Hi Rudi, Ria and Terence
Rudi I would argue that design/arts based curriculum development in Africa
is not about "Africanizing", which is a term I find rather problematic, but
rather about ensuring it's contextual relevance. Africa is a huge diverse
place and all but two countries come from a colonial past. Ria thank you
for the mention of the Design Society Development DESIS Lab. In our lab,
being based in South Africa, we acknowledge the complexities of our
chequered past have been exploring ways of developing more appropriate
design research methodologies for such an undertaking (as Terence has said,
mostly highly collaborative). There are two issues at the coal face, the
one is that professional design is almost a nonentity on the African
continent, however there is a amazing array of, as per Ezio Manzini's
description, *diffuse* design performed by a wide range of society. It is
this localised or "Africanized" take on design that I am documenting in my
own personal research since most of it has taken place with no influence of
taught Western design, although it is still highly influenced by the West
through globalisation and development. The second issue is that there are
very few design professionals on a massive continent and we have been
rather poor at documenting our work. To overcome this the DSD DESIS lab has
been documenting many of our projects online through our website, but even
this is a drop in the ocean in comparison to the scholarship coming from
Western/Eastern design schools. Have a look at our website for our
collection of publications
http://www.designsocietydevelopment.org/#publications and if your require
further info, please contact us directly.
Kind Regards,
*Angus Campbell*
www.angusdonaldcampbell.com
+27 76 509 3275
Senior Lecturer, Department of Industrial Design, FADA, University of
Johannesburg;
Coordinator Design Society Development DESIS Lab & DESIS Food Cluster;
Co-researcher Izindaba Zokudla: Innovation in the Soweto Food System;
& Partner, Global Innoversity for MetroFood/MetroAg
Department of Industrial Design; Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture
(FADA); University of Johannesburg, Bunting Road Campus, +27 11 559 1390;
[log in to unmask]; www.uj.ac.za/industrial
www.designsocietydevelopment.org & http://desis-foodcluster.org/ &
http://www.desis-network.org/
http://www.designsocietydevelopment.org/project/izindaba-zokudla/
http://globalinnoversity.org/
On 28 April 2015 at 21:55, Fenn, Terence <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Rudi and Ria,
>
> Firstly, if you need any additional information regarding our DSD DESIS
> Lab or would like to join us for one of our monthly sessions please feel
> free to contact either Angus Campbell ([log in to unmask]) or myself (
> [log in to unmask]), we are always happy to talk shop and share ideas.
>
> Secondly, I believe that your question, generally, is of great importance
> to how we, as design educators in Africa, position our teaching and
> research practices. In my experience teaching interventions with a strong
> HCD/Design Thinking/ Service Design ethos encourages students' to consider
> design as a strongly localized and contextual practice during which meaning
> is co-constructed with communities.
>
> While these types of consideration of design have become more commonplace
> in practice orientated projects (and subsequent embedded theory), it is my
> opinion that these approaches to design are not often supported from a
> theoretical perspective, which still tend to fixate on aesthetic or
> semiotical readings of design.
>
> Furthermore, and I speculate that this is what Rudi may be looking for (as
> well as the rest of us) there seems to be little effort to highlight the
> history or study of design as a particularly African concern and activity
> (historical and contemporary). In this regard I am very curious to read
> Victor Margolin's new World History of Design reader, which has promised to
> include us this time around.
>
> To conclude- I am happy to be corrected, if anyone has developed
> curriculum related to these concerns, and more importantly, I would love to
> see its content (particularly with a South African focus), as I believe
> that it would be hugely beneficial.
>
> So please, Rudi- if you find some valuable content, could you please share
> it?
>
> Thanks
>
> Terence Fenn
>
> Department of Multimedia, FADA. University of Johannesburg
> fennhobbs.com
> www.designsocietydevelopment.org
>
> ________________________________________
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in Design [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Rudi Wynand
> De Lange [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 28 April 2015 12:37 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Africanization of a design curriculum
>
> Ria
> Hi
> Thank you.
> Rudi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ria
> van Zyl
> Sent: 28 April 2015 12:12 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Africanization of a design curriculum
>
> Hallo Rudi
>
> One way is to look at research and design development work that addresses
> local problems.
>
> Fada (University of Johannesburg's) work done through
> http://www.designsocietydevelopment.org/ can be an example where the
> design process and thinking is adapted, and then find it's way back to the
> curriculum.
>
> Ria van Zyl
> Pretoria - Gauteng
>
>
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