IDW 2019

by Chiara Cavalieri and Michaël Stas the ‘analogue’ city by Anne Britt Torkildsby and Kristof Vaes fight stigma with critical design Cities are today at the threshold of a technocratic control which relies on digital information and data accumulation: worldwide every two days more data is being produced than in all of history prior to 2003. At the same time, although a certain physical inertia, over the last decades cities and territories have been radically changing, while their representation became more and more controversial: paradoxically, despite the large availability of data and new technologies, representations herefrom are overwhelming and blurring the real complexity of spaces, whilst cantilevering towards the generation of anxiety and simultaneous prosperity. But until which extend data are tangible? To whom belongs this monitored information? And for what is it (ab)used? The workshop aims to visualize, reveal and ultimately design an analogue image(ning) of invisible(s) via exchange between transcalar mapping process and on site re-act-ion. What if we start to tackle this reality by experiencing places without the support of digital? What if we start to list and map all those devices (wi-fi; shared mobility devices, money transfer hubs, traffic and control cameras, waste collectors, weather sensors, water level monitors…) that are producing such data, in an analogue way? What if we reveal the threshold between the fluxes of such information and their physical output into our cities? 1. Michaël Stas 2. Chiara Cavalieri The next generation of designers must face challenging issues relating to inclusion, equality, and diversity! To eliminate prejudice and discrimination they must ensure that stigma is a high priority when developing products, services, environments, etc. Thus, those responsible for addressing upcoming challenges, i.e. future ‘universal design thinkers’ (Torkildsby, 2017), must be adequately equipped with methodological tools as well as valuable experiences of interdisciplinary work - both essential to preparing them for real-world challenges. ‘Critical design’ is all about using design to explore issues and ask questions, rather than to directly provide answers/solutions to problems. In doing so it can promote new ways of thinking about the design of assistive devices that have come to provoke stigma- burdened responses. As a potential tool to influence societal and cultural values, critical design can supply a healthy challenge to current interests and tacit values in mainstream design practice and business. The combination of provocative and sensitive elements into campaigns or social design interventions can also exert a positive influence on social attitudes towards assistive devices. The results of using critical design during a design process is called critical design examples (CDEs; Torkildsby, 2014), which, in the context of this workshop, aims to question the student’s assumptions and preconceived ideas about design and stigma. The CDSs represent ‘Liminality’ as they demonstrate what does not work in our society today - and at the same time give direction regarding what the future could look like. 1. ‘Can’t you see?’; a white can that was to be fastened to a visualle impaired person using a handcuff (illuminating the challenges of being dependent on assistive technologie) (IDW2018) 2. ‘Can you taste the music?’; a confusingly set breakfast table on which nothing smelled, looked, sounded, or felt as it should have (shedding lights onhow it can be to live with Synesthesia) (IDW2018) 3. A new outfit with 3D-printed prosthetic limbs, for the Venus de Milo and other statues, made by the nonprofit Handicap Interna- tional (raising awareness of the global need for prosthetics)