MAKING/CRAFTING/DESIGNING PERSPECTIVES ON DESIGN AS A HUMAN ACTIVITY Design Theory Symposium 10–12 February 2011 Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Germany Humans are essentially makers of things. These material artifacts surround us, they form our environment, and even form part of us. It is no longer possible to ignore that the world we live in is not a given, but is made by us. Alongside this realization, the world itself has become increasingly makeable, for example through genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and synthetic biology. As the resulting artifacts grow ever more complex, it has become crucial to understand the process and consequences of their production. These operations can essentially be understood as design processes. Within an extended notion of design almost all human activity is, to a significant degree, a design activity. Through lectures and workshops, this symposium explores how an extended notion of design could be conceptualized and what the consequences for design as an academic discipline might be. Speakers include Richard Sennett (New York University), Rick Poynor (Design Writer, London), Stephen Duncombe (New York University), Lucy Kimbell (Fieldstudio, London), Susanne Küchler (University College London), Alfred Nordmann (Technische Universität Darmstadt), and Oliver Müller (University of Freiburg). For further information and registration please visit: www.makingcraftingdesigning.com The symposium is organized by Sarah Owens, Zurich University of the Arts and Björn Franke, Royal College of Art, London. It is hosted and supported by the art, science & business program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.