Events
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Participa de la charla “Diseño Inclusivo: Innovación y Oportunidades de Mercado” . see more
El diseño inclusivo es un catalizador de la innovación, que abre nuevos mercados y genera mejores soluciones para todos. Descubre cómo en DTU Skylab, uno de los principales centros europeos de innovación y emprendimiento, la inclusión se convierte en un motor de innovación tecnológica, que genera nuevas oportunidades de mercado.
La actividad será presentada por Marie Luise Pollman, team manager de DTU Skylab quien nos expondrá sobre las alternativas de la innovación a través del diseño inclusivo.
Viernes 25 de abril a las 8:45 horas.
Auditorio Jpost B, Edificio de Postgrado, campus Rector Ernesto Silva Bafalluy, Universidad del Desarrollo (Av. Plaza 680, Las Condes).
*La charla será en inglés.*Estacionamientos disponibles al final de la calle República de Honduras.
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Listening for the Echoes symposium online May 1 and 2. see more
The Listening for the Echoes: heritage knowledges to shape fashion and design futures online symposium offers a vital space in which to reflect upon a pluriverse of local knowledges and traditions, to gain insights into the ways that humanity has walked (and in some places continues to walk) more lightly on the Earth to create the clothing, products and artefacts that we need, sustainably. These approaches offer a stimulus to learn, dream, experiment and reimagine how, why and for whom we design and make, holding the potential to reconnect us to a natural world and to a distant past whose echoes we must listen for urgently.
The symposium will raise philosophical and practical questions about the value of local and global cultural wisdom to creative possibility-finding – while respecting cultural, intellectual property and avoiding cynical extraction. It will reflect on the contemporary importance of traditional ecological knowledge: TEK rather than Tech. With six out of nine planetary boundaries already crossed and global warming on course to exceed agreed limits, it is vital to break away from the logic of growth and scale fed by neoliberalism and to revisit those very human technologies that may previously have been dismissed as primitive but which are in fact highly sophisticated.
Presenters from all over the world will share their research, case studies, projects and calls to action that foster resourcefulness and creativity, are framed by notions of sufficiency, use-value rather than exchange-value, and formed through care for people and planet.
Keywords: heritage, indigenous, TEK, regenerative fashion and design futures, sustainability, craft, community, making, place making, decolonised practices
Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/listening-for-the-echoes-tickets-1280755216329?aff=oddtdtcreator
SOME QUESTIONS TO BE EXPLORED:
- What might we learn from those indigenous communities that collaborate/have collaborated with their natural habitats in a spirit of reciprocity?
- In clothing, products, habitats and systems, how might we move beyond extraction to collaboration with the more than human inhabitants of the Earth?
- How have historic local and global clothing and artefact systems promoted creative resourcefulness and community cohesion through making? What communities of practice continue or are emerging today?
- What is there in our local and global cultural heritages which may offer clues that could help us to live more sustainably, harmoniously and wisely on the Earth?
- What is the value, meaning and agency of the handcrafted, the natural and the human today, in the face of increasing reliance on new technologies?
- Can we decouple from the dominant, Western, neoliberal paradigm of fashion?
- How was pre-industrialised Western clothing produced in local communities?
- What might fossil-fuel free clothing or product making systems look like? How might we achieve this? How might they foster community?
- How is fashion/design education promoting respect for and learning from TEK? How might fashion/design schools help to repair the sacrifice zones that Western design cultures have almost erased?
