10th Conf of the European Academy of Design (April 2013, Gothenburg Sweden)

Dates: April 17-19 2013
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Website: http://www.craftingthefuture.se
Deadline for submission of intention to submit: May 15, 2012

The theme of the conference is designer’s practice knowledge. How can the specific knowledge of designers be brought forward, articulated, made visible and be understood and used in contexts like innovation, business developmente and social change?

We are coordinating a track within the above mentioned EAD conference and are inviting submissions on the topic:

MAKING TOGETHER – Open, Connected, Collaborative

The track will reflect on changes in creativity and production, traditionally seen as the province of professional design but now driving new ways to work, socialise, be creative and live across society. This is informing the emergence of novel design scenarios to create products and services (e.g. personal manufacturing, peer production, fablabs, crowd sourcing, collaborative business models) on many levels: people, companies, organisations, institutions, communities.

Design is challenged with new business models, long tail markets, new networked organisations, diffused distribution, non-technological innovation, that are underpinned by new ways to manufacture and design products and services. Creative practitioners are increasingly working both through direct creative input and through facilitating new processes. Design and creativity can in fact rethink and give meaning to tools and technologies that help people connect, understand, share and create. Design is also taking the position of facilitator and enabler where in the past it was a technological gatekeeper.

Although pervasive, this topic is still emerging and being explored, both from an academic perspective (underlining the theoretical bodies that can help such approach emerge), and from the perspective of practitioners (detailing the development of systemic and collaborative projects). Examples can be found in Service Design, Transformation Design, Open Design. Moreover these phenomena are underlining a revolution in work and human relationships, mirroring a move to more distributed, collaborative processes.

Can collaborative practices trigger new business models and new innovation in products and services? How can collaborative making enabled by social technologies be explored/practiced/developed from a design perspective? What are the implications/benefits/impact of collaborative making for design? How may the boundaries and role of design be re-defined? Can designers design collaborative networks?

Important dates:
Submission of intention to submit: Until May 15, 2012
Submission of full paper: September 15, 2012
*Notification of acceptance or revision: November 1, 2012
Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2012
Conference date: April 17-19, 2013

For any further information please refer to the official website of the conference.