Arguably, ´design activism´
is a response to particular contemporary conditions of geo-political change, social conditions, economic practices and environmental challenges.

Design activism has emerged in recent years as a term to denote creative practices that invoke social, political and environmental agency. Typically, it distances itself from commercial or mainstream public policy-driven approaches. Instead, it embraces marginal, non-profit or politically engaged design theories, articulations and actions.

Arguably, ´design activism´ is a response to particular contemporary conditions of geo-political change, social conditions, economic practices and environmental challenges. It nonetheless inherits a rich history that goes back as long as design itself. A number of questions therefore arise. For example, what is distinctive about design activism today as opposed to its expression in the late 1960s and 1970s, the period of pioneer modernism of the 1920s or the intentions of William Morris? Are there or have there been different qualities of design activism in different locations, according to various issues such as scale, mode of intervention, contexts of governance, and so on? How have designers attempted to reconcile ambitions toward social change with economic imperatives? What is to be learnt from the design histories of non-Western countries with respect go activism and social change?

The “2011 Design History Society International Conference” offers an important opportunity for design students, academics and practitioners to participate in the development of historical enquiry into design activism.

It welcomes the presentation of original research that helps deepen and widen our understanding of its practices and theories, contexts and discourses. The types of design expression that this conference includes, but is not limited to, are professional and non-professional industrial, graphic, craft, textile, fashion, urban, spatial, interior, digital and service design.

Download full info:Design_History_Society_Annual_Conference.doc Design_History_Society_Annual_Conference.pdf

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You can download the last programme update
Complete Programme Provisional.doc
and the Session Programme Papers Provisional.doc

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15 November 2010
31 January 2011
February-March 2011
15 April 2011
17 June 2011
7-10 September 2011

Call for papers
Deadline for abstracts
Peer review period
Notification of acceptance
Publication of Conference Programme
Conference

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Laura Kurgan teaches architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning at Columbia University, New York where she is Co-Director of the Spatial Information Design Lab (SIDL) and the Director of Visual Studies. Her work explores things ranging from digital mapping technologies to the ethics and politics of mapping, new structures of participation in design, and the visualization of urban and global data. Her recent research includes a multi-year SIDL project on "million-dollar blocks" and the urban costs of the American incarceration experiment, and a collaborative exhibition on global migration and climate change. Her work has appeared at the Cartier Foundation in Paris, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Whitney Altria, MACBa Barcelona, the ZKM in Karlsruhe, and the Museum of Modern Art (where it is part of the permanent collection). She was named one of Esquire Magazine's 'Best and Brightest' in 2008, and received the Architectural League's Young Architects Award. She has published articles and essays in Assemblage, Grey Room, ANY, Volume, and Else/Where Mapping, among other books and journals.

Henk Oosterling (1952) is associate professor Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, teaching dialectics, French philosophy of differences, aesthetics, and intercultural philosophy, focused on Japanese culture. His research program “Intermediality” focuses on the borders between philosophy, arts and politics’. As a co-editor of the Rotterdam Philosophical Studies, series director of InterAkta, series co-editor of Studies in Intercultural Philosophy he co-edited and contributed to more than two dozen of essay volumes. He is secretary of the Dutch-Flemish Association for Intercultural Philosophy (NVVIF), chairman of the Dutch Aesthetics Federation (DAF), and director of the Center for Philosophy & Arts (CFK). In 2009 he delivered the annual lecture for the Premsula Foundation “Dasein as design”. He co-edited Intermedialities. Philosophy, Arts, and Politics that was published in autumn 2010. He founded Rotterdam Skillcity in 2004. This strategic concept for social design has been adopted by the Rotterdam citycouncil as the blueprint of the 10 year renovation of Rotterdam South. As strategic advisor on urban planning and renovation he now supervises long term projects in the socio-economic deprived neighbourhoods in Rotterdam. His most recent publication on these projects is Woorden als daden [Words as acts] (2009).