DAY 1 - THURSDAY 1ST MAY - 09.30 – 15.45
9.30 Welcome and Introduction - Kirsten Scott
9.50 MODERATOR: Kirsten Scott
Panel 1 – Listening and Learning 1
1. Sow to Sew, Seed to Stitch - Mitchell Vassie. (Vietnam)
2. Beyond Objectification: Reciprocity and Agency in Digitally Preserving Vietnam's Ethnic Textile Heritage. Corinna Joyce et al. (Vietnam)
3. Decolonising Fashion – Weaving Care in Designers’ Collaborations with Indigenous Communities. Dr Francesco Mazzarella (UK)
4. SONGS OF THE LOOM: Understanding Meaning, Metaphor and Memory through Indigenous Weaving Practices. Prerana Anjali Choudhury (India)
11.15 Coffee break
11.30 MODERATOR: Sandra Niessen
Panel 2 – Listening and Learning 2
1. Weaving Futures, Bridging Generations: Engaging Indian Youth with Textile Traditions to Shape Sustainable Design Futures. Sakshi Mundada (India)
2. Reclaiming myths and legends through traditional making. Jules Findley (UK)
3. Heirlooms: heritage aesthetics, fibres, colours and textiles for regenerative, local fashion futures. Dr Kirsten Scott (UK)
4. Planetary Pedagogies: Six terrains of being for design education. Tom Crisp (UK)
13.00 Lunch break – breakout rooms enabled for community lunch
14.00 – Film screenings
Talk by Sandra Niessen followed by 3 short films
- Uli's voice - from a sacrifice zone of fashion -12.35 mins
- The Kotpad Artisans – 8.25 mins
- Chola-dora aur sui – 45 minutes, inc. Q&A
DAY 2 – FRIDAY 2ND MAY – 14.45 -20.15
14.45 Welcome day 2 - Kirsten Scott
15.00 MODERATOR: tbc
Panel 3 – Responding 1
1. Integration of the Andean indigenous ´Buen Vivir´ (Good Living) World View into the Clothing and Textile Design Programmes. Miguel Angel Gardetti (Argentina)
2. Woven Story: The Intersection of African and Indigenous Textile Legacies for Future- Making Luciana Scrutchen (US)
3. Decolonial Sustainability and Ethical Creativity. Kat Sark (Canada)
4. Too Much Clothing and Nothing to Wear: Home Sewing, Material Engagement, and Reimagining Fashion’s Future. Patricia Kelly Spurles(Canada)
5. Rediscovery, recovery, and dreaming: the caring practices of artisan designers in Kutch communities. Jacqueline Morris, Fiona Hackney, Lokesh Ghai (UK)
16.40 Coffee break – breakout rooms enabled
17.15 Responding 2: Case studies of TEK in artistic practices
1. The Flocks are Back – The Collective Tornen les Esquelles and the new forms of collaborating in Textile Arts and Design. Daniela Duarte (Spain)
2. Kalahasti in Brooklyn: a return to Kalamkari’s storytelling. Nikita Shah (US)
18.00 Responding 3: Workshops
Workshop 1. Listening Through the Handmade: A Sensorial Practice Circle on the Embodied Language of Handmade Garments. Daniela Yakuel (US)
Workshop 2. Fashion as Kaitiaki: Indigeneity, Reciprocity, and Post-Growth Pathways. Karishma Kelsey (NZ)
19.45 – 20.15
Plenary session, discussion and close.
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Diseña CfP: The Planetary Condition Due 27/6/2025. see more
GUEST EDITORS:
Martín Tironi | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile | martin.tironi@uc.clJuan G. Montalván Lume | Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; Lancaster University | jgmontalvan@pucp.edu.pe
Submission Deadline: June 27, 2025
Expected publication date: January 2026The global climate crisis has brought to the forefront the urgent need to rethink and reorient how we inhabit and coexist on the planet. The consequences of humanity’s role as a geological agent are well known: environmental degradation, desertification, droughts, ice melts, floods, ecosystem loss, species extinction, soil and water contamination, rising temperatures, the spread of global pandemics, and, as a result, a destabilization of democratic systems.
It is impossible to consider the planet’s metabolism without accounting for human interventions in the configuration of life, particularly those shaped by the impact of technological expansion and capitalist modes of organization. These dynamics, characteristic of the Technocene, have blurred the modern divide between nature and culture, signaling the transition to a postnatural era (Costa, 2021; Hui, 2024; Latour, 2017).
