AIGA Design Educators Conference (Portland September 2014): Call for Panel Abstracts

NEW VENTURES: INTERSECTIONS IN DESIGN EDUCATION
Call for Panel Abstracts

Dates: September 11–13, 2014
Location: Portland, Oregon
Website: http://educators.aiga.org/call-for-panel-abstracts/
Abstract Submission Deadline: April 11, 2014 — 5:00 pm (PST)

New ventures are propelling design educators and students to re-think how, where and what types of experiences best serve a design education in the 21st century.

• How does a program’s location within a school, college or university create broader opportunities for learning as well as more defined, discipline specific learning?
• What potential collaborations occur when new partners emerge?
• How do different student cultures work together? (i.e. business, engineering and graphic design students).
• How can faculty from different disciplines co-create a new model of design education?

From the creation of new types of graduate programs (DMBA), to the physical creation of design think tanks and venture accelerator programs on campuses — a new landscape of collaboration, intersection and adventure is quickly emerging.

Join fellow design educator and professionals in the vibrant design community of Portland, Oregon for two inspiring days of exciting intersections in the form of panel sessions, poster presentations, a juried student show, and lively conversation!

2013 AIGA Design Educators Conference (April 2013, Norfolk Virginia USA)

Dates: 12-14 April 2013
Location: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
Website: http://bluntconference.aiga.org/
Deadline for submissions of proposals: 1 August 2012

Theme: Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now

Blunt describes this conference’s aspiration and topic. It is a term that invokes our potential and our problems, and suggests the type of dialog we seek to engage. To be effective, criticism must be keen and direct, undiluted by concessions to academic or professional propriety. Graphic design is firmly established as a unique form of practice, but we do not yet have a developed body of literature that serves to question, critique and propose alternate interpretations of our way of viewing the world. Criticism is an activity, but not necessarily a negative one. Criticism is also productive and projective. It can reimagine and reconfigure existing relationships between design and other disciplines. Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now is dedicated to the exploration of graphic design criticism and outspoken applications of its practice. Blunt invites contrarian statements to prevailing wisdom on graphic design practice, education, and criticism.

In order to conceptualize a critical practice, Blunt proposes that we foster an awareness of—and need for—the conceptual tools, techniques and vehicles of critical practice by writing back at graphic design, challenging established views and assessing possibilities.

Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now will present speakers who will address the discourse of criticism in design, critique aspects of graphic design practice, and present or propose methods of critical thought. Conference sessions are divided into the areas of practice, history, writing, and education. Workshops are planned in critical writing and the practical concerns of curriculum and advancement in academia.