Perhaps of interest to folks in the area. Apologies for cross positing
Best,
Damian White
The RISD-BROWN Critical Design Research Initiative Presents:
CRITICAL DESIGN CRITICAL FUTURES: A Symposium 24th APRIL 2015
RISD CHACE CENTER, THE RISD MUSEUM, THE RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN 20 N Main St, Providence, RI 02903. 9.30-5.30pm.
In
the face of widening social inequality, democratic decline and a basic
erosion of the ecological health of the planet, many sections of design
and the social sciences appear poised to take a critical turn. Emerging
debates around "speculative design", "re-directive practices",
"discursive design", "adversarial design" and "transitional design" all
indicate an deep impatience with the status quo, a desire to challenge
social and environmental injustices and a growing sense that things need
to change and change quickly. Many currents of the social sciences
would appear to be keen to move from endless deconstruction to
reconstruction.
Critical Design/Critical Futures will begin a
conversation about the potential for creative dialogue and critique
between critical design and the critical social sciences. In this
symposium we will explore the different ways in which forms of critical
and ecological design are now being conceptualized and enacted. We will think about the
designer as worker and workers as self-organizing creative designers.
We will critically interrogate the aesthetics of obfuscation that
surrounds mainstream design and that sustains social and environmental destruction. Finally, Critical Design/Critical Futures
will consider how critical design, design activism and design led social
innovation might productively open up new horizons for speculative
socio-ecological futures.
Susan Yelavich, Design Studies, Parsons Paolo Cardini, Industrial Design, RISD Cameron Tonkinwise, Design Studies, Carnegie Mellon Charlie Cannon, Industrial Design, RISD Damian White, History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences, RISD. Jose Itzigsohn, Sociology, Brown Caroline Woolard, Art Workers and Freelance Unions Colin McSwiggen Jacobin Magazine Ijlal Muzaffar, History of Art and Visual Culture, RISD Yuriko Saito, History, Philosophy and Social Science, RISD Daniel Peltz, Film, Animation and Video, RISD Bhrigupati Singh, Anthropology, Brown Ian Gonsher, Engineering, Brown Anne Tate, Architecture, RISD Kathleen Grevers, Apparel Design, RISD Beth Mosher, Industrial Design, RISD Erik Anderson, History of Art and Visual Culture, RISD Lili Herman, DESINE-LAB, RISD