Design has played a key role in expanding the anthropocentric logics that have shaped our relationship with the planet, acting as a (de)futurizer and material articulator of specific conceptions of 'the Earth' and its inhabitants.
Embedded in the narrative of modernization (Latour, 2017), design has contributed to the reproduction of a vision that advances by rendering invisible and subordinating all forms of otherness, while simultaneously intensifying overconsumption and degradation of the biosphere through extractivist dynamics (Fry & Nocek, 2020; Vazquez, 2017).
As various authors have noted (Descola, 2013; Escobar, 2018; Escobar et al., 2024; Haraway, 2016; Latour, 2018; Morizot, 2020), we are facing a time where human life on the planet is not only threatened by the climate crisis, but also requires the creation of new paradigms of thought, attention, and relationality, which―in turn―redefine modern-Western conceptions of 'design' and 'Earth' (Montalvan Lume et al., 2024). The task, therefore, is to rethink our relationship with the planet, moving beyond its conception as a mere passive and inexhaustible receptacle of human action.
At the same time, this task involves expanding our understanding of design (Tironi, 2023) and recognizing it as a political-cultural practice that requires a cross-disciplinary dialogue with other epistemologies, forms of relating, and ways of imagining and building futures. This dialogue must incorporate the knowledge-structures and perspectives of the diverse cultures that coexist on the planet (Montalvan Lume, 2023).
This special issue seeks to generate a debate on what is implied by and required for planetary habitability and coexistence, recognizing other modes of relationality and intervention in and with the planet. An emerging theme addresses the advent of a moment of deep planetary interdependencies (Clark & Szerszynski, 2020; Spivak, 2003). We mobilize the notion of the planetary not as a return to homogenizing globalization, but as an invitation to explore what it means to design, create, or intervene in a context of profound vulnerability.
The irreversible alteration of biophysical processes on a planetary scale not only redefines the conditions of habitability but also challenges us to rethink our forms of relating and coexisting. In this context, human action must consider the interconnections between different temporalities and spatialities, understanding that human and terrestrial processes do not operate in isolation, but co-evolve in a network of relationships that shape presents and nourish futures (Bratton, 2019; Bridle, 2022; Clark & Szerszynski, 2020).
Furthermore, this planetary condition evidences that spaces beyond traditional urban landscapes―such as transcontinental routes, remote areas, resource extraction sites, and even environments commonly perceived as 'natural', such as oceans, forests, deserts, and the atmosphere―are being incorporated into a 'global operational urban landscape' (Angelo & Wachsmuth, 2015; Brenner & Schmid, 2015). This phenomenon blurs the modern representations that drew apparent boundaries between a 'human civilization' and an 'immutable nature' external to it, giving way to new socionatural and planetary conceptions that recognize the deep relationality between the geological, the biological, the human, and the computational.
Building on these insights, this special issue invites us to reimagine practices, concepts, and interventions that foster new modes of relationality, transcending the boundaries of traditional design and adopting transdisciplinary and transgeographical perspectives. The assumptions underlying modern design must be challenged to address the new planetary condition, creating more habitable worlds in collaboration with diverse species and forms of intelligence.
We seek to explore the implications―both for doing and for thinking and feeling―of planetary entanglements and struggles for co-habitability, through contemporary research, practices, and creations that address the question of habitability, care, and coexistence.
The invitation is open to contributions from the fields of design research, environmental humanities, critical theory, art, geography, transcultural studies, new materialism, and local and ancestral knowledge. Contributions may be guided by the themes and questions outlined here, offering ideas that foster transdisciplinary and transgeographical dialogue. Focus areas include (but are not limited to) the following topics:
● Transcultural approaches: What sensibilities, designs, prototypes, or other modes of relationality do transcultural explorations offer for understanding the interconnection between humans, technology, and nature? What alternative visions to 'the Earth' do diverse cultures provide?
