at OPS, we askhow can we create our own practices of meaning making in an increasingly ephemeral information landscape where stories, objects, and cultures don’t get passed down or spread in previously tangible, stickier ways?
How can we instead habituate rich, lingering experiences as the prominent practice?
about the founderHi, it’s Pooja! I haven’t quite pinned down a title, but so far I’ve landed on ~experiential graphic artist~, though I also draw and paint and write.
I started Open Play Studio as a response to the problems of exploitative attention economies and the bastardization of creative economies. OPS is a construction of my own inner world, but it is also drawing from my experience as a creative director whose job was to tell stories, usually on behalf of venture funded tech companies (cue the tomatoes). I have a vast toolkit of visual storytelling and experiential design skills that I want to use to serve people instead of corporations.
I hope you see this work as something I’ve created by and for you with an expanse of possibilities. It’s meant to be a celebration of people and community. I hope it feels like a gift to you and I hope the experience is interesting and joyful.
about you!You are someone who is also trying to navigate the ephemeral, shallow state of mainstream art distribution and feels passionately about the necessity of art and play to nurture a better, more vibrant world. You want to enable people to center play in their lives and create space for them to rediscover and cultivate their curiosity. You understand the importance of visual literacy and imagination to make sense of and navigate the world.
The questions that are important to you in your work “does it bring joy, does it invoke curiosity, and is there a sense of wonder?”
learn more about our foundational ideas:
Don’t Feed the Aliens is is a field journal for imaginative infrastructure where I share essays, ideas, prototypes, loose threads, and behind-the-scenes thinking on building from a play-based process.