Tabula Rasa: Love, Truth & Self — Final Degree Project

Tabula Rasa is a solo-lead project based on the need to generate a bridge between philosophy and design. It seeks to explore the concept of deconstruction through authors from different disciplines who have reflected on themes such as Love, Truth, or Identity (Self), and have somewhat set the stage for us future thinkers. The work poses a variety of philosophical, personal, and often political questions through design, such as: Is it possible to start from a blank page? How can we generate alternative narratives to the hegemonic one (stray narratives)? What does it mean to love someone? Is Truth relative or absolute?

These are only some of the inquiries that move the project forward. While answers are not always found, it is almost inevitable that certain values are promoted over others, showing how hard it is to truly reach a complete deconstruction. The formats that make it up are a publication, a web, an audiovisual piece, and some posters. In addition to tracing a route through the different proposed themes, Tabula Rasa also unpins other sub-themes like Memory, Home, Meaning, and notes the existing connections between them. It is by finding lines of intersection that we see how this plurality of views can help us build a wider view of reality and the world we inhabit.

Tabula Rasa began in a small room, shaped by ongoing conversations with my close collaborator, philosopher and writer Francesc Usach. These discussions deeply influenced my perspective and laid the foundation for the project. From there, the idea expanded into a collective effort, bringing together a group of students who contributed written pieces around its themes. The project ultimately materialized as a self-funded magazine. A second issue is currently in development.