● Towards planetary computing: How can technical and digital innovations be harmoniously integrated into the planetary metabolism and contribute to the regeneration of ecosystems?
● Reconceptualizations on the planetary condition: How do planetary entanglements, along with biological, geological, and ecological processes, reconfigure our approaches to design and research?
● Approaches and methods for multispecies coexistence: How can design or other modes of relationality create the conditions for sustainable coexistence between humans and the countless forms of life?
● Aesthetics for planetary co-habitability: How can visual narratives reconfigure our perception of the agency of other species and environments? What relationships exist between aesthetics, affections, and ethics in design (or beyond design) for multispecies cohabitation or planetary coexistence?SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (KEY POINTS)
Read the complete instructions for authors at https://revistadisena.uc.cl/index.php/Disena/original_1Submissions must include:
— An English or Spanish language contribution of 3,500- 4,000 words, with references in APA Style (7th ed.).
N.B. The text should be anonymized for blind peer review. Please, upload Word documents (not PDF).
— An abstract (140 words max.).
— Five keywords
— A personal profile of each author (150 words max.).
After peer review, corrections should be made as of August 2025. The edition will be published in January 2026.ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Diseña is a peer-reviewed, bilingual, and Scopus-indexed journal published by the Escuela de Diseño of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Diseña welcomes research in all areas of Design. Its specific aim is to promote critical thought on methodologies, methods, practices, and tools of research and project work.
www.revistadisena.uc.cl
ReferencesAngelo, H., & Wachsmuth, D. (2015). Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12105
Bratton, B. (2019). The Terraforming. Strelka.
Brenner, N., & Schmid, C. (2015). Towards a New Epistemology of the Urban? City, 19(2-3), 151-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2015.1014712
Bridle, J. (2022). Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Clark, N., & Szerszynski, B. (2020). Planetary Social Thought: The Anthropocene Challenge to the Social Sciences. Polity Press.
Costa, F. (2021). Tecnoceno: Algoritmos, biohackers y nuevas formas de vida. Taurus.
Descola, P. (2013). Beyond Nature and Culture. University of Chicago Press.
Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Duke University Press.
Escobar, A., Osterweil, M., & Sharma, K. (2024). Relationality: An Emergent Politics of Life Beyond the Human. Bloomsbury.
Fry, T., & Nocek, A. (2020). Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies and Practices. Routledge.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Hui, Y. (2024). Machine and Sovereignty: For a Planetary Thinking. University of Minnesota Press.
Latour, B. (2017). Facing Gaia: Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime. Polity Press.
Latour, B. (2018). Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Polity Press.
Montalvan Lume, J. G. (2023). Decolonial, Systemic, and Critical Studies in Design and Design Research. DRSelects. https://www.designresearchsociety.org:443/articles/drselects-juan-montalvan-lume-on-decolonial-systemic-and-critical-studies-in-design-and-design-research
Montalvan Lume, J. G., Arteaga Benavides, L. A., Corrales Ardiles, J. C., Vásquez Cerda, C. A., & Cornejo, J. (2024). Pluriversality on Earth and Beyond: Opening the Field of Critical Interplanetary Design within the Design Discipline. DRS Biennial Conference Series. http://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1712
Morizot, B. (2020). Manières d’être vivant: Enquêtes sur la vie à travers nous. Actes Sud.
Spivak, G. C. (2003). Death of a Discipline. Columbia University Press.
Tironi, M. (2023). How to Become Terrestrial: Design for Planetary Habitability. In H. Palmarola, E. Medina, & P. Alonso (Eds.), How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design (pp. 274-293). Lars Müller.
