163 papers for a cosmopolitan design
163 papers selected, from 27 countries (from Europe to Asia, form America to Africa): these figures offer an initial profile of what Changing the Change will be. Later on we shall see the range of topics these papers deal with (and therefore on which great issues debate will develop during the conference).
Later on we shall see where the authors operate (universities, professional practices, or other research centres). A clearer profile will emerge of what design research for Changing the Change is today and where it is taking place. For now I would like to stress only that the way international participation in the conference is distributed, and what it represents, indicate not only that design research is widespread, but so also is the work that, although in different ways, is orientated in the direction to which Changing the Change is pointing. In my opinion this is excellent news.
It was by no means to be taken for granted that this would happen, because design as a profession is now practised worldwide. However, the same can still certainly not be said for design culture, meaning the conceptual tools that guide its operations: the development of a knowledge and network society has enabled design to spread to all regions of the world, but the speed with which this has happened has not allowed for the spontaneous growth of an adequate new design ethos.
In other words, it seems to me that design has acted worldwide speaking (and thinking) a language that is still too bound to its now distant origins (the traditional, industrial societies in Europe and North America). This has made it difficult for designers working in other regions of the Planet to understand and fulfill their own local potential and work to steer them in the most promising direction and, as far as what most interests us here, this means towards sustainability.
The signals we are receiving from Changing the Change suggest that this difficulty can be overcome; that parallel to this spread of design in practice, a similar spread of design as research is also beginning. In particular, a growing number of design schools are not only aiming to prepare future designers, but are also creating a new design expertise for the present. They are centres of a new design expertise able to generate a cosmopolitan mixture of design culture and practices that are expressions of the different regions of the world, with their own particular traditions and potentialities.
In this framework, the conference itself can be seen as a research activity, the theme of which is the state of design research for sustainability at an international level. Its call for papers, with the subsequent proposals, forms an international inquiry. Its outcome will be a map of who is doing what in this field, and where. We shall be able to bring these results into focus in the coming months and discuss them in greater depth during the conference in Turin. However, we can already indicate an initial output of this work: as stated earlier, the response to the call for papers for Changing the Change tells us that design research is beginning to be a worldwide phenomenon, articulated at the local level. It is therefore legitimate to hope that design is getting ready to become that cosmopolitan, but at the same time both global and local, culture of research that is so much needed today in the transition towards sustainability.
Putting people first » Changing the Change conference looks very promising says, on May 13th, 2008 at 7:43 pm:
Sukanta Biswas says, on May 14th, 2008 at 5:22 am:
Putting People First in italiano » La conferenza Changing the Change sembra molto promettente says, on May 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm: