The Forms Of Politics
Is design innately political and if so how does that affect the design role and the designers’ responsibility?
Through three open and free seminars we will have presentation and discussions on the political aspects of design. The three seminars take place in:
Copenhagen, 2 October, 9 - 16 at PH cafeen, Halmtrovet 9.
Speakers: Jenny Nordberg, Maja Van der Velden, Eller-med-a, Tau Ulv Lenskjold
Oslo, 23 October, 9 – 16 at Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29.
Speakers: Johanna Lewengard, João Doria, Dagny Stuedahl, Burea Detours
Gothenburg, 13 November, 9 – 16 at A-Venuen, Kungsportavenyn
Speakers: Matilda Flºdmark, Maryam Fanni and Sara Kaaman, HAiK, Mahmºud Keshavarz, HAiK, Thomas Markussen
The Forms of Politics is organised by Kristina Ketola Bore, a design critic, Erling Björgvinsson, professor in design at The School of Design & Crafts, Gothenburg University and Johanne Aarup Hansen, a relational designer.
We would like to claim that design, be it in the process of creation or the made artefacts, is political. Particular power relations are implicitly or explicitly given material form through design by the choices made and what courses of action are taken. Designers also act in a world already filled with traditions, norms, laws and regulations, which support certain power relations while undermining others, which in turn affect what is designed. In the act of choosing how to make and what to make, designers can either cater to current expectations of what design is and should do, or stand up against them and question them; choices that can be rewarding or costly.
Designer are challenging in various ways the conventional way of understanding their role and place, which makes it necessary to re-consider the place usually reserved for designers and the political potential that lies in the field itself.
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