A blog about design at the OU.
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Anxiety and Optimism: Designs on Barbenheimer.
As an 11 year old in the early 70s, I was fascinated by the idea that the tiniest components of everything in the world, (including ourselves), had within them the power to obliterate the planet. I read avidly about the structure of atoms, and what they had the potential to unleash. The Cold War fuelled […]
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Dancing with Decolonial Curriculum Theorists: A Search for the Middle Path in Design Education
Introduction Over the years, the definition and understanding of curriculum have evolved and continue to evolve. Around five decades ago, Grumet (1981) defined curriculum as the stories we tell students about the past, present, and future, and a decolonial view of this curriculum definition questions the stories students are being told about their past, present, […]
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Designing the ‘Fry Equation’
Harmonising purpose: exploring the ‘Fry Equation’ and bridging the gap between reform and service design by Rachel A.Wood. Whilst undertaking some literature searches for my design research project, I started to look at significant figures who have worked tirelessly to design, reform, and transform the criminal justice system for mothers in the UK. I […]
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Excavating smart city knowledge politics
Since its inception over a decade ago, the smart discourse and its promoters have been incredibly successful to the extent that now many cities identify themselves as smart cities. While there is no single definition of a smart city, in broad terms such developments are based on digital infrastructures comprising sensors and data hubs which […]
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WIDE Women in Innovation, Design and Engineering
Women in Innovation, Design and Engineering Conference at Walton Hall By Claudia Eckert and Fiona Gleed The School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University has been organising Women in Engineering conferences, targeted at female students, since 2016. After a three-year break enforced by Covid, we have finally been able to go back […]
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School buildings and politics: a very brief history, and what this tells us about RAAC
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 accepted that education of children in England and Wales, up to 13 , was the responsibility of the state. Social historians have suggested that school buildings since then have been a response to regional and national political influences, both in design and social intent (Maclure,1984; Saint,1987; Lowe, 1997; Dudek, […]
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Making and Design: two perspectives
Hand and Eye A couple of recent events both link making and design. First a conference on Mathematics and Architecture rather at the edge of this blog and second an exhibition of Lucie Rie pots, perhaps closer to its centre. The Nexus Conference on Mathematics and Architecture takes place 12-14 June, 2023 in Turin. This […]
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Contemplating the Future of Public Transport
Miguel Valdez and Matt Cook and I have been asked to write an article for The Conversation on ‘The Future of Public Transport’ and I am grappling with the draft text at this very moment. It’s not that we haven’t been doing very relevant research on the design of transport systems and their implications, but […]
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Ethical Decisions in Digital Product Design
Throughout my career, I have been deeply fascinated by the human experience and how people interact with the technology around them. Over the years, I have been lucky enough to work on various design projects, allowing me to explore this topic in depth. From designing user interfaces for software programs to developing new prototypes, my […]
