Dates: 15-16 June 2017
Location: Braunschweig University of Art (HBK), Germany
Website: BIRD
Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: 31 December 2016
New Experimental Research in Design / NERD
Design research has become an established research area in the academic world and its importance is now also being acknowledged in parts of society and business and, indeed, in the design industries. Throughout the last few years, many art and design universities in the German-speaking countries have set up respective PhD programmes and research departments. A fast-growing expert community has emerged, using dedicated publications, conferences and platforms for international communication and exchange.
With this successful development, however, a particular, and possibly central, quality of design research is being put to the test: it was to a large extent due to the dynamic nature of a young and ‘undisciplined’ discipline still in the process of defining its topics and methods that design research was able to constantly reframe and renegotiate living phenomena. Compared with this, the wholesale adjustment of design research to allegedly universal scientific and methodological standards did not so much mark a long overdue step towards maturity than it marked the loss of an essential strength. If analysing the irreducible complexity of societal, economic, ecological, cultural and technical processes in relation to design is to remain the primary objective of design research, then what is still needed, possibly more urgently than ever before, is the experimental development of new perspectives and dimensions of empiricism.
The BIRD conference New Experimental Research in Design/NERD wants to be a platform for precisely this type of projects in design research: projects that use concrete research topics to test independent, or currently rarely used, ways of gaining new insight. Posing radical questions, critically analysing alleged ‘normalities’, developing new perspectives on the constant changes in everyday life, illustrating the potentially (also for research itself) existential blurring of categories, concepts, insights and ideas or even actions: these kinds of approaches could be promising for a design research that, in the sense of having a genuine interest in ‘the things themselves’, constantly questions its own rules and boundaries.
Therefore, we are especially looking for speakers who have just completed their doctoral theses in such contexts as described above, or who are still working on their theses but are at a stage where they can already present their work. We also welcome relevant contributions by ‘NERDs’ (in the best sense of the word) from other fields who have a similar interest in new experimental issues and approaches in design research.
If you are interested in presenting your work at the conference, please submit an extended abstract (1000 to 1500 words) for a 30-minute talk (followed by a discussion) by 31 December 2016.
From all submissions, we will select eight to ten speakers to be invited to the conference.
We are planning to publish (online + print) the proceedings as part of the BIRD series by Birkhäuser.
The conference will be held in English.
Please send your abstract to Michael Erlhoff and Wolfgang Jonas.
About BIRD
The Board of International Research in Design sees itself as a forum for publishing intelligent design research.
BIRD believes that highly qualified design research is important for design in all its complexity and for social, cultural, economic and scientific developments in our societies.
The BIRD series is published by Birkhäuser, an imprint that has made a name for itself not only in the areas of architecture and design, but also as an excellent distribution partner of the independent De Gruyter academic publishing house.
BIRD proposes design research-related projects and papers/books for publication and assists authors throughout the process.
BIRD is constantly looking for excellent presentations of important design research projects and studies.
Board Members
Michelle Christensen
Michael Erlhoff
Wolfgang Jonas
Gesche Joost
Ralf Michel
Marc Pfaff
BIRD website: http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/202632?tab=overview.
Location: Braunschweig University of Art (HBK), Germany
Website: BIRD
Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: 31 December 2016
New Experimental Research in Design / NERD
Design research has become an established research area in the academic world and its importance is now also being acknowledged in parts of society and business and, indeed, in the design industries. Throughout the last few years, many art and design universities in the German-speaking countries have set up respective PhD programmes and research departments. A fast-growing expert community has emerged, using dedicated publications, conferences and platforms for international communication and exchange.
With this successful development, however, a particular, and possibly central, quality of design research is being put to the test: it was to a large extent due to the dynamic nature of a young and ‘undisciplined’ discipline still in the process of defining its topics and methods that design research was able to constantly reframe and renegotiate living phenomena. Compared with this, the wholesale adjustment of design research to allegedly universal scientific and methodological standards did not so much mark a long overdue step towards maturity than it marked the loss of an essential strength. If analysing the irreducible complexity of societal, economic, ecological, cultural and technical processes in relation to design is to remain the primary objective of design research, then what is still needed, possibly more urgently than ever before, is the experimental development of new perspectives and dimensions of empiricism.
The BIRD conference New Experimental Research in Design/NERD wants to be a platform for precisely this type of projects in design research: projects that use concrete research topics to test independent, or currently rarely used, ways of gaining new insight. Posing radical questions, critically analysing alleged ‘normalities’, developing new perspectives on the constant changes in everyday life, illustrating the potentially (also for research itself) existential blurring of categories, concepts, insights and ideas or even actions: these kinds of approaches could be promising for a design research that, in the sense of having a genuine interest in ‘the things themselves’, constantly questions its own rules and boundaries.
Therefore, we are especially looking for speakers who have just completed their doctoral theses in such contexts as described above, or who are still working on their theses but are at a stage where they can already present their work. We also welcome relevant contributions by ‘NERDs’ (in the best sense of the word) from other fields who have a similar interest in new experimental issues and approaches in design research.
If you are interested in presenting your work at the conference, please submit an extended abstract (1000 to 1500 words) for a 30-minute talk (followed by a discussion) by 31 December 2016.
From all submissions, we will select eight to ten speakers to be invited to the conference.
We are planning to publish (online + print) the proceedings as part of the BIRD series by Birkhäuser.
The conference will be held in English.
Please send your abstract to Michael Erlhoff and Wolfgang Jonas.
About BIRD
The Board of International Research in Design sees itself as a forum for publishing intelligent design research.
BIRD believes that highly qualified design research is important for design in all its complexity and for social, cultural, economic and scientific developments in our societies.
The BIRD series is published by Birkhäuser, an imprint that has made a name for itself not only in the areas of architecture and design, but also as an excellent distribution partner of the independent De Gruyter academic publishing house.
BIRD proposes design research-related projects and papers/books for publication and assists authors throughout the process.
BIRD is constantly looking for excellent presentations of important design research projects and studies.
Board Members
Michelle Christensen
Michael Erlhoff
Wolfgang Jonas
Gesche Joost
Ralf Michel
Marc Pfaff
BIRD website: http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/202632?tab=overview.
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