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All the papers published in this website are under a Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5)

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Anderson, Nadia M. SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE AS A MEANS TO ACHIEVE THE RIGHT TO THE CITY Antonowicz-Tamm, Agata THE DRAMATURGICAL CONCEPTION OF DESIGN BY JANUSZ KRUPINSKI APPLIED IN DESIGN THEORY AND PRACTICE BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF ITALIAN RADICAL DESIGN AND THE MEMPHIS GROUP Banu, Lisa SAARINEN'S SUBVERSIVE THRONES MODERN RESISTANCE OF CRAFTED REGIONALISM Barbosa, Helena, Branco,Vasco et Calvera, Anna 2THE DESIGN OF PORTUGUESE POLITICAL POSTER TWO POLITICS, TWO DISCOURSES Boehnert, Jody Joanna HOPENHAGEN DESIGN ACTIVISM AS AN OXYMORON Campi, Isabel DESIGN FOR ALL AND HUMAN RIGHTS Campi, Isabel DISEÑO PARA TODOS Y DERECHOS HUMANOS Canova, Ruggero THE SIGNS EMBEDDED IN DISCARDED OBJECTS, RESIGN Cantlon, Polly "IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WHOLE THING ABOUT GENDER AND RACE" PERSPECTIVES IN GRAPHIC DESIGN ACTIVISM FROM THE PACIFIC.pdf Carter, Nanette BLUEPRINT TO PATTERNCRAFT DIY FURNITURE PATTERNS AND PACKS IN POST-WAR AUSTRALIA Chance, Helena 'CONSULTING THE GENIUS OF THE PLANT' REDEFINING SPACE AND PLACE AT WORK IN BRITAIN AND AMERICA AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH CENTURY Cid, Daniel et Fuster,Albert BARRICADES AND MARQUEES. EPHEMERAL URBAN PLANNING IN 20TH CENTURY BARCELONA Costa, Tània EINA, CENTRO DE PRODUCCIÓN DE VANGUARDIA ARTÍSTICA Y CONTRA-CULTURAL EN EL CONTEXTO SOCIAL BARCELONÉS DE LOS AÑOS 60 Y 70 Cruz Guáqueta, Mónica DOMESTIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN TIME OF THE MODERN PIONEERS CHARLOTTE PERRIAND AND POLITICAL MILITANCY Díaz, M. Sonia, García, Isabel M et Martínez, J. Gabriel BASTARD POP DESIGN, VISUAL REMIX AND MASHUP (BY UN MUNDO FELIZ) Doordan, Dennis TROUSERS AS AN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT THE CASE OF ERIC GILL Douglas, Noel SIGNS OF REVOLT. THE SIGN, THE CITY AND REVOLUTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY Farias, Priscila L. SEM FUTURO THE GRAPHIC LANGUAGE OF SÃO PAULO CITY PUNK Farias, Priscila L. et Wilke, Regina C. BORDERLINE GRAPHICS AN ANALYSIS OF CINEMA MARGINAL POSTERS Fernández, Vivian, Fuster, Anna et Massaguer, Lluc GRAFISMO, CULTURA DE PROYECTO GRÁFICO Y CREACIÓN DE IDENTIDAD VISUAL EN MANIFESTACIONES ESPONTÁNEAS EN BARCELONA Y CATALUÑA Fineder, Martina "JUTE, NOT PLASTIC!" DESIGNING AND CONSUMING NATURE IN WEST GERMANY IN THE 1970S Fineder, Martina et Geisler,Thomas 'DESIGN CLINIC' CAN DESIGN HEAL THE WORLD SCRUTINISING VICTOR PAPANEK'S IMPACT ON TODAY'S DESIGN AGENDA Fortea, M. Angels WAS THE POP GRAPHIC USED FOR ACTIVISM AGAINST FRANCO'S REGIME. THE DEVELOPMENT OF POP GRAPHIC IN BARCELONA Gale, Cathy WORD AS WEAPON THE MANIFESTO AS A CATALYST FOR DESIGN ACTIVISM Gasca, Rubio, Juan FROM THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO THE ERA OF IDEAS EMERGENCE OF "ANARCHISM OF THE OBJECT" Gaspar Mallol, Mònica F(R)ICTIONS. DESIGN AS CULTURAL FORM OF DISSENT Gunetti, Luciana et Oropallo, Gabriele THE