Category: Design comment
-
Radical Acts
An exhibition currently on at Harewood House in Yorkshire, bears the title “Radical Acts”. This grand stately home, surrounded by gardens and an estate, was built on money from West Indian sugar plantations and was, as information around the house freely admits, bought on the backs of slaves. Indeed in 2021 the black actor, David […]
-
The body as an artwork – the body as a community experience
Once again, it is a novelty experience to go to a physical exhibition. No other exhibition could have been more appropriate than Daniel Lismore’s “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” (what a title!). The focus in the exhibition is on the body, more precisely on Daniel’s body as an artwork, but the bodily experience […]
-
Creativity, Rituality and Sustainable Development: A Case Study from the Global South
Introduction A few years ago, while researching the persistence of traditional creative practices in Nepal, I heard about the Janakpur Women Development Centre, an NGO in Southern Nepal, where local women work on the preservation and re-use of traditional patterns and imagery used in agricultural rituals. The NGO aims to improve the quality of […]
-
What did YOU do in the War (against Covid19)? Engaging a response to the covid pandemic through visual communication.
It seems we might just, finally, be starting to win our battle against the scourge of covid. In fighting an invisible enemy that has had such a devastatingly tangible impact, it is not surprising that the rhetoric has sometimes carried metaphors of war. COBRA meetings in Whitehall and the Queen urging the country to remain […]
-
Art-Based Research Methods, STE(A)M and Global Challenges
Over the past two weeks, I shared some thoughts about Art Based Research (ABR) methods with students and colleagues. I thought I would also write my reflection here. Personally, I have always been driven toward ABR for my need to think through making and my passion for the arts. But aside from my strictly personal […]
-
Publication: Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance
New OU Design Group Publication! Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance Christian Nold and Karolina Sobecka http://oro.open.ac.uk/80368/ ‘Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance’ – written with @ksobecka. Aesthetic strategies can engage environmental governance to build alternative worlds. http://oro.open.ac.uk/80368/ – in Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies #STS #sciart The sciences and […]
-
Redesigning how to tackle sustainability
In her thought-provoking blog in November, Alice Moncaster expressed the hope that, following COP26’s image of male, white, and wealthy people making decisions, that COP27 would be “redesigned in a way that allows all people to participate equally that works best for them”, concluding that “the most sustainable solutions are those which are designed by […]
-
Design Education: Teaching in Crisis
Last year we (Nicole and Derek) opened a call for papers to capture some of the experiences and lessons from design educators during the Covid-19 global pandemic. We are delighted to announce the publication of a Special Issue of the Journal of Design and Technology Education (DATE): Design Education: Teaching in Crisis The Special Issue […]
-
Boiler bans for off grid homes-a rural design challenge?
Reducing energy and associated carbon emissions from the built environment is critical to meeting our climate targets. A key part of the Government’s strategy for this in England (energy policy is a devolved matter), is to decarbonise heating in residential properties by shifting away from fossil fuels. Announced by the Government as far back as […]
-
COP26 – Is 1.5 still alive?
After unprecedented global news coverage, the United Nations COP26 conference ended on 13 November 2021 with the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed by the 196 countries present. The Pact was only achieved after a last-minute weakening of its wording on the use of coal from ‘phase out’ to ‘phase down’ after objections from India […]