Design. A Creation Story for the Anthropocene / 米国でデザイン思考を実践するデザイナを囲む90分

Date and Time: Thursday, April 26, 2018　　14:45-16:15
Location: Design Fabrication Center, Kyoto University (Northernmost room, Building No.58 on the map)

Speaker:Mr. Neil Goldberg (Design researcher, Product designer, Innovation consultant, Entrepreneur and Educator)

Abstract:
What is design? And what is it for?
Through design practice, and as an advocate of design thinking, I have seen how essential it is for stake-holders to participate in design projects – and for them to have some familiarity with design process, and what it is for. Yet, in the context where society at large has a stake in the outcomes, design’s impact is being limited by misperceptions and misunderstanding of what design is.
New technologies are driving culture faster and on a larger scale. As such, it is more important than ever to ensure broad and informed participation in processes that shape technologies to our humanity. Design disciplines have made enormous strides in the last few decades to rise to this challenge. Yet the way that design is culturally understood has changed little since the middle of the twentieth century to keep up with shifts in application and practice.
In this talk I offer a new frame for understanding design. I will outline a design story that reaches back in time, through our ancient past as the only species whose evolution has been directed largely by our own creative choices. I describe how a creative survival instinct allowed us to adapt to every ecosystem we wandered into. Then, how it became the creative spark for civilization. Most recently, it has been expressed as a distinct discipline, practice and method to account for the disruption of the industrial revolution, and the acceleration of technological change that it unleashed.
In the modern design story, we see the dawning of awareness that it is us who are creating the world we live in. 　So, we are responsible for the adaptive quality and impact of what we create. We are becoming aware that it is up to us to ensure our wellbeing, and that of the ecology on which we depend. I call this awareness “design consciousness”.
Design discipline and practice will no doubt continue to evolve. This narrative frame will be helpful to us as we consider how we might direct its continued unfolding, mindfully.

*No registration necessary

Sponsored by: Collaborative Graduate Program in Design (Design School), Kyoto University

Contact:
Hiroshi Kawakami (Professor, Unit of Design) kawakami[at]design.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Please change [at] to @.)

報告：
参加人数 6人（内デザイン学本科生2人）

2018年4月26日の14:45から、吉田デザインファブリケーション拠点において、「米国でデザイン思考を実践するデザイナを囲む90分」を実施した。話題提供者のNeil Goldberg 氏は、シリコンバレーを拠点に、デザイン研究家、プロダクトデザイナ、イノベーションコンサルタント、起業家、そして教育者といういくつもの顔を持つ。話題は、欧州での大手デザインファームに在籍していた時の家具デザインから、現在手がけているプロダクトデザイン、そしてサービスデザインとして今日ではシェアリングオフィスという名で知られる方式に至るまで、様々な分野における同氏のデザインが紹介された。また、それら広範な領域のデザインに通底する思想、あるいはデザインとは何かを理解する枠組みとして、デザインコンシャスネスと名付けられた概念が説明された。後半30分の質疑では、この難解で既存の概念とは境界線の異なる概念を平易な言葉で記述することが参加者全員で試みられた。