18th Annual Meeting of the DGTF

02.06. and 03.06.2022

Venue: Muthesius Academy of Arts, Kiel, Germany and online

Design × Sustainability

Materiality, Systems, Shared Prosperity

Format: hybrid

Language: German and English

Since the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow 2021, we can say: It can't continue like this. The history of design is full of ideas and practices on designing for sustainability, from the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau to Victor Papanek to the Circular Design Guide. Designers are seen as experts in developing holistic solutions to complex problems. The ability to deal with uncertainty holds potential to provide valuable solutions to environmental, social and economic challenges. But in view of the upheavals of society in the Anthropocene, the question arises as to what design is really capable of achieving. Design faces considerable challenges as a discipline and as a field of research: How can we design in a way that conserves resources without perpetuating an order based on inequality? Or are design and sustainability even mutually exclusive?

Design thus seems to have an ambivalent relationship to sustainability. Thus, in the discourse around sustainability in design, a variety of positions have emerged around participation, transparency, and openness with an eye toward the consequences of design for the environment. Organizations like Extinction Rebellion use design means and call for climate justice in their demonstrations. Participation in the production of consumer goods, such as in the Maker movement, aim to contribute to sustainability through decentralized solutions. This shows: Design can create solutions and visions for sustainable futures and take on an interface function. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that design still seems to have a tendency towards elitism. Concepts such as zero waste or newly built climate-neutral city districts seem to address the needs of the already privileged. Moreover, practice shows that a truly sustainably designed consumer culture is still in its infancy. How can a balance between resources, growth and fairly distributed wealth be designed? What alternative proposals can we develop to break patterns that contribute to perpetuating grievances? What are the limits of where design can contribute?

The 2022 annual conference of the DGTF will therefore address key aspects of sustainability that connect to design. What and how can design contribute to sustainable development? How does the sustainability discourse change perceptions of design, in theory and practice? What impact do approaches and discourses of sustainable development have on design education and research?

The annual conference of DGTF 2022 will enable an active exchange of practical approaches, theoretical impulses and empirical findings in presentations and workshop sessions. The contributions will highlight current research and study projects as well as explore future scenarios. How can sustainability be addressed in teaching, practice and research in order to set new impulses for design work?

Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics and issues:

Materiality

How can we design for material cycles? What are the limits and potentials of niche solutions in the circular economy? What can be learned from end-of-life for the design of products and systems? Should design operate on the principle of “more is less” - in the analog as well as the digital space? How is value creation designed when the use and consumption of materials and resources is minimized? What competencies do future designers need in this context and how will they be taught?

Systems

How is sustainable action shaped in systems such as network organizations or companies? What does sustainability look like, how do we communicate sustainably? Which discourses and approaches shape the communication of design and sustainability? What influence does the methodology of design have on other disciplines? What is the role of design in interdisciplinary discourses on sustainable change? What can we take from other disciplines, which interfaces need to be further shaped in the future?

Shared Prosperity

Sustainability cannot be thought of without a fair distribution of resources. What kind of future do we want to design and how can justice be realized? Future designs: How do we want to live and work in the future? What are the social implications of design? How can design play its role responsibly and not just look at the needs of the already privileged? For example, can Participatory Design be a way to implement equitable design for climate change? How can design act locally while maintaining a global perspective? What are ways that locate design outside our European perspective? What approaches can be adapted from other systems, societies, or eras, and how can they contribute to sustainable development today?

Submissions will be accepted in the following formats:

· Short lecture (15+15 min):15-minute interactive presentation followed by discussion. · Workshop (90 min): Concepts combining discussion and experimental work in groups of less than 20 participants are welcome. Please specify: Duration, number of participants, prerequisites for the participants, type of workshop, what the participants can expect, what is expected of them; utilization/publication/handling of results. · Special Session: Experimental contributions ("Situated actions"), which do not last longer than 30 min.

For all three forms of submission: maximum 3,000 characters incl. spaces, anonymized (DE / EN) until 31.01.2022. via dgtf.de/conftool

The selection will be made by the conference committee together with external reviewers (double-blind peer review). An open access Book of Abstracts will be published by DGTF (providing DOIs). Selected contributions and workshop results can be prepared for publication after the conference.

For further inquiries, please contact: tagung2022 [at] dgtf.de at any time.

Conference team: Andrea Augsten, Annika Frye, Markus Köck, Christian Wölfel

The German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF) is a non-profit association dedicated to the discussion, exchange and profiling of design-related topics. It was founded in 2003 and today comprises approximately 300 members from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The DGTF sees itself as a forum that conveys ideas, networks and initiates public debates. www.dgtf.de

The Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts is the only art academy in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the youngest German art academy with approximately 640 students. The courses of study Industrial Design, Spatial Strategies, Communication Design and Liberal Arts are gathered under its roof. With a doctoral program and the IKDM, the Center for Interdisciplinary Design, Art and Media Studies installed at the university, a lively discourse on design science and design research takes place at the university. www.muthesius-kunsthochschule.de