MEDIATIONS - Art & Design Agency and Participation in Public Space
TRADERS closing conference
21st-22nd November - Royal College of Art
Apologies for cross-posting.
Dear colleague,
As one of six international partners of the EU project TRADERS - short for ‘Training Art and Design Researchers for Participation in Public Space’ - the RCA’s School of Architecture will host the project’s closing event this November. After three years of multidisciplinary research and a wide range of international events TRADERS will be drawn to a close in a two-day cross-disciplinary conference.
With the TRADERS project we aim to scrutinise the ethical implications -such as artists’ and designers’ accountability- that are inherent to participatory processes, yet often remain underexplored by practitioners when working with -or in service of- the public. The conference will therefore explore how artists and designers can become critically aware of their agency in the pursuit of empowering publics in decision-making for, and co-creation of, public space.
The keynote speakers Ramia Mazé (Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design), Jane Rendell (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL), Susannah Hagan (University of Westminster) and Usman Haque (Umbrellium) will explore how different participatory approaches can reconfigure existing power relations in art and design processes; how issues of gender play a role in the use, behaviour and appropriation of public space by a multiplicity of publics; how designers’ agency and attitude towards the design and production of public spaces have evolved over the last decades, and how new technologies can promote greater citizen participation in the design, use and sustainability of public space.
Through paper, exhibition, keynote and reflection sessions we will ask:
- What alternative empowering practices exist in art and design that can promote citizen participation?
- How can artists and designers “make a difference” within existing/established distributions of power?
- How can they use their agency to empower others (e.g. citizens) to bring about desired social or political change?
- In other words, through what means, modes and/or practices can artists and designers mediate between multiple actors with diverse agencies?
Please find more information on our website: www.tr-aders.eu/conference and please register for the conference here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mediations-art-design-agency-and-participation-in-public-space-tickets-25259737555
Please disseminate this invitation with your relevant contacts.
We look forward to welcoming you at our conference!
Kind regards,
Traders
www.tr-aders.eu/conference // facebook.com/TRADERS.EU // tw: #MEDIATIONS_EU
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