Vivien Chan is a design historian, educator, writer, and imagemaker based in the UK.
is a reading room and design history research studio founded in 2025.The studio is the home of my collaborative, experimental practice as a design historian, educator and facilitator. Out of Practice can be found on the first floor of The People’s Hall, in Nottingham’s Lace Market area.Out of Practice leads with the question of what ‘practice’ means - the endeavour to keep trying, commitment to the process of learning and making, and understanding ‘practice’ to be a collective praxis. To be ‘in’ and ‘out’ of practice is to lean into failure, reflection, sensation, speculation, joy.
The studio is focused on three threads:
📖 A reading room with a library of design research books and zines
💭 A programme of experimental workshops, events, research residencies
🌀️ Collaborative design research, specialising in design history and material culture
