The field of Design Studies is in its formative stage, and by virtue of its nascent status each paper engaging in the discipline is written with praxis and critique in mind, contributing to the construction of the field. For this reason, the third edition of Plots operates under the theme of Manifesto / Instruction / Dossier. The papers in this journal address these topics to varying degrees, employing a multiplicity of definitions of design and drawing from broader fields afar including visual and material culture, anthropology, sociology, and beyond.

Plots: The MA Design Studies Journal is an annual academic publication, housed at The New School, and edited by graduate students across the design schools of New York City under the leadership of students from the MA Design Studies program in the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design. Plots inquires into how design practice and design research are configured and how they shape individuals, societies, politics, and the relation to our environment.

The papers in this journal range from the prescriptive to descriptive, reflecting the instructive and formative motif of the theme. Whilst some authors in this edition have produced manifestos on the future of design, others have developed and explored themes as varied as mass incarceration, design education, sex toys and D-I-Y instruction—displaying the multifarious nature of the field of Design Studies.

With papers from Europe, South America and across the United States, the third volume of Plots marks the journal’s engagement with an international authorship and readership. Plots envisions extending these relations over the coming year, attesting to the transdisciplinarity and cosmopolitanism of the study of design and its practice.