Vazquez, R. (2017). Precedence, Earth and the Anthropocene: Decolonizing Design. Design Philosophy Papers, 15(1), 77-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/14487136.2017.1303130
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Call for Projects: Systems Thinking in Design (book) see more
Book Title: Systems Thinking in Design: Frameworks and Methodologies for the Emerging Designer
Publisher: Bloomsbury, Visual Arts
Authors: Prof. Lilian Crum and Dr. Ahu Yolaç
Expected Publication Year: 2026/27
Discover the transformative potential of systems thinking in design with Systems Thinking in Design, an essential guide for design students. This practical handbook illuminates the value and methodologies of systems thinking, empowering students to create impactful designs at multiple scales. This handbook not only demystifies systems thinking, making it an accessible and relevant tool to better understand today’s complex design challenges, but also serves as a vital resource that fills an essential gap in undergraduate design education. It offers a comprehensive introduction to the methodologies of systems thinking in a clear, engaging manner, paving the way for students to apply these principles across various design fields. It provides project examples at a global scale to exemplify diverse design fields and users systems thinking influences. Whether studying graphic design, game design, product innovation, or exploring multi-disciplinary approaches, Systems Thinking in Design equips students with the foundational knowledge to think more deeply and design more impactfully, setting the stage for advanced study and practice.
Call for Projects: Contribute to Systems Thinking in Design
Are you passionate about utilizing systems thinking in design processes? We invite you to contribute a case study of a project to Systems Thinking in Design: Frameworks and Methodologies for the Emerging Designer, a practical handbook aimed at empowering undergraduate design students to tackle today’s complex challenges with impactful, scalable solutions.
This book serves as an accessible and engaging guide, demystifying systems thinking and showcasing its transformative potential across various design fields. From graphic design to game design, product innovation, and multidisciplinary approaches, Systems Thinking in Design highlights diverse methodologies and global project examples that illuminate the principles and power of systems thinking.
We are seeking submissions of exemplary projects in the form of case studies that demonstrate:
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The application of systems thinking methodologies in design
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Real-world projects at various scales (local to global)
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Advanced student projects that incorporate participatory design
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Diverse fields and innovative approaches in design such as graphic design, game design, product design, architecture etc
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Multidisciplinary collaborations
Submission Guidelines
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Format: Submit an abstract describing the project in detail (500–1,000 words), high-resolution images (if applicable), and a short list of contributors.
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Eligibility: Open to educators, graduate/PhD students, and professionals across all design disciplines.
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Proposals Deadline: May 15 2025
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Initial Notice of Acceptance: June 15 2025
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First Full Draft: September 1, 2025
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Peer Review Feedback: Oct 1, 2025
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Second Draft: Nov 1, 2025
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Second Round of Feedback: Dec 1, 2025
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Final Draft: Jan 1, 2026
Selected contributions will be featured in the book, with full attribution to the authors. By sharing your work, you will inspire the next generation of designers and enrich the learning experience for students globally.
Please note that, based on the project structure and scope, the authors might ask for additional information regarding the project. As a general guideline, the final submission should follow the template below:
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Project title
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Project location
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Interviews with stakeholders of the project (communities, groups, target audiences, and designers, etc) (5-10 questions, depending on the project's scope)
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Project description with images (including key points such as its intentions, development and implementation process, observed impact etc.) (approx 750-2000 words, depending on the project's scope)
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Connection to existing theories, practices, projects, bibliography
We look forward to receiving your proposals,
The authors: Prof. Lilian Crum and Dr. Ahu Yolaç
Contact InformationFor inquiries, please contact systemsthinkingindesign@gmail.com
Sumbmission form: https://forms.gle/7gnf14d2YB4rY7rQA
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CfP: NERD 7th Heaven – New Experimental Research in Design . see more
NERD 7th Heaven – New Experimental Research in Design
(Berlin, Nov 6–7, 2025)
Technische Universität Berlin & Berlin University of the Arts
New Practice, MA Design & Computation
November 6–7, 2025
Deadline: April 30, 2025
The unique epistemic and innovative potential of Design Research is increasingly recognized across the academic landscape and is in growing demand from institutions, businesses, and policymakers alike. By bridging traditionally separate forms of practice and modes of knowledge, Design Research occupies a distinctive position—one that challenges clear disciplinary boundaries, formal conventions, and implicit assumptions about secured knowledge and linear progress in traditional research fields.
