An inspirational guide to constructing and navigating selfhood in the age of social media
We are constantly encouraged to lead the ideal life. Where once our identities were shaped by our communities, families and friends, today we write our own success stories on social media. We design our own identities to an unprecedented extent, constructing ourselves as we wish to be seen. Ways of “upgrading” oneself—dieting to achieve the perfect body, transforming your talents into a successful business, finding bliss by meeting a new love—may therefore be seen as new forms of creativity, or self-design.
In Help Your Self! Dutch designer and director Mieke Gerritzen provides an inspirational guide for designing your ideal self, and shows you how to get started, while also scrutinizing the self-help industry with wit and intelligence.
Featured image is reproduced from ‘Help Your Self!'.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Fashion philosopher, journalist and curator, Amsterdam
Aynouk Tan
Gerritzen dissects the self-help industry with wit, intelligence, and merciless absurdity. At the same time, she is dead serious about the inimitable possibilities and everlasting practice of “becoming” self. Brace for an eye-opening roller coaster ride that is called the playground of identity.
Director Design Museum, the Netherlands
Timo de Rijk
The first, only and indispensable do-it-yourself book for the human Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamlined Babies of the Twenty-First Century.
Design Chair Maryland Institute College of Art, Curator Cooper Hewitt. Smithsonian Design Museum New York
Ellen Lupton
Mieke Gerritzen makes a crash landing on the island of Ennui. Search the wreckage for shattered bits of selfhood while you explore the mobility of microbes, the myth of mindfulness, the narcissism of Zoom, and the addictive allure of love, money, and success.
philosopher, media theorist, New York/Berlin
Boris Groys
This fascinating and provocative book confronts its readers with the most urgent questions that raise their self-awareness and improve their quality of life.
in stock $29.95
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Thursday, September 9 from 12–12:45PM EST, the AIGA Book Series presents Dutch designer and director Mieke Gerritzen in conversation with Lee-Sean Huang about Help Your Self! The Rise of Self-Design, Gerritzen's new book from Valiz. Click here to register for this Zoom webinar followed by a Q&A and scroll down to read more about the book! continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 256 pgs / 300 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $41.95 ISBN: 9789492095633 PUBLISHER: Valiz AVAILABLE: 2/9/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ME
An inspirational guide to constructing and navigating selfhood in the age of social media
We are constantly encouraged to lead the ideal life. Where once our identities were shaped by our communities, families and friends, today we write our own success stories on social media. We design our own identities to an unprecedented extent, constructing ourselves as we wish to be seen. Ways of “upgrading” oneself—dieting to achieve the perfect body, transforming your talents into a successful business, finding bliss by meeting a new love—may therefore be seen as new forms of creativity, or self-design.
In Help Your Self! Dutch designer and director Mieke Gerritzen provides an inspirational guide for designing your ideal self, and shows you how to get started, while also scrutinizing the self-help industry with wit and intelligence.
