Beyond Change Questioning the role of design in times of global transformations Swiss Design Network Summit, March 8–10, 2018
Wednesday February 7th 2018 by Peter Thomas Langhttp://www.beyondchange.ch/front
Swiss Design Network Summit, March 8–10, 2018
FHNW Academy of Art and Design Basel
direct link to Luggage Fitness: Decluttering Your Body Environment, Workshop
Current discourse in design research, art, cultural studies, media studies, philosophy, and the social sciences is dominated by the much-debated concept of the “Anthropocene,” which claims that we are entering a new geological age determined primarily by the effects of human activity on the planet. It has been used to increase awareness of the negative influence of our actions on climate and the environment, and thus on the terms and conditions of our long-term survival. Against the backdrop of ongoing catastrophe and normalised crisis, the image of designers as problem-solvers and shapers of material-visual culture is constantly evoked. Designers are expected to come to the rescue and to draft speculative scenarios, construct artificial worlds, and develop smart solutions. In short: design is wielded as a catalyst for global change.
But isn’t this image of the designer as an omnipotent problem-solver itself problematic? What if design is not the solution, but very much complicit in the problems it wants to solve? At this point, we feel compelled to ask: How can design truly contribute to a more just society and sustainable forms of living without compromising bottom-up initiatives and marginalising the voices of those who are most directly affected?
Our conviction is: Design cannot change anything before it changes itself. The conference “Beyond Change: Questioning the role of design in times of global transformation” is a critical response to the tendency of seeing global crisis first and foremost as a worldwide design competition. How can we reimagine design as an unbounded, queer, and unfinished practice that approaches the world from within instead of claiming an elevated position? How, for once, can we see design as a situated practice instead of turning it into the Global North’s escape and problem-solving strategy? How can we think about one world without falling into planetary-scale thinking and the idea that resilience is our only hope?
Keynotes
Speakers: Beatriz Colomina, Kjetil Fallan, Cheryl Buckley, Ramia Mazé,Kenny Cupers, Mia Charlene White,Benjamin H. Bratton.
Program
Overview: 3 Days, 7 Keynotes, 18 sessions, 52 presentations, 17 moderators, 4 workshops, 3 platforms, 1 film, 1 audio-walk.
- The Mimetic Observer: A visual reading on Dante’s Divine Comedy. — 17.04.2023
- the SUM TOTAL NEWSLETTER: — 18.11.2022
- Dante’s Gaze/ Lo Sguardo di Dante — 17.09.2021
- Platform Austria: Venice Biennale — 15.09.2021
- Listen/ Lyssna Färgfabriken Konsthall Stockholm — 07.09.2021
- — 16.01.2021
- new publication: The Figure of Knowledge Conditioning Architectural Theory, 1960s – 1990s — 26.10.2020
- Mutadis Mutandis, Venice, Studio Giardini. Oct. 16, 2020 — 24.10.2020
- Now on Vimeo: Urgent Pedagogies: Concluding Panel — 06.10.2020
- WordCast # 1 @Ararat Peter Lang talks to Lorenzo Romito — 30.04.2020
- Fargfabriken, Skellefteå, Virserum: Lysnna, Listen — 24.04.2020
- Coming Soon in Rome: IED History as Theory and Practice: Urban Studies and Environmental Design — 30.03.2020
- Architect’s Newspaper: Gio Ponti gets a loving retrospective at the MAXXI — 04.03.2020
- Architect’s Newspaper: Adolfo Natalini’s Final Vanishing Act — 27.01.2020
- R-lab Zagreb: Collapse on Hold, at the Pogon. — 25.12.2019
- Architecture of Migration, Conference- Riga Latvia. — 01.11.2019
- Skissernas Museum: Hinterlands+ 19/09/19 — 23.09.2019
- Peter T. Lang and Salvatore Scibona with Luca Molinari WORLD CITY: NEW YORK — 13.09.2019
- Architect’s Newspaper: Reflecting on Cristiano Toraldo di Francia — 16.08.2019
- R-Lab Archive: Where to find links to every R-Lab course — 22.03.2019
- Italian Design Day 2019: Critical Utopias, Superstudio and the City — 16.03.2019
- from the Archive: Downtown Austin’s Arthouse: 25 October 2012 — 02.11.2018
- Frieze: Everything and Everywhere is a School, review — 30.10.2018
- Arch Daily: Top Books on Architecture — 13.09.2018
- Chart Art Fair Design: Luggage Fitness — 13.09.2018
- Manifesta 12 is the real deal. Architect’s Newspaper — 26.07.2018
- How the 1980 Venice Biennale transformed architectural discourse REVIEW — 23.05.2018
- Stalker Naked Archive Lottery the Exhibition ETH Zurich — 01.03.2018
- Beyond Change Questioning the role of design in times of global transformations Swiss Design Network Summit, March 8–10, 2018 — 07.02.2018
- book presentation at the Museo Pecci: “Neoavanguardie e controcultura a Firenze” — 23.12.2017
- Architect’s Newspaper review: In Florence, an unprecedented gathering at “Radical Utopias” — 18.11.2017
- DeSingel Antwerp: Drawing Ambience — 24.10.2017
- Radicals Marathon/Maratona Radicals 23/10/17 — 13.10.2017
- Pelin Tan: talk on Autonomous Infrastructure, @ Konsthall C — 07.10.2017
