PerFab 2013 – 1st International Workshop on Personal and Pervasive Fabrication (Sep 2013, Zurich)

Dates: 9 September 2013
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Website: http://32leav.es/perfab/
Deadline for submissions: 1 June 2013

In conjunction with the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2013)

Recently, technologies for fabricating real-world objects and products that can be designed and built directly by the end-user have decreased in costs and are increasingly common. These technologies are expected to have a great impact on society. However, there is a great need to explore many novel research challenges and issues before the idea of personal fabrication becomes truly pervasive and applicable to the wider public. Our workshop is aimed at facilitating discussion and exploration of these challenges. We encourage submissions of research papers, work-in-progress papers with interesting preliminary results, and position papers. Attendance at the workshop is not limited, as anyone may register and attend. The long-term goal is to gather a community of researchers and establish this workshop as a leading forum for research dissemination in the area.

Design Competition: Sustainable Laundry (May 2013)

Deadline for submissions: 31 May 2013
Website: http://www.designwithculture.co.uk/

A competition for creative, enthusiastic designers or design students from around the globe. Showcase your innovations and you could win a Nexus tablet.

See details at the website.

INTERACT 2013 Workshop: Urban Agriculture: A Growing Field of Research (Sep 2013, Cape Town, South Africa)

Date: 3 September 2013
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: http://www.urbaninformatics.net/resources/interact2013cfp/
Deadline for submission: UPDATED 19 May 2013

Growing food presents diverse challenges and opportunities within the urban environment. As cities develop, population density rises, land prices rise, and the opportunity to use land for traditional farming and gardening diminishes. Counter to this trend there are a growing number of both community gardens, city farms, ‘guerilla gardening’, effective use of rooftop gardens, pot plants, windowsill herbs and backyard gardens cropping up in different cities, all with a purpose to produce local food, supplemented in part by food co-op organisations. This workshop brings together practitioners and researchers in the field of urban agriculture and HCI to explore the different forms of growing practice and the sustainable impact of locally grown produce.

The Creative Exchange Interactive Conference: Academic Engagement with the Creative Sector (Sep 2013, Lancaster UK)

Dates: 26-27 September 2013
Location: Lancaster University, UK
Website: http://thecreativeexchange.org/The-KE-Conference
Submission Requirements: 13 May 2013

This interactive conference is aimed at exploring new mutually beneficial exchanges between academia and the creative industries. It will not be a traditional ‘sit and listen’ conference. There will be a high degree of both experimentation in the form of the conference and interaction throughout the conference. Proud is contributing to one of the 3 experimental sessions within the conference.

We are calling for contributions from
- Academics developing new understandings of the creative sector
- Creative sector professionals interested in undertaking research and collaborating with academic partners

Addressing subjects including
- New processes, tools or approaches that facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration
- Insights, case studies, results and evaluation of knowledge exchange in practice

Submission: We invite you to submit a 2,000 word paper. We strongly encourage a wide range of papers and approaches, but equally would encourage submissions to include an indication of the research question(s)/issues addressed in the paper, and the approach employed in addressing these. Please include a 200 word summary.

Workshop: Participatory Design for Persons with Cognitive or Sensory Impairments @ Interact2013 (Sep 2013, Cape Town)

Dates: 3 September 2013
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: http://interact2013impairmentsworkshop.wordpress.com/
Deadline for application: 15 May 2013

Are you interested in participatory design and do you work with users with impairments? We organize a workshop on participatory design for persons with cognitive or sensory impairments at Interact 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. This workshop will be held on Tuesday September 3rd.

Design and the Law: Opportunity and Constraint (Feb 2014, Chicago USA)

Dates: 12-15 February 2014
Location: Chicago, USA
Website: http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2014CallforParticipation.pdf
Deadline for submissions: 6 May 2013

Session chair: Carma Gorman, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, carmagorman@gmail.com.

