Changing the change

Changing the Change conference has made an invitation to build up a panorama of design research results today. Now, after the conference, it is possible to affirm – looking at the abstracts and papers received – that this invitation has been largely answered. First, considering the geographically representative number of countries that have an approved abstract – exactly 27 – from South and North America, through Europe, Africa and Asia.

The abstracts approved are 163: 101 from United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark; 4 from Israel and Turkey; 5 from Kenya, Botswana and South Africa; 13 from China, India, Japan and South Korea; 18 from Brazil and Colombia; 13 from Canada and United States; and 9 from Australia.

Clearly Europe, particularly Italy, has sent the larger number of abstracts. This is explained by the fact that the conference took place in Turin. But if we exclude Italy, we arrive at a very balanced distribution between Europe and the other countries: 50 abstracts from United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, France, Portugal, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland; and 62 from all other countries. In synthesis, 1/3 for Italy, 1/3 for Europe and 1/3 for the rest of the world in 163 abstracts approved.

Interesting also that a country like Brazil, that has only one PhD School in Design, has 17 abstracts approved, the total representation from Latin America (Colombia had sent only one abstract). After the United Kingdom, with 26 abstracts approved, Brazil was the country (always excluding Italy) with the largest participation in Changing the Change.

Other numbers: 348 documents were uploaded as papers/visualizations in the conference web platform, from those 263 where sent to 40 reviewers, at the end totalizing 163 abstracts approved and 138 final papers.

But the interest in the conference themes is not restricted to these numbers: Changing the Change newsletter is sent today to more than 1300 subscribers.

Regarding contents, papers were divided by the scientific committee in 6 groups, around the 3 larger areas: visions, proposals and tools. Visions: ways of living and producing. Proposals: daily life solutions and enabling systems. Tools: design theories and methods. This can be seen in the proceedings, already on-line (www.changingthechange.org). The conference organizers have always considered Changing the Change conference not as a “final result” of a process but as a starting point. When reading these papers, a still unexplored richness of possible clusters comes out, sub themes, and more than that, possible collaborations; and here we hope that the “proceedings” could be considered also as work material, enabling potential post-conference activities and contacts.

In Spanish, Design is written with ñ, Diseño, and although it could sound… banal, that ñ gives account of an original way to face the world.
That single letter talks about a huge difference regarding the way in which design is assumed, because for us, in the countries where the ñ is used, design is the art of “darse maña” (meaning the ability to use ones “knacks” to solve a given challenge).

The inventors of this funny letter were monks who had to fit just one metallic movable type, instead of two, in the mechanical press; they gave themselves the “maña” to make the sound (usually written with gn or nh) fit that single space…

Now, how many monks or “mañosos” are there going to be attending the CtC conference?

Would the activation of “maña” offer new insights regarding possibilities to improve life conditions in urban dwellings?
An initial answer is what I would like to share here by means of a personal exploration during the PhD research.

As a student, I remember having arrived in Italy with lots of expectations among which, the idea of learning about “sustainable” supermarkets being this idea a clear sign of my lack of vision regarding the way in which the design practice has stuck on mainstream possibilities of producing with LCA standards, eco-materials, etc., a way that neglects the urgency to develop a design culture and thus hinders the real need for research.

While being immersed in the design world, and while starting to address the relevance of looking the “mañosos” ways in a series of case study cities, I found out that a hybrid car, a more accurate LCA, a “sustainable” supermarket do help, but are not the actual solution; indeed it seems that what is needed is having design as a prompter of creative behaviours at a private/personal scale so that “users” feel encouraged to change, to fit into the planetary limited conditions; design/diseño then can help awaking user’s “non-professional” creativity (their mañas), to solve on self-basis daily needs. And this, let’s face it, will not “extinct” designers, rather than that, it will open brand new possibilities.
Along the way I found designers feeling threatened because, “if we don’t give shape to a product or a service then: what are we called to do?!”. For many, design is call to develop eco-products, toolkits, guidelines… but fortunately those stances are changing. Nowadays it is acknowledgeable that designers could help users not just to consume “better” but, to consume less.

I hope that the CtC will not be a moment to blissful talk and easily agreement but that discussions and positive disagreements (between designers coming from all over the world and thus using all sorts of eñes”) take place, so that the resulting agenda (which undeniable addresses a political phenomena) help us to face the “mañana” (Spanish for tomorrow) with more…: maña.

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.

Cumulus, the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media representing 124 first class institutions from all continents, is making a commitment to building sustainable, human centered, creative societies. The Design Declaration will be signed on March 28th in the same venue where the Kyoto Treaty was signed. This event, we hope, will be an important step towards a new role of design in the transition towards a sustainable society. The Changing the Change design research conference, in July, in Torino, will be a second one. Here below, the declaration that will be singed in Kyoto is reported.

