Interview with Ishaan, designer and developer

We want to bring you a very special series of stories.

We know our followers probably use our content often but struggle to put a name and face behind Drugs and Me.

For this reason, we have done a series of interviews with our team so you can get to know more about who we are and what we do.

Here, we've interviewed Ishaan, who has been in charge of (re)developing the drugsand.me website.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I guess I would say I’m from India, though I’ve lived nearly my entire adult life in Europe, mainly the UK. Belonging, nationality, and lineage are distinct things and the way they interact can oftentimes be quite complicated.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about your work and study background?

A: I've had a somewhat unorthodox study and work life. Initially, I was a musician, doing odd jobs with its production while working on my own in my spare time. Over time I developed quite a fascination with people, both culturally and biologically, which led me to go back to education and get a degree in archaeology and anthropology. Having moved further towards human cognition in that time, I followed my undergraduate up with a masters in evolutionary anthropology, which remains my passion to this day. Currently, however, I'm on a break from academia and work freelance as a designer and developer.

Q: How did you get involved with Drugs & Me?

A: My stint with Drugs and Me began a couple of years ago, when a friend alerted me of some people she knew who were looking to get some design work done. I had just started my freelance journey and felt it would be a great way to bolster my portfolio.

Q: Why Drugs & Me?

A: As I learned more about the organisation, I became increasingly attracted to the idea of getting involved; it was its academic undercurrent that first interested me, as the neural impact of drugs, especially psychedelics, has been a research interest of mine for quite a while. The policy and awareness work that they did was a bonus on top of that as I recognise the ludicrous and ineffective nature of criminalising such substances, and the madness of ignoring the potential of many of them in helping people with a variety of issues.

Q: Tell us a little about a typical month /day in the life of a developer at Drugs & Me.

A: The past year at this organisation has not quite been typical; working on rebuilding a site is not what I expect, and hope, we'll be doing again and again. Over the past few months, a typical week has included a daily hour being devoted to the development of the site, more so on the weekends, with a weekly catch-up with the rest of the development team to make sure we're all on the same page.

Q: Tell us a little about your interests - what do you like to do in your free time? How do you switch off from work?

A: I spend a lot of my free time making and playing music; it can be hard to switch off from being 'productive' and music is a good middle-ground between work and passive leisure. Reading also takes up a chunk of my spare time, and I try to regularly keep up with scientific or philosophical works as well as fiction; I'm quite into Literary Modernism at the moment.

Q: What would you say is the highlight of your work at Drugs & Me?

A: Being tasked to lead the website (re)development process definitely felt good. Not only was it a nice validation of my technical skills, it allowed me to contribute my own take on the work we do to the organisation.

Q: What do you think is the best drug to take?

A: Although I volunteer for an organisation called Drugs and Me, I don't quite consume drugs myself. Yes, the irony never fails to amuse me.

Q: What is your favourite song and why? (Or genre, or artist if it’s easier to answer)

A: Hmm, that’s a tough one as I'd have a different answer every few weeks. I guess an artist that has stood the test of time, with me, would be Nine Inch Nails. As far as genres go, while I usually tend to gravitate towards fairly ambient and experimental stuff, these days I'm in a bit of an 80s synth-pop phase.