Embracing this inherent openness as a strength, the New Experimental Research in Design (NERD) conferences serve as a truly inclusive platform for showcasing, discussing, and critically examining the diverse ways in which design’s unique perspectives and capabilities can be employed as a research competence. NERD welcomes contributions from researchers worldwide, spanning all areas of Design Research, with a particular focus on empirical and experimental projects that demonstrate originality—or even boldness—in their choice of topics and methodological approaches.
The conference’s emphasis on empirical and experimental work reflects our conviction that the discourse on the value and potentials of Design Research should be led by example: What constitutes an effective method or approach only becomes evident when put into practice. For this reason, NERD also does not adhere to any predefined topics or schools of thought, recognizing that the qualitatively new transcends established categories.
Developed and realized by BIRD—the Board of International Research in Design, which publishes the book series of the same name at Birkhäuser—as an annual event with changing venues, NERD has firmly established itself and proven its productivity as a conference format, now entering its seventh iteration.NERD 7th Heaven
Nerd 7th Heaven will be hosted by New Practice, the research platform of the inter-institutional Master’s program Design & Computation at Technische Universität Berlin and Berlin University of the Arts. The event will feature a curated selection of 30-minute research presentations, each followed by 30 minutes for audience questions and in-depth discussion.
We invite submissions from advanced graduate students, doctoral candidates, and early-career postdoctoral researchers to present their ongoing research or completed theses. Contributions should demonstrate a well-conceived, design-based, and empirical or experimental approach and may engage with a wide range of socially, culturally, and intellectually relevant questions.
We take the attributes New and Experimental in NERD seriously—even if sometimes we ourselves can’t say exactly what they mean: if we could, they would probably no longer be new or experimental, but conventional and predictable instead. In other words, we want to be surprised—by bold, unconventional, humorous, even anarchic approaches that challenge expectations and push the boundaries of Design Research.
How to submit
To apply, please submit an extended abstract (1,000–1,500 words) detailing your research project or the specific aspect you wish to present. Submissions should be sent to bird@bird-international-research-in-design.org by April 30, 2025. All submissions will undergo a blind review process, and applicants will be notified of the outcome by June 30, 2025.
The conference will be held in English.
https://www.bird-international-research-in-design.org/ -
Call for second round of abstracts now open! see more
Livable Cities 2025 is an initiative between the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon; La Salle, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, and AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics Society)
Issues of interest include, but are not limited to: urban design, architecture, transport, public space design, smart cities, participatory design, landscape architecture and community engagement in planning.
Both conferences take the design, planning and management of their host cities as a starting point for debate around how we make cities the world over more 'livable cities'.
They are separate conferences, organised by separate universities. They are displayed together here under the banner of the AMPS Livable Cities series. Delegates wishing to attend Lisbon should submit an abstract to that event. Delegates wishing to attend the event is Barcelona should follow the links to that event.
LISBON: 9-11th July 2025
Lisbon, the capital of Portugal has increasingly become a ‘mecca’ for European expats wishing to relocate. Attracted by sun, beaches, food, culture and a low cost of living, it has been ranked as the world’s third most livable city for foreigners. Inevitably, the results of this have been varied: improvements in public space design accompany gentrification; sustainable design goals are challenged by increased demands on infrastructure and the promotion of the city’s art and design heritage has focused on visitors rather than residents. Employing Lisbon as starting point this conference seeks to explore the varied readings of the link between design on the ‘livability’ in cities the world over.
BARCELONA: 16-18th July 2025
Barcelona is seen as one of the world’s most livable cities. Ranked particularly high for its renowned art and design history, architecture and urban planning, it is also Europe’s third most progressive city for start-ups. However, it is also a city that suffers from unaffordable housing, uncontrolled tourism, noise pollution and over density. It has a high cost of living and has experienced gentrification. Seeking to explore how design factors into such social issues, this conference uses its host city as a point of departure for exploring the relationship between design and ‘livability’ internationally.
