Transition design in context — Course introduction
Today, we no longer have to consider design only as an object-oriented practice aimed at creating graphics, products or websites, but as a process approach leading to the innovation of structures, services, organizations or policies.
Dominant approaches to design, such as human-centered design, but also circular or cradle-to-cradle design, are now criticized, reflecting the fact that instead of tackling today’s most pressing issues such as climate change or growing inequality, they exacerbate them. On the other hand, the critical and speculative design trying to point out these problems lacks a methodological apparatus and intention at all to solve them.
In the space between these approaches, the Transition design approach has begun to emerge in recent years, trying to combine the effectiveness of the mainstream design with the political awareness and reflexivity of the critical ones. In the environment of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittburgh, a methodologically and theoretically grounded design approach is created, taking into account the long-term consequences of the designers’ work.
The course Design in Context will focus on Transition design through lectures from TD and related fields as AI, techhnologies, non-human actors or urbanism. Lectures will be given by both foreign and Czech lecturers. We can also look forward to experts from Carnegie Mellon University itself, from Umea University in Sweden, University of Oslo and TU Delft.
Who you can look forward to:
Klára Peloušková — Designing a Transition: On the Political Multivalence of Change — 23 September (FB event)
Cameron Tonkinwise — From Craft through Service to Transition: The nature of the Designers’ powers— 30 September (FB event) (video)
Alma Leora Culén — Making to learn transition design: the role of research through design — 7 October (FB event)(video)
Dan Lockton — Imaginaries, metaphors and futures: methodologies for designing transitions— 14 October (FB event)(video)
Grace Turtle — Embodying transitions within different space-time contexts— 21 October (FB event)(video)
Klára Peloušková — Design pro udržitelnost: Od zeleného kapitalismu k systémové transformaci — 4 November (FB event)
Roberto Cibin — Working for/with Local Communities: Discovering Wicked Problems in the Co-design of Technologies— 11 November (FB event)
Amela Karahasanovic — Case studies on sustainable transport— 18 November (FB event)(video)
Heather Wiltse — Transitioning toward responsible design of connected things and systems — 25 November (FB event)(video)
Sasha Costanza-Chock — Design Justice — 2 December (FB event)(video)
Joanna Boehnert — A Pandemic Portal: Designing the Ecocene and the Role of Design Economies — 9 December (FB event)(video)
There will be FB events and Zoom links for each week.
The course was created thanks to the project EHP-CZ-ICP-2–019 Transition design: A new challenge for service and interaction design education financed from the EEA Funds and Norwegian Funds.
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