Crafting the future

Some snapshots from the conference:

Otto Von Busch talk: Inspirational with lots of visions and political perspectives "Every grain of soil contains imperialism".  Connecting craft and design, sketching and production. Today this is separated but we need to be seen as two levels.

Otto gave perspectives of sloyd and DIY movements. Today everyone can contribute and produce things (crowdsourcing, 3d printers etc), but how do we create a system where people are actually paid for their contribution? How can we connect practices?And how can the craft practice contribute to and manifest social self-reflection? Also we need to connect practices. I totally agree.

Otto described Friedrich Frödel: " We best understand what we can produce". In this we also need to consider values and power. Producing things "because we can" is not sustainable. What do we ground our design in, how does it affect society and nature?

 

A child playing in a playground made by willow craft (pil in swedish) at Vasaparken in Gothenburg (Arranged by Helena Hansson, HDK). Why are all playgrounds currently being built in plastics? Where is the sand, the leaves, and the threes? What relation to nature do we give our children by removing natural materials from their daily play? Are plastics really more safe? Maybe from physical injury? But this is based on our current understanding, from what we see, what we know, and what we build. 

Maybe we need to reflect more on what we build and why? Maybe we can learn something from craftsmen? Something about social innovation and sustainable perspectives of materials?

Research Writing Seminar Series

Are you a design-oriented researcher in Gothenburg, Sweden?

 

Then, you are invited! Let's strengthen the Gothenburg design-oriented research community! By meeting once a month we can provide high level feedback on each others research papers. This will support us to generate research knowledge that is valuable across different design-related fields.

Researchers and Ph.D. students in design-oriented research are invited to the seminarie series. Each seminar should consist of a mix of people from HDK, GU, Chalmers and Borås. At each seminar we will discuss 2-3 papers in progress. 

First session is held at kuggen 3rd Floor, Lindholmen, Tuesday May 7th. There are already researchers from HDK, GU and Chalmers attending.

Email me, and I will provide more information:

sara  [atsign]  lotsdesign  [punctation]   se

Most Welcome!

- Sara

DIRECTIONS:

Rosenlund (close to Järntorget) has free boat service to Lindholmen, and there are different buses.
Kuggen is the only round and sparkling red building. You can't miss it :-)

http://www.lindholmen.se/en/dynamic-area/room-grow-lindholmen/kuggen-lindholmsplatsen

The relation between practice knowledge and academic knowledge

Today I listened to Ingela Josefson (Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts) describing philosphy of knowing. She discussed our relation to knowledge, and the history of separation beween theoretical knowledge and practice knowledge. Absolutely lovely seminar. Highlighting the importance of practice knowledge in academia.

http://www.hdk.gu.se/sv/nyheter/2012/vad-ar-kunskap-lunchforelasning-med-ingela-josefsson

Yesterday I visited the "Interaction and service design research group" (IxS) at Linköping University. I held a seminar about my current research and research environment, and presented a case describing how some industrial design practioners were working in a service design project.

We had a long discussion on blueprints and customer journeys. Apparently, many service designers are finding their own ways of representing different aspects of services, and create different visualizations that fit their needs in a given situation. The intereseting point here is what kind of knowledge that research should contribute to here?  The practitioners are creating their own tools.

What is the role for academic knowledge? Who creates the knowledge and for which reasons?