Read more about the conference and abstract submission process here.
Organisers
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon; La Salle, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, AMPS, UK
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NORDES 2025 marks the 11th bi-annual conference in this series. see more
NORDES 2025 - RELATIONAL DESIGN
The 11th Nordic Design Research Society (NORDES) Conference
Wednesday 6 August – Saturday 9 August 2025
Located at OsloMet University, Oslo, Norway
ORIENTATION
NORDES 2025 marks the 11th bi-annual conference in this series. Launched in 2005, the Nordic Design Research Conferences have been shaped and sustained through commitment and participation from a range of Nordic design research institutions, together with regional and international participants.
NORDES 2025 symbolises a collective arrival for this community at the completion of the first quarter of the 21st century. The event offers a range of shared spaces and formats for reconsidering what we intended and may have achieved so far in design inquiry.
However, at this juncture, this occasion also invites us to reconsider designing and related practices, pedagogies and research as we look towards the mid-21st century. We do so in the contexts of pervasive, difficult and emergent challenges, compound crises, and deepening complexities and uncertainties about how to achieve and secure substantive and durative transformation in a world undergoing rapid ecological and systemic demands and changes.
THEME
NORDES 2025 takes up the open theme Relational Design to offer perspectives and means through which we may together investigate and discuss complex dilemmas and current responses, along with design’s futures and futures designing.
Relational Design gives attention to ontological multiplicity in evolving processes of becoming and emergence. It accentuates working with possibilities, tensions, paradoxes and contraditictions in re-framing and shaping resonances, alliances, linkages and networks of making and researching.
Working within and across difference, Relational Design instantiates interrelations, intersections and distinctions. It facilitates non-normative, situated knowledge experimentation and its generative practices. Relational designing treasures linked, participative and dynamic agency to bring forward pragmatically viable, equitable and bearable transformative potentials and their resonant effects.
Designing and researching relationally asks us to consider the shaping of re-directive design as well as analytical and methodological frames and practices linked with values, ethics, concepts and methods centred on repair, regeneration and reinvigoration.
This includes how agency be realised when embedded within alliances, networks and webs of relationships to cultivate incipient ventures and bolder analyses in articulating relational design activities and pluralist design research formations.
Overall, rethinking and re-making design relationally invites engagement in working with entanglements - of places, zones,values, processes and participation - that are enmeshed in living and regenerative situations, environments, systems and situated acts of worldmaking.
Conference fee & registration
Fees includes the opening event, daily refreshments, lunches and the conference dinner.
Registration opens: 10 April 2025
Early Bird:
Students, including PhD students, with valid student ID (before 22 May 2025): 250 €
Regular participants: (before 22 May 2025): 450 €
Standard:
Student (closes 12 June 2025): 300 €
Regular (closes 12 June 2025): 500 €
Late & onsite registration (one fee for full or partial attendance):
Student (with valid student ID): 400 €
Regular: 600 €
PROGRAMME & PUBLICATION
Programme
Final programme published: 20 June 2025
Programme outline:
Wednesday 6 August 2025: Welcome, Keynote, Refreshments and Snacks
Thursday 7 & Friday 8 August 2025: Keynotes, Conference presentations and events
Saturday 9 August 2025: Doctoral Consortium
Publication
All accepted submissions will be available as open access publications during and after the conference via the NORDES Digital Archive. Subsequently, publications will be accessible via the online DRS Digital Library and in the format of an integrated Conference Proceedings.
ABOUT NORDES 2025
Location
In 2025 NORDES returns to Oslo. The conference is located at the OsloMet city centre campus. On this occasion, we have three closely connected conference chairs from three leading design research institutions and a lively local organising committee and a team of Nordic organisers and regional and international reviewers.
