We were lucky to catch up with Aakash Desai recently and have shared our conversation below.

Aakash, appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Mental health.

I think underlying any thing I decide to do, whether creative or otherwise, is emotion. When my emotions change, so does the conviction I have behind what I’m trying to do.

It is easy to commit in the heat of passion. It feels good to articulate a vision when my mental state is stable. When my mind is not right, everything becomes dull and lifeless.

I’m a ideas person. I consume the energy that I get from my own thoughts, dreams and visions. This is all internal stuff. More recently, I’ve experienced multiple bouts with depression. During each period, all of the ideas that give me life when I’m healthy, seem to disappear or turn grey. They lose the life that they had for some time in my heart.

I think, and this is especially important for creative people, that mental health is often the source and suck of what gives us life. I’ve learned to make sure to share this insight with my fellow creatives but also with anyone in my life so that they understand why they might be getting a version of me that seems off or different.

Aakash, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The end-game of capitalism is bleak. Everything is owned, nothing is shared. All things become transactional.

This is the future that I believe we cannot support.

Sharing is the fundamental spirit and design principle that guides the things I have created and want to create. The ideas and realities I see as inspiration are everywhere in public parks, libraries and museums. These spaces, in many societies across the world, have been protected as sacred. As important enough to the well-being of all that they must be offered to the least among us and shared.

To create and continue to maintain what we have now is a choice. We make that choice everyday based on a story of what is possible. I have to believe that something better is possible. A society that prioritizes and builds infrastructure around well-being, togetherness and creative risk-taking. I don’t think this is a utopia. We experience these spaces all the time often without thinking or appreciating them for what they are. Many of our fellow humans and ancestors have made the choice to save and create sacredness to fundamental elements of the human experience – nature, air, knowledge. So much more could be done here.

There’s work to be done to beat back the cynical effect of the capitalist mindset. I think we can do it. It starts by telling different stories about the things we care about through how we design them, building them and share them.

My thesis is that we can build the society of tomorrow by reframing the building blocks of the society of now. We can treat each project, each product as a line of the story that tells something different about how we are meant to be with each other.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Build creative infrastructure. This is not just one-off grants and funding opportunities that benefit a minority of artists/creatives.

Just as we’ve build infrastructure around cars, education, access to the outdoors, and recreational space. We need to see creativity, art and the people who practice as creatives as the lifeblood of our society. That without their vision, their ability to sensitively articulate emotion and change, we would be lost.

In plain terms, this is what I mean when I say infrastructure:
-Subsidized housing
-Free public Practice/productions spaces
-Shared equipment and other creative resources
-Long-term patronage and funding
-Create more accessible and enduringly beautiful performance and event spaces to showcase work
-Orient the identity of the society around the arts and creativity (in messaging through communications and in public policy to ease or remove some of the burdens that particularly acutely felt on the arts and creatives.
-Fund the building and/or maintenance of enduring public institutions that support the arts and set aside space for them to operate.

I could go on.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Garbage. Next question.

Ok. I’ll say this. The philosophy and technicality behind NFTs fits squarely within the most banal capitalist paradigm. They don’t work from a emotional perspective and they will never work as the vehicle for supporting artists or the arts in general. The same people who love NFTs probably love the idea of commodifying air.

The right spirit but the ugliest of executions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.keystocity.org
• Instagram: @keysto.thecity
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakashdesai/

Image Credits

@_pennyhouse