Design Anthropological Futures conference

August 13-14, 2015
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, Copenhagen, Denmark

The Design Anthropological Futures conference explores future-making from a design anthropological perspective. The concept of futures relates both to the creation of visions and practices of the possible through transformative processes of anthropology and design, and to the exploration of new frontiers for the field of design anthropology.

Design anthropology is an emerging transdisciplinary field, which is enjoying growing attention in recent years. In an interconnected world where the boundaries between physical, social and digital environments become increasingly challenged, the conventional distinctions between social science and design research no longer hold. The conference explores different perspectives on design anthropology as a holistic and critical approach to complex everyday and societal issues, with the aim of creating potential futures with diverse communities and stakeholders.

With a starting point in a forthcoming book based on a selection of papers (to be made available to the participants) prepared under the auspices of the Research Network for Design Anthropology (2013-2015) the conference addresses future concerns in design anthropology, and its particular approaches to futures-in-the-making through two keynote speeches, four thematic discussions and an exhibition space for workshops on emerging design anthropological practices.

With this call we invite participation of researchers, professionals and research students with an interest in these concerns in design anthropology. Participants can prepare their contributions to the conference discussions by submitting position statements for the thematic discussions or by proposing exhibits and workshop proposals for the exhibition space (for details of submission see below). Participation without submissions is also welcome, but the total number is limited to 100 participants.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
There are three ways to participate in the conference:

Position Statement. We encourage you to explore the preliminary outcome of the Network’s three preceding seminars (available here: https://kadk.dk/co-design/research-network-design-anthropology), and submit a position statement in response. The format of the position statement can be one of the following:
– a three page position paper (following this template), or
– a twitter-length statement (140 characters including spaces) and a high resolution .jpg photo suitable for print in A2 (see here for an example).
Position statements will be made available to conference participants.

Interactive exhibition. If you would like to share a concrete design anthropological experience in an interactive format this is for you. The format involves multi-sensory presentation material (visual, audio, physical etc.) along with a specific suggestion as to how an audience of approximately 15 persons can be invited into your concrete design anthropological encounter during a 30 minutes mini workshop. Submit a precise description of what you would like to exhibit, and how you expect people to interact with it.

Without submission. All interested are welcome to participate in the conference without submitting a contribution, simply by registering (here).

Capacity is limited to 100 seats. Participants with a submission are prioritized.

IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline for submission of position statements and Interactive Exhibition items: June 15, 2015.
Notification: Authors will be notified of acceptance of submissions soon after we receive them.
Registration (by email to the address below): May 10th – July 30th.
Conference: August 13th – 14th 2015

Registration (and submissions) must be send to: designanthro-futures@kadk.dk

ORGANIZERS
The Research Network for Design Anthropology is established in collaboration between the CoDesign Research Center (CODE) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, the Contemporary Ethnography program at the Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, and SDU Design at the University of Southern Denmark. All of these institutions have a strong track record of cultivating and furthering the field of design anthropology, both in terms of academic courses, PhD student supervision, conferences and publications. The strong ties and collaboration between the three institutions have created the platform for the development of the international Network for Design Anthropology and a planned book publication. The network is funded by the Danish Research Council (grant number 13923).

https://kadk.dk/co-design/research-network-design-anthropology