Product designers, graphic designers, and fashion designers all work within the constraints of a constellation of state, national, and international laws and standards governing patents, trademarks, copyrights, copylefts, licensing, product configurations, color specifications, rules of origin, trade agreements, labor conditions, liability, accessibility, environmental protection, and so on. Although legal scholars have written extensively on these issues, relatively few humanistic scholars of design (among them Lawrence Busch, Howell John Harris, Sarah S. Lochlann Jain, Otakar Macel, Frederic J. Schwartz, and T’ai Smith) have examined how laws and standards have shaped manufacturers’, clients’, and designers’ decision-making and creative processes, and, in turn, how these groups’ practices have reshaped the law. This session therefore seeks papers that address the ways in which laws and standards have shaped or constrained the manufacture, configuration, or circulation of consumer products, graphics, and garments (or vice versa), either in the past or present. Both traditional scholarly analyses and first-person “constraint narratives” by designers are welcome.

Special Issue of the Intl J of Human-Computer Studies: Perspectives on participatory HCI research: Beginnings, middles and endings (July 2013)

Special Issue Theme: Perspectives on participatory HCI research: Beginnings, middles and endings
Website: http://di.ncl.ac.uk/participation/special-issue/
Deadline for submissions: 31 July 2013

Participation is a research area of sustained interest to the HCI community. Traditionally, the term has been used to suggest a democratized approach to the design of technology that calls for end-user involvement in the design process. This may vary from researchers inviting specific users or stakeholders to participate in design workshops, through to long term engagements with communities to define research questions and study deployments of new technologies. As HCI is an interdisciplinary field, however, there are multiple understandings of what participation in research might mean, from subjects and disciplines such as social science, participatory and performance arts, international development, and action research. Beyond these influences, there is also increased pressure from funding bodies and public institutions to involve a wider spectrum of the public in academic research. The convergence of these factors has drawn attention to the potential benefits and challenges, both theoretical and practical of involving users and the public in HCI research.

6th Information Design Intl Conf (Sep 2013, Recife Brazil)

Dates: 10-13 September 2013
Location: Recife, Brazil
Website: http://www.sbdi.org.br/cidi2013/
Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: 15 April 2013

It is with great pleasure that we announce the call for papers for the 6th Information Design International Conference [CIDI], which is a joint event with the 5th Brazilian Conference of Information Design and the 6th Information Design Student Conference [CONGIC].

The former two are biannual scientific events promoted by the Brazilian Society of Information Design [SBDI], with the aim of bringing together professionals, researchers and students to discuss information design issues. The Information Design Student Conference [CONGIC], on the other hand, is a scientific event directed towards students and recently graduated professionals, who have developed research in this field.

Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology (Oct 2013, Portland Oregon USA)

Dates: 3-5 October 2013
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Website: http://www.aacsnet.net
Deadline for submissions (1st call): 15 May 2013

This is a call for sessions and papers for the October 3-5 meetings of the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology in beautiful Portland, Oregon! Our theme, “Change the Process; Change the Outcome; Change the World! Real World Sociology for the 21st Century,” highlights our commitment to encouraging the use of sociological practice to effect beneficial social change.

The conference invites all sorts of presentations, from the traditional to the experimental. Don’t be afraid to be creative! We heartily welcome innovative approaches to conference presentation. Projects with qualitative methods are encouraged!

Please visit our website at:   http://www.aacsnet.net      for all conference-related information, including the submission form.

This year’s conference program organizer is AACS Vice President, Sandra Jones. Please direct all program inquiries and submissions to her at:   jonessa@rowan.edu.

Cumulus Dublin Conference 2013: More for less – design in an age of austerity (Nov 2013, Dublin Ireland)

Dates: 7-9 November 2013
Location: National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland
Website: www.cumulusdublin.com
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 May 2013

Today’s global recession forces design practice, research and education to address a number of questions:

• Consumption – How can design find a balance between excess and austerity
• Growth – How can design stimulate sustainable economic growth?
• Research – Is design research and development a luxury we can still afford?
• Education – How can we change pedagogical content and delivery methods to become more efficient while maintaining standards?
• Environments – How can we use design to create places and spaces for renewal and growth?
• Wellbeing – How can design improve our wellbeing and welfare in the face of public sector cuts and financial hardship?
• Communities – How can design bring local communities together to work on projects that improve how we live, work and play?

We propose that in the deepest recession since the great depression of the 1930s we need to turn the modernist mantra ‘less is more’ on its head as the reduced budgets of governments, business and people demand ‘more for less’, and develop a ‘New Deal’ for design.