Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the on-line conference, "Design in the University."
Over the next month, we will explore a number of key issues dealing
with university-level design education today. This includes such
issues as research training, doctoral education, and professional
education in the university context. We will also consider the
concept of the design school in the university.
Lets start with a question that all of us ask from time to time:
What should a design school be if we could build one from the ground up?
While we all have ideas on how to answer this question, few of us
have ever been asked to answer it with a specific plan that would
lead to building a new design school.
This conference is an opportunity to meet a group that WAS asked to
answer this question by developing the proposal for the University of
California Irvine School of Design.
Not only was this committee asked to think, they were asked to think
big. The question that they were asked was "What should a design
school be to meet the needs of professional education and research
training in one of the world's leading research universities?"
The question involved a unique challenge and an extraordinary
opportunity. UC Irvine does not have a design school. The committee
was asked to develop a plan to build a design school from the ground
up. Everything - curriculum, staff, even the physical plant - would
be built from scratch to meet the future needs of the University of
California Irvine (UCISD Committee: 2002).
You can acquire a .pdf download of the report at
http://www.evc.uci.edu/growth/design/SoD-proposal.pdf.
If you subscribe to Design Research News, we reviewed the report in
June. I will post a copy of the review to start things off after
sending this note.
Our on-line conference will meet asynchronously. Our 1,200
subscribers - span most of the world's 24 time zones. The
asynchronous on-line format has huge advantages, particularly for
colleagues who have not been able to travel as widely as they might
wish to attend face-to-face design research conferences. Another
advantage is an opportunity to meet and interact with people who
attend conferences and seminars on different circuits than we
ourselves may frequent.
The format also involves challenges. We have developed a conference
process that will permit us to make the most effective use of this
format. I will present some ground rules on the conference process
when I introduce the first speaker later today.
First, let me give you a brief overview of the five scheduled
sessions. Each session starts on a specific date. The format will be
the same for each session.
First, a member of the committee - or, in session 2, a committee
consultant - will present his or her ideas on the UCISD project.
Then, a second speaker will respond. The response will be followed by
three invited comments. After that, the floor will be open for
questions, ideas, and interaction with any of the speakers. We will
also welcome original thoughts and contributions on any theme that
comes up - as well as thoughts on the report.
We have gathered a group of speakers that represents a wide variety
of positions and viewpoints. We have university professors and
working designers, renowned scholars and promising doctoral students,
and we have mixed them across a range of nations and fields of
interest. In most cases, our speakers themselves represent multiple
positions.
Dick Taylor is a software engineer with a deep interest in the design
- and artistry - of software development. Chris Rust is a working
industrial designer as well as a university professor. Lorraine
Justice is an industrial designer and head of ID at Georgia Tech, as
well as a founding mother of the conference series on doctoral
education in design. Liz Sanders is a psychologist and anthropologist
working with product design and interaction for some of the world's
major corporations. M. P. Ranjan in both an industrial designer and
an expert on craft who is head of the Centre for Bamboo Initiatives
at National Institute of Design in Paldi, Ahmedabad. Chris Heape is
an experience industrial designer and design teacher who is both
earning his doctorate and consulting to universities on professional
design education.
You will meet these speaker -- and more -- during the conference. I
will introduce each speaker more extensively as the sessions develop.
Here is our program:
Session 1 - November 14
Speaker:
Richard Taylor, University of California, Irvine
Response:
Thomas Rasmussen, Denmark's Design School
Comments:
John Feland, Stanford University
Silvia Pizzocaro, Politecnico di Milano
Chris Rust, Sheffield-Hallam University
Session 2 - November 20
Speaker:
Lorraine Justice, Georgia Institute of Technology
Response:
Keith Russell, University of Newcastle
Comments:
Liz Sanders, Sonic Rim
Ricardo Sosa, University of Sydney
Carma Gorman, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Session 3 - November 26
Speaker:
Sanjoy Mazumdar, University of California, Irvine
Response:
Charles Burnette, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Comments:
Linda Drew, Chelsea College of Art and Design
Wolfgang Jonas, Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen
Session 4 - December 2
Speaker:
Alladi Venkatesh, University of California, Irvine
Response:
Christene Nippert-Eng, Illinois Institute of Technology
Comments:
Michael Biggs, University of Herefordshire
Maria Camacho, Camacho & Asociados
GK Van Patter, Next Design
Session 5 - December 8
Speaker:
Michael Clark, University of California, Irvine
Response:
David Durling, Staffordshire University
Comments:
M P Ranjan, National Institute of Design, Paldi
Susan Hagan, Carnegie Mellon University
Chris Heape, University of Southern Denmark
This promises to be an exciting conference. I will return later today
with a few notes on format - and an opportunity to introduce Prof.
Richard Taylor, chair of University of California Irvine School of
Design Committee.
Once again, welcome.
-- Ken Friedman
Reference
University of California Irvine School of Design Committee. 2002.
Proposal for a School of Design at the University of California,
Irvine. November 2002. Irvine: University of California, Irvine. URL:
http://www.evc.uci.edu/growth/design/SoD-proposal.pdf Accessed 2003
May 2.
--
Ken Friedman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design
Department of Leadership and Organization
Norwegian School of Management
Visiting Professor
Advanced Research Institute
Faculty of Art, Media, and Design
Staffordshire University
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