram
LinkedIn

Lectures
Linktree
©

Portraits on this site are by Benjamin Huseby and Olafur Eliasson.

We all dream of a future that is socially just and harmonious with the natural world.
I strive to realise this vision.

I work through brand and creative strategy, material production, cultural capital and mass communication. The present and past are tools for constructing the future.

I was previously lead for impact strategy at Balenciaga and CCO at Pangaia.

My clients include Prada, Carhartt, LVMH (Virgil Abloh), Alyx (Matthew Williams), Deloitte, JP Morgan and IKEA.

I founded Real Review magazine.

I am a registered architect with masters degrees in economics (risk and priority) and philosophy (ethical autonomy).

I taught a graduate design studio for three years called “Deep Adaptation” (about climate crisis, contemporary culture and the circular economy).

I collaborated for two seasons on an apparel range with Junya Watanabe.

I've interviewed Carlo Rovelli, Kim Jones, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Chelsea Manning, Mariana Mazzucato and Pope Francis.

I own the phrase Form Follows Finance™.

I curated the 2016 Venice Biennale British Pavilion. My work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, ICA and Design Museum.

I am one of the world’s leading experts on postcapitalism, about which I have lectured at Princeton, Harvard and Yale (and appeared on the BBC and CNN).

I once dressed up for Fantastic Man and wrote a text called “Big Flat Now”.

I have authored six books, including “Life Without Debt” and “Symbolic Exchange”. I’ve written for the Guardian, eflux and FT.

I was 032c’s Editor at Large for five years.

My practice is interdisciplinary. It is not, however, undisciplined. I pursue the highest standards of rigour and precision, while at turns resisting and indulging in inactivity and reflection. I am most at peace in the sea on my back. I try not to impose my view of reality onto anyone else: I am neither didactic nor dogmatic.

Modernity wanted to harness the scientific method to design for a universal humanity. The twentieth century largely defined this universality as a world optimised for the white, heterosexual, middle class male. As a feminist, I am working towards an intersectional model of global society.

I use space, objects, words and images to explore and promote relevance, inclusivity, equality and democracy. I am a great believer in materialist analysis (e.g. Baudrillard, LeFebvre or Barthes), although I have not found any evidence that purpose or meaning exist independently from human perception.

I am increasingly driven by the total artwork: the integration of concepts, procedures, media, forms, temporal and material realities into singular propositions. This approach draws no distinction between the abstract and actual, intellect and body, or idea and act.

I am critical of the world. I do not accept it as it is. However, criticism does not mean negativity. I make propositions, projects and positive acts. This ambition pushes my work beyond the limitations of the ego, into collaboration, co-authorship, scalability, new models, systems, structures, institutions and typologies.

Every person has a right to autonomy. My life is dedicated to understanding what it means to live today, and how to use the resources I have to make tomorrow more just. This is a personal struggle for my own freedom and that of others. It the pursuit of awareness as a means to agency.