- the Skissernas Museum: The Fake, The False and the Fraudulent: coding and uncoding public monuments in contested spaces — 07.10.2017
- Triple I: Investigating Interdisciplinary Informality, 3-4 Oct. 2017 — 07.10.2017
- “Anti Modus Operandi – radical strategies for social engagement in architecture and design in the 60’s and 70’s Italy” — 23.08.2017
- Domus Academy: Prototyping Ideas — 20.08.2017
- IN 2017 CHART DESIGN WILL PRESENT A CURATED PROGRAMME ENTITLED WHAT IT IS, WHEN IT IS NOT — 20.08.2017
- Interdisciplinary urban dialogue-Workshop Varberg, Sweden — 23.07.2017
- Rowe Rome: City of Good Intentions, 21-23 /6/2017 — 23.06.2017
- The Architecture of Bogdan Bogdanovic and the Iconographic Resistance to Balkanisation — 11.04.2017
- Carlo Caldini, co-founder of Gruppo 9999, passes away — 20.03.2017
- Architectures, Natures & Data: The Politics of Environments Conference Tallinn — 14.03.2017
- KTH talk: S – SPACE THE EXPERIMENTAL CLASSROOM. 1970 – 1971 — 01.03.2017
- The Last Avant-Garde, radical design in Italy 1966-1986 — 27.02.2017
- Proof Aliens Exist in Rotterdam! — 21.02.2017
- Theory’s History Challenges in the historiography of architectural knowledge — 05.02.2017
- Proof Aliens Exist and other Projects about the Future — 09.01.2017
- The Society of Interiors, AADR Publishers — 30.11.2016
- Urban Day December 6 — 29.11.2016
- RADICAL ENCOUNTERS 12/11/2016 MAXXI — 11.11.2016
- International Lectures Series Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts — 04.10.2016
- Walkabout “Mandrionesca” Promiscuous interferences for Roma Poesia, Wednesday Sept 14 — 12.09.2016
- Stalker: Ground Walk, Vilnius — 21.06.2016
- Book Launch, at the Acquario, Casa dell’architettura: Rome Nome Plurale di Citta’ — 15.06.2016
- Under Siege: Stories from Kurdistan in Rome/ 30 May, 17:00 — 29.05.2016
- R-Lab Reification: at Alpha and Beta Ville — 24.05.2016
- Stockholm University: Curating Architecture — 04.05.2016
- Mashup: the Birth of Modern Culture/ Vancouver Art Gallery — 22.02.2016
- Pedagogies of Space @Index — 12.02.2016
- Tank: “Bubbles” Magazine Launch, London. — 10.02.2016
- Studio Roma: Attraverso Le Istituzioni, Roma a Nudo — 30.01.2016
- BAC & BAK: THE MISSING EUROPE: BALTIC AND BALKAN — 30.01.2016
- Superstudio: the Continuous Room- Konstfack — 27.01.2016
- VICEVERSA Magazine No. 3, December 2105 — 23.12.2015
- REVIEW> SUPERSTUDIO’S LOST OFFSPRING A new exhibition explores the legacy of Superstudio in unexpected places. — 22.12.2015
- Code-X redux, Mardin Artuklu Mimarlik — 08.12.2015
- Code-X: Architecture, Utopia, Revolution: @Aarhus — 27.11.2015
- Italian Radical Education in the Age of Dissent, Warsaw — 21.10.2015
- Super Superstudio: PAC, Milan — 11.10.2015
- R-Lab, Architecture Design Media: new course at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm — 08.07.2015
- TALK SHOW “Display on Display” Tensta Konsthall April 15, 2015 — 27.04.2015
- Just out: Materia Arquitectura Magazine edited by Nicolás Stutzin — 20.03.2015
- 3 x Superstudio: Jolly 2 Pistoia 1966, Trigon Graz 1969, Mana Art Rome 1971 — 02.03.2015
- Frederick Kiesler: Visions at Work Annotated by Céline Condorelli and Six Student Groups — 08.02.2015
- Research Week at the Royal Institute of Art — 28.01.2015
- Rem Koolhaas’ Biennale: or How the Tempest Swept Venice A/N BLOG — 20.10.2014
- Colonialismo e Identità Nazionale L’Oltremare tra Fascismo e Repubblica Seminario Nazionale SISSCo — 25.09.2014
- Art in Translation: the border complex. Reykjavik 18-20 September — 16.09.2014
- TallkottTalk: 29 August 2014: Stockholm: Alienlands: the New Communities — 30.08.2014
- JAE Reviews Exhibit Review: Forms of Freedom: African Independence and Nordic Models at the Venice Biennale — 15.07.2014
- radical pedagogies/ 14 biennale architecture Venice/ — 14.06.2014
- Biennale Urbana/ Swiss Pavilion/ ETH / Stalker Walking School — 11.06.2014
- Urban Re-Mix: the Final Review 27 May/ Exhibition Inauguration-28 May — 22.05.2014
- Haunted by Shadows of the Future: Horizons, Jam Session! — 27.03.2014
- Private Conversations in Public Places #1. — 09.03.2014
- MAKE YOUR OWN COMFORT ZONES — 28.01.2014
- Urban Re Mix: the WORKSHOP: Haunted by Shadows of the Future-Artefacts — 23.01.2014
- organising discourse Open Lecture at the Konstfack (Svarta havet) — 13.01.2014
- Architecture on Film: Italy – The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA, 1972 + Q&A with Gaetano Pesce and Peter Lang Thurs 28 November 2013, 7pm — 30.12.2013
- Gizmo magazine interview with Luca Molinari on Environments Counter Environments — 11.12.2013
- Environment and Counter Environment the INLD films screening at the Barbican — 29.11.2013
- Esra Akcan reviews Environments and Counter Environments in JAE — 23.11.2013
- Kungl. Konsthögskolans forskningsvecka Royal Institute of Art’s Research Week 21—24 oktober/October 2013 — 16.10.2013
- the Normalcy Project: Talk Show video — 07.10.2013
- Graham Foundation Chicago Opening September 18 2013 — 21.08.2013
- Urban Re-Mix Course Calendar — 01.08.2013
- Space Metropoliz Screenings in Rome — 15.06.2013