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IntroductionSomething that we know very well about the present is that the world is changing, rapidly and profoundly. The only certain thing that we know about the future is that the current change must change direction. It must find the way to sustainability. Nobody is yet in a position to say how this can happen. However, many think that the greatest challenge we must face is this one: how to be an active, constructive part of this twofold transformation; and how to be able to interpret the way and the extent to which we are changing, recognising the opportunities that are opening up, and the forces that generate this change. We should learn to use these same forces to "change the change" and promote a social learning process that can lead us towards a society based on networking, knowledge and sustainability. ConTemporary design (seen as the community of all who operate in the design field in different ways) is deep in this turbulent process, both transforming it and being transformed by it. Given its nature it cannot but be like this. However, in this turbulence, we do not have, and cannot have, a clear vision of what is happening. What is design doing today? What could it be like in future and how will it operate in this context of ongoing transformation? What is it doing, or what could it be doing, to play a more incisive critical and constructive role in the great twofold transformation underway? These are not new questions, but they must constantly be asked. Not only because the world is rapidly changing, but also because despite the good intentions of many, design still continues to be far more "part of the problem" than "part of the solution"; serving more to accelerate unsustainable processes rather than promoting new ways of being and doing to help individuals and communities live better, reduce their ecological footprint and regenerate the social fabric. AimsThe Conference moves from these considerations and intends to present visions, proposals and tools that emerge from precise design research activities. If indeed design wants to be "part of the solution" it must, perhaps first and foremost, develop a new research culture and new research practices: an open research, sensitive to present contexts, that leads to a better understanding of the great changes underway and of what should be done to re-orient them towards sustainability.In this spirit the Conference seeks to be a confrontation and discussion ground for designers and researchers operating in different cultural, economic and political contexts (in this perspective, a substantial participation from the East and South of the World has been actively encouraged). Changing the Change is a design research conference with a strong and ambitious political goal: to focus on the design research potentialities in the transition towards a sustainable knowledge society; to show that these potentialities exist and can be found in all the design application fields (from products to communication, from interiors to services, from ITC to crafts, from medical devices to fashion) and in all the regions of the world (from the most mature industrial societies to the emerging ones). To do all that, the Conference will present and discuss visions, proposals and tools developed by design researchers dealing with various aspects of peoples lives: from food, to health, from residence to mobility, from work to tourism.
Ezio Manzini |