What is Meta-Design?
a summary of our first meta-design conversation | July 15th
Designing for Networks of Human and Non-Human Actors.
A collaborative initiative to build common ground and foster shared actions
Dietmar Offenhuber started the event by welcoming all attendees and speakers on behalf of Northeastern’s College of Arts, Media, and Design and pointed out that research about the topic is fundamental for the development of the practice of design and society as a whole. Dietmar was followed by Paolo Ciuccarelli, who emphasized that these kinds of conversations are key components of the Center for Design (CfD) at CAMD and is part of its mission to continue to broaden the conversation to find better ways of doing design, especially when it comes to tackling current and future complex issues. Narrowing it down to the theme of the event, Paolo shared an example of meta-design in practice — the Design for Emergency initiative — intended to be a platform with potential design solutions against Covid-19 open to everyone (especially designers) to explore and further develop them. He argued that, in planning this event, the CfD explored existing initiatives about rethinking/reframing design and found a strong convergence on the importance of thinking holistically and embracing a systemic approach when researching and acting through design.
The event was then followed by the introduction of speakers and their initiatives in an attempt to demonstrate that many people are invested in and exploring meta-design, systems design, and systemic design approaches for the advancement of the field of design; at the same time, expressing the CfD’s desire of making this conversation “a convergence of intent”. All these condensed convergence of intents — and especially this initial conversation, marked the beginning of a subsequent set of conversations, events, and moments for building common ground of knowledge and collaborative action. At the CfD we envisioned designing something like a mega-meta-design platform as a first step to connecting with other stakeholders, and hopefully, broaden it up to bigger movements like the Festival of Emergence from the Design Research Society [DRS].
Speakers shared their experiences & perspectives on the matter
It was amazing to see that though speakers had different experiences and takes on meta-design and systems approaches to design, they all share the belief in a need for advancing the field of design through these approaches.
Silvia Barbero’s take and experience with systemic design: Systemic Design methods to shift the sustainable paradigm in a post-pandemic era 🔗
Hugh Dubberly’s vast experience with systems and his recommendations for Systems Thinking 🔗
Remy Bourganel’s preview of purposeful system dynamics empowering collective agency & mutuality to develop autonomy, harmony, and resilience. Meta-Design at Work.🔗
Michael Arnold Mages’ Manifesto on the Pluriverse.🔗
Nathan Felde, his biography, and his through-provoking questions.🔗
Vandhana Bhaskaran shared her real-life” systems’ approach to service and experience design.🔗
Paul Pangaro ended the first round of presentations with his approach on language, conversations, cybernetics, and redesigning today’s Ai in his presentation The Pandemic of Today’s Ai & #NewMacy 🔗
See our event page for speaker bios: https://camd.northeastern.edu/event/meta-design/
For more detailed summaries of each speaker's presentation head over to our Meta-Design notion page.
Summary by Estefanía Ciliotta
Center for Design, Northeastern University
