The Monday Media Diet with Dan Mitchell
Why is this interesting? is a daily email for intellectual omnivores. Our subjects change every day, and differ from the prevailing news cycle: think decommissioned elevators, GAP store playlists, and Omani Rolexes. WITI is brought to you by Noah Brier & Colin Nagy, with editing by Louis Cheslaw.
Dan Mitchell is creative director at WITI favorite Potato Head in Bali. Happy to have him with us this week. -Colin (CJN)
Tell us about yourself.
I’m Daniel Mitchell, creative director at Potato Head, where I’ve been since 2014. I grew up in Newcastle before moving to London, where I worked as a menswear buyer at Oki-Ni. I later co-founded LN-CC in 2010, as well as several other creative projects in London around that time.
In 2014, I moved to Bali and set up Island of the Gods Records, a label built on cultural exchange between contemporary musicians from the West and traditional Balinese musicians and artists. Soon after, I met Ronald Akili and joined Potato Head as global creative director. We began working towards a shared ambition: creating a zero-waste ecosystem driven by culture. Twelve years later, I’m still here!
During lockdown, I also founded the design studio Space Available. I’m very much interested in creating spaces where people connect and projects with a clear purpose and a positive impact. Potato Head gives me a platform to bring art, architecture, music, food and wellbeing into one cohesive cultural expression—and hopefully do a little good along the way!
Describe your media diet.
It’s largely books, particularly on design and architecture. There aren’t many specialist bookshops in Bali, but Potato Head has a fantastic library, and I’m fortunate to travel regularly, so I tend to bring books home from every trip.
Recently, I’ve been enjoying ABOUT:, an architecture publication from Italy. I also follow the usual suspects, such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, Frame and Emerge, alongside a few Japanese titles and platforms such as Are.na.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading The Architecture of Closed Worlds by Lydia Kallipoliti. It explores the idea of self-sufficient environments, from space capsules to countercultural experiments in architecture and autonomous living.
It’s an interesting exploration of how these closed-loop systems handle energy and resources, including how they turn human waste into something useful. It connects closely with questions we’re exploring at Potato Head: how a place can support itself, what happens to the things we discard, and how waste can become part of another cycle.
What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?
I tend to read slowly, from beginning to end. If an image or an idea catches my attention, I mark it with a Post-it so I can return to it later.
I also keep a notebook alongside me for thoughts, ideas and things I’ve learnt. Sometimes those notes relate directly to what I’m reading; other times, something on the page sends my thinking somewhere else. That’s often the most useful part.
Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?
I always return to the Whole Earth Catalog. I first picked it up around 15 years ago and fell deep into the world of Stewart Brand, Buckminster Fuller and the wider counterculture movement of the 1960s.
I’d start there, then explore Fuller’s writing on systems thinking and how we might design a future in synergy with nature. What interests me is the connection between design, ecology and everyday living, and how everything relates to the whole. Those ideas still feel incredibly relevant today.
What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone?
Are.na is probably the closest thing, although I’m not a big app person. I use the usual tools, but as more of life moves onto screens, I find myself wanting to make more room for things I can do with my hands and preserve headspace for thinking and deep work.
Digital tools, including AI, have their uses. I’m just conscious of protecting space for my own thoughts. I don’t feel the need to abandon technology, but I want to be deliberate about how much of my attention it gets.
Plane or train?
Train. I love watching the landscape change as small villages give way to towns and fields give way to cities. There’s something particularly interesting about seeing a country as a whole, travelling through places marked by different historical moments.
That said, I do enjoy long-haul flights. Airports are another story: the queues and procedures feel overdue for a rethink. But once I’m on the plane, I turn off the Wi-Fi and enjoy having nowhere else to be. Half a day alone with my own thoughts has become something I very much enjoy. Given the choice, though, I’d take a long train journey through somewhere new.
What is one place everyone should visit?
Toraja, in Sulawesi. I spent time there researching projects for Potato Head, staying with local families and experiencing some of their ceremonies and daily life.
The architecture and craft were extraordinary, but what stayed with me most was encountering a different relationship with life, death and remembrance. The landscape is beautiful, and there’s a rich culture around ritual food and local ingredients. It’s somewhere I’d encourage people to visit with time, curiosity and respect.
Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.
Indonesia has been my longest rabbit hole. I first came to Bali around twenty years ago with my wife, who is Indonesian, and fell in love with the place and people. That visit eventually became a move, and I’ve now lived here for twelve years.
I was drawn to the possibility of a different way of living: closer to the mountains and ocean, more connected to nature, with ideas of growing my own food and learning about regenerative farming. In many ways, I still feel at the beginning of that adventure.
Bali has changed enormously, but across Indonesia there is so much I’m still learning, from the relationships between people and nature to the rituals, craft traditions and philosophies that shape everyday life. Every project opens another door. Twelve years in, I’m still following those threads.
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