PROPOSING NEW VALUES AND NEW WAYS OF THINKING

All the people of the world now live in global and interdependent systems for living. We continue to enhance the quality of our lives by creating environments, products and services utilizing design. Design is a means of creating social, cultural, industrial and economic values by merging humanities, science, technology and the arts. It is a human-centered process of innovation that contributes to our development by proposing new values, new ways of thinking, of living, and adapting to change.

AN ERA OF HUMAN CENTERED DEVELOPMENT

A paradigm shift from technology driven development to human centered development is under way. The focus is shifting from materialistic and visible values to those, which are mental, intellectual and, possibly, less material. An era of “cultural productivity” has commenced, where the importance attributed to modes of life, values and symbols may be greater than that attributed to physical products. Design thinking stands steadfastly at the centre of this continuum. Simultaneously, this development highlights the importance of cultural traditions and the need to extend and revitalize them.

THE IMPERATIVE FOR DESIGNERS TO ASSUME NEW ROLES

Global development, and an awareness of the growth of related ecological and social problems are posing new demands and offering new opportunities for design, design education and design research. Design is challenged to redefine itself and designers must assume new roles and commit themselves to developing solutions leading to a sustainable future.

SEEKING COLLABORATION IN FORWARDING THE IDEALS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The members of Cumulus, representing a global community of design educators and researchers, undertake the initiative, outlined in “THE KYOTO DESIGN DECLARATION”, to commit themselves to the ideals of sustainable development. Furthermore, the members of Cumulus, have agreed to seek collaboration with educational and cultural institutions, companies, governments and government agencies, design and other professional associations and NGOs to promote the ideals of, and share their knowledge about, sustainable development.

THE POWER TO MAKE FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS TO OUR WORLD

Human-centered design thinking, when rooted in universal and sustainable principles, has the power to fundamentally improve our world. It can deliver economic, ecological, social and cultural benefits to all people, improve our quality of life, and create optimism about the future and individual and shared happiness.

Changing the change is a very “Chinese” theme as China is experiencing such sweeping changes, covering almost all aspects of society, which can hardly be seen in most other countries.

Chinese people are optimistic, most of them believe that the future will be better than today. Local designers also think that they are experiencing a historical era marked by a leap from “Manufacturing China” to “Creative China”. The whole society is being driven by a huge engine called “development”. As a result, people don’t always have enough time to think and rethink in-depth, but such introspection is so necessary when seeking a sustainable future.

This Changing the change conference offers an opportunity for Chinese designers: to rethink and re-evaluate the changes that are happening or have happened in our life-world, no matter whether huge or tiny; to rethink and compare the present physical spaces, social-culture and life styles with what they used to be; to rethink the position, values, trends and possible social responsibilities of design education, design practice and design research.

In this era of globalization, eastern designers are duty-bound to put forward their views on these questions as critical regionalists. Today, sustainable development may be the only universal ethic. To realize this ideal, not only are science and technology needed at product level, but also at the system and the ethical level. We Chinese have to admit in shame that our ancestors lived a far more sustainable life style than we do today. This fact is constantly reminding us that many aspects and changes in our life-world should be re-evaluated and re-designed.

In Chinese, the word “she ji” stands for “design”, and its original meaning was “establish a strategy”. It originated from military affairs. The Chinese “she ji” design system has already been running successfully for thousands of years, long before Le Corbusiers began to teach us what design is and how to design. The most interesting thing is that the softer Chinese “she ji” concept exactly coincides with certain tendencies in today’s design, such as “vision”, “system” or “strategic” design, etc.

In traditional Chinese ideology, human and nature have always been regarded as a whole, the human body and the outside world are both complicated systems sharing many common characteristics. This kind of understanding together with respect and love of nature leads to a world of balance and harmony (the Chinese meaning of “sustainable”). Actually, the traditional philosophy, ways of thinking and life styles which were once rashly abandoned, may exactly meet the needs of sustainable development. Chinese designers should think about this and let the other part of this planet know what and how they are thinking and doing. On this level, “design research” is not only a tool for designers to think, explore and solve problems, not only a tool to criticize and introspect, but also more of a language to communicate with other worldwide designers.

China is experiencing the most rapid change in the world, and at the same time, China may also be the ideal place to realize any strategies for change. All we have to do now is to find and to “she (set up )” a right and good “ji” “vision and strategy”, not only for the design discipline itself but also for the whole human world?