DESIS PHILOSOPHY TALK @ DAE
Storytelling and design for social innovation #2
Designers telling stories
Wednesday March 12th, 2014
Design Academy Eindhoven, 5th Floor
14.00-17.00
On Wednesday March 12th the DAE Strategic Creativity Readership is hosting a philosophical conversation about storytelling and design for social innovation. Presentations from DAE, Politecnico di Milano and MAD Faculty as well as a philosophical reflection, a panel conversation with a number of invited guests, and the chance for everyone to participate in the conversation - this will be an engaging ‘talk’ and we invite you to participate and join us!
Please register via this link.
This DESIS Philosophy Talk is part of an ongoing series that is visiting different schools in different countries to build knowledge in this area from different perspectives. Starting in Dublin, we will continue the discussion here in Eindhoven before going to Milan and ultimately Singapore. The DESIS Network is a group of design-oriented schools and research labs that are working in the field of social innovation and sustainability. In the DAE we are currently building a partnership with the DESIS Network - and this Philosophy Talk is an opportunity to begin to shape our approach to social innovation, with a focus on storytelling.
Nowadays we are encountering many new and different ways in which designers are telling the stories of ‘social innovation’. In the DAE it is interesting to gather and present the different ways we are interpreting social innovation, how we are creating transformative energy within society with our designs, and specifically with the stories we are telling. During this dynamic Philosophy Talk, we will reflect together on this topic and see how this can be helpful in feeding our practice as designer.
Is storytelling in design for social innovation a poetic action, where the two dimensions of telling and making, as in the Greek idea of poiesis, are finally reconciled? Can we look at telling stories of emerging sustainable behaviours worldwide as a way to manifest what is at the margin of the mainstream of society and help its potentialities to be fully expressed? How can we as designers tell the stories of the margins respecting their complexity without oversimplifying them?
What is the role / power of the poetical side of stories when we talk about sustainability and social innovation?
The act of telling these stories makes them visible, tangible, and allows existing initiatives to grow and further develop and for new ones to take shape. How do we as designers look around us, see potentialities (both past as present potentialities), and bring them into actuality? Amongst the many philosophers who have been working on the idea of storytelling, we let ourselves be inspired by the work of the German philosopher Hannah Arendt. She believes that storytelling is in essence the act to recognise the potentiality that is hiding behind the mainstream, and be able to read this potentiality, to translate it, to tell its story.
With this philosophical foundation, this mini-event will encourage the presenters and audience to reflect and begin answering many questions together; What are the nuances in designers telling stories? How can we better express this poetic dimension of telling-making in our design practice (videos, objects, pictures?) In which way are designer today storytellers (or not)? How can we translate all these questions in design guidelines? How can we use stories to create transformative energy within society?
These questions we will be asking together during the Philosophy Talk on Wednesday March 12th.
How can you be part of the conversation?
Come to the Talk
Be part of the down-to-earth philosophical discussion about that role of designers as storytellers. You are welcome to join us in the DAE from 14.30-17.00.
Submit your work as part of the exhibition
In the DAE it is interesting to gather and present the different ways we are interpreting social innovation, how we are creating transformative energy within society with our designs, and specifically with the stories we are telling.
How do DAE students, alumni and teachers use storytelling in their work - either in products, interventions, services, etc…We want to create a beautifully diverse showcase of the way Design Academy students, alumni and teachers are storytellers. We will be presenting a series of posters with selected approaches to be presented as examples during the Philosophy Talk. We will choose a few of the most fitting examples of storytelling to be presented in the Philosophy Talk! We invite you to submit your work within a template; in which you will find the following to answer with help of a background image:
- Title of the project or story
- Your name and contact information
- link to the website/blog
- What story are you telling? (a brief background of the context or project) - max 150 c.
- What format is the story, and why have you chosen for this? (video, animation, ...) - max 200 c.
- What is the aim of telling your story? max 200 c.
- What is achieved by telling your story?- max 200 c.
The template can be downloaded below this article under "Related Files"
Don't hesitate to email heather.daam@designacademy.nl with any questions!
DEADLINE for submission: Thursday 6th March.
These posters will be on display during the talk, as well used as single pages in a follow-up publication, as well as published on the Design Academy website and the DESIS Network website.
*Note: If your ‘story’ is in video format, or animation, we ask that you show some frames as an image, but also submit the video!