UnDesign
CRITICAL PRACTICES AT THE INTERSECTION OF ART AND DESIGN
Undesign is calling for submissions from researcher, curators, theorists as well as practicing designers and artists, for an edited text to be published in late 2014 - early 2015.
Traditionally, design has been placed in a framework that emphasizes its utility over aesthetic or other non-functional considerations. UnDesign seeks to document new developments in design that connect with science, engineering, biotechnology and hactivism, which operate at the intersection of art and design. Often confounding and speculative, these practices exist outside mainstream commercial design and share many traits with contemporary art. “Undesigning” practices aim to undo the complex designed world by revealing how human designing implicitly structures our world.
UnDesign will examine the ideas, speculations and practices that constitute this burgeoning new field of practice that unravels design’s traditional definitions and assumptions in order to develop a very different concept of design practice in the 21st century. The publication aims to combine essays with the presentation of significant works of art and design. It will focus on practices that:
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Design must put in doubt its search for all such often well-intentioned design solutions or self-deconstructions, to open the way to explore, discover, uncover, and expose the hidden dimensions of lived experience. Krysztof Wodiczko, Critical Vehicles: Writings, Projects and Interviews, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press,1999
SUBMISSIONS DUE 31st of MAY 2013
UnDesign is calling for submission from researchers, curators, theorists as well as practicing designers and artists. Submissions should address the outline above and respond to the following thematic:
‣ Genealogical explorations: Speculative Futures and Alternate Pasts—directions and untold histories that situate critical art/design in a lineage of practice, explaining the conditions that have led to current Undesign practices.
‣ Deconstructive, reordering and redirective readings—expositions of the current condition of design outlining the significance of critical art/design approaches.
‣ Disruptive, strange and redirective experiences—writings as well as speculative, critical design and artistic projects.
The first part in this process is that we are inviting abstracts of 100-200 words detailing your proposed contribution. All abstracts will be reviewed and selected authors will be invited to submit full chapters. Inclusion in the final published text will be based on outcomes of an academic peer review process.
Editors: Dr Gavin Sade, Dr Gretchen Coombs, Dr Andrew McNamara
URL: http://undesign.net.au/
Please submit abstracts by the 31st of May 2013 either via email to: [email protected], or by using the web form at the following URL: http://undesign.net.au/abstract-submission/
For more information please contact the editors [email protected]