Conference co-chairs
University of Oslo (Prof Alma Leora Culén), OsloMet (Prof Laurence Habib) and AHO (Prof Andrew Morrison)
Organisers, reviewers, theme and session chairs, assistants, communication design and sponsors will be posted online at a later date.
Previous conferences
Papers from and material about earlier NORDES conferences can be found at www.nordes.org
and also archived in the DRS digital library https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/nordes/
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Second Designing Retail & Services Futures SIG colloquium. see more
Key dates
Registration opens: March 1st, 2025
Colloquium: 14 – 15th May 2025
The Special Interest Group (SIG) Designing Retail & Services Futures from the Design Research Society (DRS) was established in 2021 under the guidance of the Design Research Society. The SIG strives to gain a better understanding of the value of design in the commercial sector, including disciplines, such as interior design, architecture, retail and hospitality, branding, marketing, strategic design, design management and consumer psychology. Design and its value have been a subject of study for many years and from many different disciplinary perspectives (ranging from product design to marketing, business economics, service design, management, environmental psychology, (interior)architecture, etc.). However, these perspectives have been developed in a fragmented way with discrete research methods and results that present limitations to practically applying these findings holistically across the inter-related fields of design, retail, and services.
Recent developments have integrated services into retail and vice versa. This shift, driven by consumer needs and retailer dedication, has led to new approaches combining service and retail design. Whether online or offline, for products, services, or experiences, these changes highlight the need for research support. This colloquium aims to unite various disciplines to share knowledge and reach a consensus on terms and meanings related to retail and service design. Emphasizing sustainability, it seeks to ensure that advancements in these fields are environmentally, socially, and culturally responsible. By integrating sustainable practices, the goal is to make retail and service design more holistic, encompassing, and relevant to contemporary global challenges.
Find out more on Theme and Tracks.
Where
Auditorium Carlo De Carli, Building B9, Campus Bovisa Durando (Milan, Italy)
When
14-15 May 2025
Who
Find out on Colloquium Commitee.
Contacts
Any inquiries about this colloquium can be directed to ICDRSFColloquium@outlook.com
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EKSIG 2025: Data as Experiential Knowledge and Embodied Processes. see more
Over the centuries our understanding of what constitutes data has – and continues today – to shift. In the 18th century, datum, the singular of data, referred to a piece of information through which inferences could be drawn. For the scientific community, the focus shifted from receiving what is given to extracting what is not. Data transitioned from an entity that was previously unknown or unexplored to being the epitome of what scientists strive to uncover via systematic investigation and observation.
More recently, the art and design community’s engagement with data has once again shifted understanding of the term. Data became an experimental medium for artists and designers and data literacy of general audiences began to emerge. These changes have prompted a more nuanced understanding of the term. Beyond the purely quantitative, data are now recognised to carry temporal and emotional qualities that can be meaningful, malleable and evocative.
Making with data is no longer exclusively digital. Data appear in hybrid and physical forms that invite various perspectives, interpretations, and reflections. For example, data can be found in physical forms like 3D-printed models, sculptures, or even tactile exhibits in museums. In addition, users can explore the embodied nature of data in virtual environments, offering unique perspectives on data's virtual materiality and influencing our perception of scale, complexity, and interconnections between humans and data. Data are no longer exclusively a scientific output either, but instead appear in art and design accessible to entirely different publics. The growth of self-tracking technologies now allows anyone to track, experiment with, and explore data in ways that extend what is known about the self and decision-making in everyday life. More recently, artificial intelligence has once again contributed to shaping our understanding of the term through the use of generative technologies. Even design education has shifted in recent years, using data to inspire, support, and expand students' projects.
Thus, the idea of data has expanded beyond its conventional scientific boundaries and has become a versatile and ever-changing medium that influences how we see the world, stimulates creative expression, and enhances our daily lives in new and remarkable ways.
Dates
Sunday-Tuesday, 11-13 May 2025
Venue
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
9-25 Zugligeti Str., H1121, Budapest, Hungary
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