In response to Christena/Victor
(sorry if i have sent it twice - )
I have been looking to see if I can find evidence of obvious progress within design curriculum within UK regarding the encouragement of 'social values' with in design education. Following on from what you were saying (Christena) Have you found much? Last year sometime, the RIDE discussion list began a debate about 'Design and ethics', which fizzled out very quickly - in fact it got a bit silly. I was surprised at the time , as you have been, that there doesn't seem to be more of a 'backbone' there. Do you have courses in the US that take social considerations as their mandate?
It seems such a good way to learn about design to me: e.g. under-graduate courses where one can learn to Design for disability, or sustainability, or low income - say - instead of Graphics, Fashion, Furniture - for instance. There is often this feeling that students need to learn about 'design' first and about so-called specialisms later. The Helen Hamlyn Centre's work, for instance, shows how experienced designers have applied their work to problems of disability and difference - and that all can gain from this; but why are there so few (if any?) courses which use these areas as a core means to learn about design?
Perhaps I am wrong - I would love to hear of any examples of courses that operate in this way.
Fiona Candy
Department of Design
University of Central Lancashire
Preston
PR1 2HE
Lancashire
UK
00 44 (0)1772 893368
>>> Christena Nippert-Eng <[log in to unmask]> 01/28/02 03:02pm >>>
Hi all --
In response to Victor's comments on developing a design research agenda:
I think this is so critical to the status of the profession right now, as
well as for individuals' happiness.
It requires, firstly, a commitment to setting one's own agenda rather
than having it set by a client/patron/underwriter/boss. I'm not sure I've
met too many designers (among others) who have either the luxury or the
inclination to do this. It may very well require living poorly and/or in
academia (often redundant) and hammering home in a highly visible way,
with the very visible backing of a large professional association, the
right, the need, the social good, of doing so.
Secondly, it may need to come from a sort of meta-level analysis of what
matters to people and other creatures, immediately and in the long
run. Much of designers' activities in school seem so limited in the
amount and kinds of understanding that one can take away from them. I
have nothing more or less in mind here than the broad exploration of
concepts -- maybe what Victor means by social values -- that are
manifested in more and less obvious ways in everyday life. I have only
begun a more systematic exploration of design school curricula. There is
very little evidence that such an essential professional backbone can be
found even here, where it is most likely to exist and most likely to be
successful. Here is the place where designers should expect to
be sensitized to the most foundational elements of life, and where they
should be strongly encouraged to develop a highly idealized commitment to
an idealized design agenda of their own. Reality will attenuate
that. But if you can't be pie-in-the-sky in school, where can you
be? And when else will you ever have time to work on vision? And how
can a research agenda for the discipline as a whole ever emerge without
the careful and romantic thoughts -- thoroughly grounded in meticulous,
micro-understandings of behavior -- of each one of its members?
So many students seem to be eager for just this kind of opportunity. So
many designers seem to be rather disappointed and aimless in what
they're actually doing despite some financial well-being -- more reactive,
defensive, and endlessly facilitating others' needs instead design's
needs or their own. Finding better ways to help design students develop a
good research agenda -- a good mission for life -- may be something worth
working on.
Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Illinois Institute of Technology
312-567-6812 (phone)
773-288-4712 (fax)
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