goldsmithsdesign

Live broadcast from Lesvos: Design Unlikely Futures/ The System of Systems

When: Thursday, 21 September, 3:30 pm

Where: Curzon Cinema, Goldsmiths

Autonomous Broadcast Bike, The System of Systems & Conversation

An ongoing collaborative, trans-disciplinary research project that is concerned with designing devices and inventive methods to learn about people’s lived experiences of migration in the wake of disasters. We work under the collective name of DUF (design unlikely futures), across the disciplines of design, ethnography and experimental film-making.

The System of Systems aims to open up vital conversations about the legal framework of seeking asylum in Europe. We gather research by collaborating with academics, activists and practitioners to interrogate questions of language, the body and biometrics, agency and infrastructure, within the overlapping bureaucratic systems. In doing so, we hope to provide an alternative viewpoint on the subject and provide the space to consider possibilities, through exhibitions, events and publications.

Talks, performances, exhibitions: The 2017 Goldsmiths Design Festival

In addition to this year’s MA Show, the Goldsmiths Design Festival will host a variety of other Design events involving staff, students and leading design practitioners. You can find out what’s on from our programme on the festival website. Here are a few highlights:

On Friday, 15 September, Dash n’ Dem will present ‘Grime up the River’ and ‘Britannia 3.0’, two collaborative projects that draw from contemporary music trends to consider a young peoples political language and inspire a critical ‘voice from underneath’.
Also on Friday, three characters from different historical moments will congregate at a mythical ruin of a past future utopia, in a scripted reading for three characters written by Nicholas Mortimer.
On Sunday, 17 September, a game designed by Vinny Montag and John Halls will highlight the plight of refugees and raise awareness, showing the circumstances that thousands of people, escaping countries in conflict, have to go through.

Interaction Research Studio shows new work in ‘Water’ exhibition

For London Design Festival 2017, a group of 13 designers are coming together at the Copeland Gallery in Peckham’s Bussey Building to explore Water. Each of them has created a new work for the exhibition, responding – creatively, technologically or emotionally – to water and the vital role it plays in the natural and human world.

Exhibiting artists include Andy Sheen, Dean Brown and Mike Vanis from the Interaction Research Studio (the latter two are also co-ordinating the event). The exhibition will be open between 19-24 September.

Make@MEET workshops with MA Interaction Design students/alumni

This July, Michael Mogensen (MA Interaction Design 2017), Erica Jewell and Julie Parisi (MA Interaction Design 2016) designed and taught Make@MEET, a one day workshop in Jerusalem to Year 3 students from the Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET) programme. MEET brings together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders to create positive change through technology and entrepreneurship, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The summer intensive programme consists of an accelerator for four startups created by the participants. The Make@MEET workshop introduced them to tools to challenge their biases and assumptions, particularly around the user in the context of their startups, as well as to generate ideas and work through problems. The attendees were given a brief (“make someone’s life easier”) and then taken on field trips to observe and choose a subject, followed by rapid prototyping and presentation of their designs.

Images courtesy of Michael Mogensen and Erica Jewell; more photos can be found on Erica Jewell’s blog. Another workshop will be held in December.