CITY AS A WHITE PAGE THE ENCOUNTER OF TYPOGRAPHY AND URBAN SPACE IN ITALIAN LATE MODERNISM Klaassen, Roel et Neicu, Maria CTRL-ALT-DESIGN Kuzmina, Ksenija EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT A NEW CONTEXT FOR DESIGN Liao, Tjhien FROM PRIVATE ISSUES TO PUBLIC CONCERNS ACTIVISM AND THE EVENT AS DESIGN TACTIC FOR THE CREATION OF PUBLICS Vicki Maguire SHAMANARCHY IN TH UK THE LIFE AND WORK OF JAMIE MACGREGOR REID Mallol, Miquel DESIGN AND RESPONSIBILITY IN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES Mitrani, Alex ESTRATEGIAS CRÍTICAS Y FUENTES DE ESTAMPA POPULAR DE BARCELONA _1965-1967_ Myerson, Jeremy et Lee, Yanki DESIGNING FOR THE PEOPLE, WITH THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE Oliva, Raúl et Pujadas, Anna LA ALEGALIDAD COMO ESTRATEGIA DE ACTIVISMO. HISTORIA DE LA CASA AUTOCONSTRUIDA EN BARCELONA Oosterling, Henk DESIGNATURE! ON THE ECO-RELATIONAL PARADIGM Pelta, Raquel LA GRÁFICA DEL FEMINISMO EN ESPAÑA. 1970-2010 Pretorius, Deirdre The PRINTED PROPAGANDA OF the COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA 1921-1950 Raposo, Ana NEVER TRUST A HIPPIE THE REPRESENTATION OF EXTREME POLITICS IN PUNK MUSIC GRAPHICS AND THE INFLUENCES OF PROTEST AND PROPAGANDA TRADITIONS Rocha Watt, Dionea FROM NEWLYN TO ROCINHA CRAFT AS A MEDIUM FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.pdf Rodríguez Morales, Luis IVAN ILLICH UN REFERENTE PARA EL DISEÑO SOCIALMENTE RESPONSABLE Salinas Flores, Oscar WOMEN DESIGN PIONEERS IN LATIN AMERICA. CLARA PORSET AND LINA BO BARDI ACTIVISM DIRECTED TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL VALUES Salinas Flores, Óscar LAS PIONERAS DEL DISEÑO EN LATINOAMÉRICA. CLARA PORSET Y LINA BO BARDI Schiaulini, Silvia FROM MAY '68 POSTERS TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS DIFFERENT EXPRESSIONS OF COLLECTIVE DESIGN.pdf Schwarte, Adrienne THE RAPID EXPANSION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY A DECADE OF CHANGE FROM THE GROUND UP Solórzano, Augusto ESTUDIO SOCIO-HISTÓRICO SOBRE LA ICONOGRAFÍA DE LA CERÁMICA UTILITARIA DEL CARMEN DEL VIBORAL EN ANTIOQUIA Swartz, Jeffrey CRITIQUE, LANGUAGE AND STRATEGY IN MARTÍ GUIXÉ'S 'EX-DESIGNER' Szydlowska, Agata SUBVERSIVE STRATEGIES IN UNDERGROUND GRAPHIC PRODUCTION OF THE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT IN 1980S POLAND Van Beek, Paul THE INVENTION OF A CITY. THE SOCIOPOLITICAL NARRATIONS OF FRANCIS ALYS Ventura,Oriol DESIGN AND ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTION MODELS CARLES RIART AND COUNTERCULTURAL MOVEMENTS IN THE BARCELONA OF THE 1970S Vico Sánchez, Mauricio THE CHILEAN POLITICAL POSTERS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SALVADOR ALLENDE (1970-1973).pdf Votolato, Gregory SEA CHANGE MARITIME ACTIVISM IN THE MODERN ERA Vukic, Fedja SOCIAL ACTIVISM IN HOUSING SELF-MANAGEMENT AND DESIGN Worden, Suzette DESIGN-LED RESPONSES FOR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INCLUSION IN A RESOURCE-LED ECONOMY THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND THE MINING BOOM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA Yair, Karen ACTIVISM AT WORK. CRAFTING AN ALTERNATIVE BUSINESS

