FLUX Design Symposium 2022
29th and 30th September 2022, 9.30am-6pm
On the evening of the 29thSeptember renowned scholar of design for social innovation, Professor Ezio Manzini, kicked-off the FLUX symposium with a keynote lecture drawing on his latest work 'Livable Proximity' to respond to the theme of FLUX. On September 30th, we hosted academic discussions tackling the theme of FLUX, with thought leaders in the field of critical design research and practice. You can listen to some reflections on FLUX by listening to our podcast.
On the 30th September we hosted sessions with Professor ErlingBjörgvinsson, Professor RamiaMazé, Professor LesleyAnn Noel, Professor NoortjeMarres and Professor Jilly Traganou. You can download the whole FLUX Design Symposium programme here.
Session 1: Flux and Future: Conceptualizing Change In/By/Beyond Design
ProfessorRamiaMazé
The term ‘flux’ (as in this event) and popular terms like ‘the future’ are some ways of spotlighting ideas about ‘change’. From the perspective of ‘climate emergency’,there’s no doubt that change is needed. In design, we are actively changing our practices and reframing our educations and institutions in light of such challenges. I propose that this means engaging critically with our key concepts and with other disciplines. Through discussing the concept of ‘future’ and some examples, I will open up some possible critical engagements in/by/beyond design.
Session 2: Participation as Patronage or Reciprocal Dislocation
Prof ErlingBjörgvinsson
Today design is called upon to solve large scale social and environmental problems. Large scale design approaches often argue that change should happen through dialogue and by acknowledging differences amongst those designing together with. However, such project seldom lead to fundamental change since they operate with a modernist view where aesthetics and politics are separated and patronage, rather than co-working, dictates the mode of being together. Through a set of collaborative design research projects I have been involved in I will question common assumption related to change, dialogue, and difference and ask if reciprocal dislocation can be a way out of the impasse of current Western design still plagued by modernist ideals and historical amnesia.
Panel Discussion: Professor RamiaMazé and Professor ErlingBjörgvinsson
Session 3: Co-creating Radical Design Principles for a World in Flux
Prof Lesley-Ann Noel
In the workshop, participants will discuss themes like oppression, liberation, justice, abolition, emancipation and equity. They will explore what these mean in different disciplines, and how they shape research and practice in these disciplines. Using these concepts, participants will create guidelines and reflection questions for future design practice.
Session 4: In and out of Shape: Transforming AI controversies with provocative methods
Prof NoortjeMarres
When it comes to AI, many of our controversies are in pretty bad shape. Some are domi-nated by the power statements of eager companies ("our machines understand context"), others are at risk of exploding into an abundance of problematizations (exploitation, misinformation, commodification..). In this session, NoortjeMarres will show how the project Shaping AI (https://www.shapingai.org/) takes on this challenge: by using a provocative visual methodology (Ricci, forthcoming) to create situated typologies of AI controversy. She will present an analytic device under development, a controversy "shape shifter," which aims to enable critical engagement with AI by inviting experts to shape and re-shape controversies along a set of parameters (agency, power, situatedness).Session 5: You are T/Here Pluralizing the East(s)
Prof Georgia ‘Jilly’ Traganou
The purpose of the seminar is to compare and contrast the multiple narratives of the Queen Elizabeth park concerning both the pre-Olympic and post-Olympic conditions of contestation and displacement in and around the site, as well as our presence in the particular location of East London and the Here East campus.