Notes from the seminar will be added by Wednesday 8 February – sorry for the delay.

Introduction

This seminar will be a discussion around developing a critical approach to contemporary issues as they relate to design and the citizen. It addresses what I consider to be the key contemporary issues being debated in and around design. It is intended to present questions for a discussion in which I will not take an explicit position but will instead play Devil's advocate.

Overview

Resources, sustainability and the environment

What is a natural resource

Where are resources consumed

Are they becoming more of less scarce

When did human activity stop being sustainable

When did the term 'climate change' become popular

What was the characteristic of climate change in the past

What have been the recent consequences of climate change

The nature of Nature

Are natural things necessarily good

Do or should we live in opposition to or harmony with nature

How much can we learn from nature

Real people

Where do people fit in the design model

To what extent are people 'left out' of the innovation process

Do people need 'simpler technology', and if so, how simple

Is ethnographic study empathetic

How do we learn about the people for who we design

Have we solved the issue of scarcity in the developed world. Is everyone well-off.

Do we like the people for who we design

Is our understanding of people still informed by humanism

Innovation now and then

How much are people's lives changing and improving. Are we living through a time of turbulent change.

Should we be aiming for grander and more daring innovation

To what extent is business able to embrace and push innovation/ Is is more of less able than at other times.

The shape of the future

How are our visions of the future changing

Are we more or less preoccupied with the future than our predecessors

Can we be more of less confident and certain about the future than our predecessors

Are there places in which people are optimistic about the future. What is the character of that optimism.

Are we more or less ambitious about the future

Is this good or bad

What does this mean for design

Risk and precaution

What risks do we face today

How are they different from the risks and dangers our parents' generation faced

How has our attitude to risk changed

Should we take a precautionary approach to technological and other forms of change

Creativity and the economy

Is creativity more important in developed economies

How much impact can it have on an economy such as Britain's

Why does creativity appeal so much to the government

Why the idea of being creative appeal so much to society and to young people

The problem-solving culture

What are current problems facing society

What caused or created them

How soluble are they

How ambitious are the solutions

Should we be excited about solving the problems we face

What will society be like when we have solved them

What are the appropriate agencies of change today

Governments

Corporations

Single issue campaigns and pressure groups

Political parties

Trade unions

Designers

How have our expectations changed in this respect

What are the appropriate methods for creating change

Propaganda

Semiotic and sub-conscious communication

Graphic design in particular has hit a wall, and instead of innovating has embraced a crude political philosophy concerned partly with its role in communication

Persuasion and argument

Art

Terrorism

Social engineering

Guilt

Social pressure

Changing lifestyles

Legislation

Punishment

Taxation

Individual action

What is the 'What is design?' debate all about

The political designer

Are designers more concerned with political and social issues today

If so, why

What informs their ideas

How do they contribute to developing ideas and debate around political issues

Has design done good in the past. Which designers are exemplary here.

Can you be a political citizen and a designer

Other

Events that may be of interest

7th February 2006: Design or Die! A panel event discussion on how UK business can use design to stay ahead of the global game.  Our expert panel including Sir Terence Conran, Sir George Cox, Wayne Hemingway and Nico Macdonald will share their experiences and views on business and design. This event is invitation only. (Royal Society of Arts)

February 9, 2006: NMK Beers & Innovation night (The Bell & Compass, downstairs bar, 9-11 Villiers St, London WC2N 6NA)

February 9, 2006: Dealing with global warming should be one of the top priorities for humanity (Royal Geographical Society, London)

February 16, 2006: Aubrey Meyer: Contraction and convergence: global solutions to climate change (RSA)

February 17, 2006: GM: what's all the fuss about? Prof Malcolm Grant (Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1, University College London)

February 20, 2006: Script (Design Museum)

February 23, 2006: RSA Economist Debate – The internet's golden age is over (RSA, London)

February 28, 2006: RSA/University of the Arts Lecture – The world's design studio? (RSA, London)

Publications and articles that may be of interest

[To come after seminar.]

People that may be of interest

[To come after seminar.]

References from Questions and Seminar

[To come after seminar.]

Notes

[To come after seminar.]