Hi everyone
Before I make my comments, I would like to point out
that this email is not a criticism of the the Common
Ground conference, its organisation and its content.
It is more of a desire to view Common Ground from yet
another perspective.
I have been closely following the discussion strand on
the conference, since a lot of the raised issues about
its ‘common ground-ness’ touch on the notions I have
been questioning myself. Therefore, I decided to join
the discussion and voice what I believe the common
ground conference meant to me.
When I read the call for papers for the conference
hosted by the DRS I was very excited about it. It was
one of the first times that I had come across a
conference in design that seemed to open its doors and
embrace the multitude of research areas in design.
Whether theme or title, the common ground opened up
opportunities to present research in design in its
broad sense being inclusive rather then exclusive –
or so it seemed.
Unfortunately as it became apparent it was not the
case. Here I would like to point to another issue that
the recent discussions about the common ground of the
conference have made me think about.
To me the common ground conference was a platform to
present research and its many strands including areas
that might be ‘marginalised’ by other design
conferences. It was a conference that to me symbolised
inclusion of many interest areas in design eve those
that exist on the borderlines of the discipline either
by being cross disciplinary or by their thematical
nature. However, as I found out through my own
experience and further discussion with other possible
contributors there was no room for the design margins.
It seems that this time around the main stream of
design research received the voice.
So following David Durlings comment about the
conference being one of many DRS conferences to follow
I would like to suggest a somewhat of challenging
venture for a future conference to focus on the
marginalised lands of design research. It is only
through the inclusion of these marginilised areas of
interest as part of discussion of generating new
knowledge in design that I believe, we can really talk
about the notion of common ground.
noemi sadowska
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noemi sadowska
(communication designer)
department of design
goldsmiths college
new cross, london
se14 6nw, united kingdom
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