DESIS Network

The peaceful war of times, places and interactions (and the DESIS Philosophy Talks)

by Ezio Manzini, Virginia Tassinari

The war of times, places and interactions has already been started. Everyday, millions of people challenge traditional ways of doing things and introduce new, different, and more sustainable behaviours. The common denominator of these initiatives is that the involved people compensate for a reduction in consumption (in goods and space) with an increase in something else that they consider more valuable. This “something else” is generally represented by the increase of their environment physical and social qualities. We can refer to them as sustainable qualities: qualities that ask for more sustainable behaviours in order to enjoy them.
A distributed design agency: a work in progress

by Ezio Manzini, Anna Meroni

Is DESIS a “distributed design research agency”? Not yet, but we are working on it! As a matter of fact, since the Meeting in Helsinki in May 2012, several steps have been taken in this direction. Some of them have produced results that are already visible and quantifiable. Others are still “under water” like inter-Labs discussion on possible initiatives (events and research programs) to be conceived and developed collaboratively. (....)

Disruptive qualities: "Emerging ideas of times, places, work and relationship. A design challenge.". 5 - 8 June, Cumulus conference, Kalmar, Sweden

A two days session where we will be discussing the “qualities” of the physical and social environments present in projects of social innovation that one can experience as radically different from those spread by mainstream models over the course of the last the century. The two days session on Disruptive qualities aims to define these qualities and to fuel a broader discussion about them as they occur in contemporary society by moving from empirical observations of promising initiatives in the field of social innovation, in order to improve their characterization/definition. By means of a DESIS Philosophy talk and a hands-on workshop, we will be researching on concrete cases of social innovation with the lenses of the disruptive qualities, experimenting how the philosophical reflection can inspire and reinforce the practice of design for social innovation.

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Ageing & Ingenuity (A&I) - Call for Design Stories

At NORDES 2013 Design Research Conference, one of the new DESIS Clusters, Ageing & Ingenuity (A&I) will conduct a workshop on the 11th June 2013. This collective design workshop aims to provoke and test new design approaches towards ageing.
We are looking for design stories that show how can design thinking and collaborative working enable the world to respond differently to the challenges of ageing. We propose a full day workshop. Morning session is devoted to an introduction to the workshop and design stories from participants. Each participants need to prepare a story of an ingenious older people from their project. All these real-world life stories of creative people will be formed into personas in first part of the afternoon. The result of the workshop is expected to form a collective design manual for the future ageing innovation.

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Public & Collaborative

Following last year’s Public & Collaborative Days at the Design Biennale in Liège, the Public & Collaborative cluster is continuing its efforts to share the cluster's findings with design practitioners, educators and policymakers. Public & Collaborative: Exploring the Intersection of Design, Social Innovation and Public Policy, a booklet to be published in the coming weeks by the cluster, shares findings, research, analysis and case studies from the work of cluster-members across the globe.

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Public & Collaborative

Design for Memory

No, we have not forgotten.
Right after the Tsunami and nuclear disaster, Japan called a lot of attention. But as time passed by the world seems to forget about the events and their planetary implications .
The following article aims at, not only expressing them our constant support, but also at giving visibility to their thoughts and to some positive initiatives going on.

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Doors of Perception Xskool in Sweden

In what ways can design help people interact with living systems in ways that help both of them thrive? And, what small practical steps might one take to test the effect of small actions on the system as a whole? These two questions inform a Doors of Perception xskool workshop that takes place in August as part of the FuturePerfect Festival in Sweden. It takes place on the island of Grinda in the Stockholm Archipelago. Doors is partnering in the activity with a group of Swedish design schools and universities; their teams will form the core of the xskool. Some places will be available for DESIS members who register for the Future Perfect Festival.