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Barcelona provides a fitting backdrop for this conference. Not only is it a city with a rich design tradition, but often this has been linked to activist political ambitions. One need only think of the energetic production of republican graphics during the Spanish Civil War, the use of ‘happenings’ as a way of mobilizing political engagement in the city’s barrios in the 1970s or the debates concerning urban design and gentrification since the 1980s to see that activism and design are closely intertwined here. Opportunities to visit key sites and collections will be available.

The conference takes place at the Universitat de Barcelona’s Faculty of Geography and History (UB) and at the Industrial Design Association (ADI-FAD), situated in the heart of the city.

UB Geography and History
visit site ADI-FAD (Associació de Disseny Industrial del Foment de les Arts i del Disseny)
www.adifad.org

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Online registration to the conference now closed.
Late registration can be made at the beginning of the conference:
FAD Headquarters
Pl. dels Àngels, 6-7, at 15:30
Wednesday 7 September.

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Conference Committee

Chair:
Isabel Campi Fundació Història del Disseny / Escola Eina
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Convenor:
Guy Julier Fundació Història del Disseny

Scientific Committee

Glenn Adamson, Victoria & Albert Museum
Tevfik Balcioglu, Izmir University of Economics
Dipti Bhagat, London Metropolitan University
Adelia Borges, Museum of the Brazilian Home, Sao Paolo
Hilde Bouchez, St Lucas School of Architecture, Ghent
Anna Calvera, Universitat de Barcelona
Isabel Campi, Fundaciò Historia del Disseny, Barcelona
David Crowley, Royal College of Art, London
Bronwen Edwards, Leeds Metropolitan University
Mireia Freixa, GRACMON, Universitat de Barcelona
Alistair Fuad-Luke, Plymouth College of Art
Clive Dilnot, Parsons The New School of Design, New York
Fiona Hackney, University College Falmouth
Katie Hill, Leeds Metropolitan University
Harun Kaygan, Leeds Metropolitan University
Lucy Kimbell, London
Victor Margolin, University of Chicago
Paul Micklethwaite, Kingston University, London
Viviana Narotzky, President, ADIFAD, Barcelona
Raquel Pelta, Universitat de Barcelona
Oriol Pibernat, Eina, Escola de Disseny i Art, Barcelona
Oscar Salinas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Jill Seddon, University of Brighton
Anne Thorpe, Open University
Cameron Tonkinwise, Parsons New School of Design
John Wood, Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Laurene Vaughan, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Fatima Pombo, Fakulteit Architectuur en Kunsten Sint-Lukas Brussels /
University of Aveiro / Associatie K.U.Leuven (Belgium)
Alma Clavin, Oxford
Alex Frediani, University College London
Sarah Owens, Zurich Hochschule der Künste

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Contacto Fundación:
Fundació Història del Disseny
Av. Diagonal 453 bis, 7-A
08036 Barcelona, Spain
Tel: +34 937 065 784 / +34 663 852 449
info@historiadeldisseny.org

Web design by Un Mundo Feliz

UMF invites to use these images for free:

Revolution DB1 & DB2 are two fonts of 130 dingbats by Un Mundo Feliz The dingbats or symbol typographies are font files containing monochrome icons instead of alphanumeric characters. The attributes of the icons can be changed in the same way as text (size, alignment, colour…) and can be converted to curves allowing further modifications. These are graphic files which are accessible from any Windows or Mac programs. They are a font of icons and graphic resources to create fast and cheap messages. Revolution DB is a tool for graphic activism which contains designed images, words and symbols of social and political meaning ready to use. They are pieces of selected graphic works and elements that can be reused in different projects. The key idea is to provide the user (designer or amateur) with tools which improve his/her graphic communications allowing to create impacting blockbuster messages.

Un mundo feliz has followed this designing path; Raquel Pelta describes it in her book “Designing Today” when says “some designers appeal to auto jobs to communicate what they think and feel about various situations and offer an alternative to official media. They protest, accuse or call attention because they understand that designing is a powerful tool that can be used either to persuade people to consume this or that product or to call to their morale”.

Revolution DB contains images that had been published in: Design of Dissent. Font Aid III: Fleurons of Hope, a Collaborative Typeface. Reproduce and Revolt. Radical Graphics for the 21st Century. Our City, Our Walls. No RNC Poster Project. Social Design Zine, vol. 1. Gráfica Indómita: Carteles de compromiso Político y Social. Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated. Diseñar Hoy. nobellum.com. 1000 type treatments. 30 Essential typefaces for a lifetime and The anatomy of design...

Download pdf / Download eps images / Download this Font for free

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