Launch of the SpeculativeEdu project
New European project SpeculativeEdu is starting with the presentations and discussion about speculative and related design practices today.
As part of the newly-launched two-year international project SpeculativeEdu (Speculative Design – Educational Resource Toolkit), financed by the programme Erasmus+, KA2, Strategic partnerships, dealing with the future, will be presented on Monday, 22 October 2018, at 6 pm, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Split. After the presentation a discussion about speculative and related design practices today will follow with international guests, as part of the project kick-off meeting. The discussion is part of this year’s workshop at the Art Academy in Split, “Interakcije 2018 – Workshop Speculative Design: Life after a Disaster”.
SpeculativeEdu is an educational, project funded by Erasmus+, the European Union programme for education, training, youth, and sport, with the aim of strengthening speculative design education by collecting and exchanging existing knowledge and experience whilst developing new methods in the field of speculative design. Its scope is to collect, exchange, reflect upon, develop, and advance educational practice in the area of speculative design and its self-critical approach. This project, which will last 24 months will bring together the prominent European academic/research institutions, SMEs, and an NGO from speculative practice, education, and research. The consortium will be led by the University of Split (Croatia), and consist of Edinburgh Napier University (UK), Goldsmiths, the University of London (UK), the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (Portugal), the Human Ecosystems Relazioni (Italy), and the Institute for Transmedia Design (Slovenia).
The discussion will include one of the pioneers of speculative design practice, James Auger (M-ITI), along with his partner Julian Hanna, both authors of the influential blog, Crap Futures; along with Michael Smyth and Ingi Helgason (Edinburgh Napier University), leaders of the noted UrbanIxD project, which questioned the concept of a hybrid, networked city through critical design practice; plus Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico (HER), founders of the first Italian studio/lab Nefula that deals with the near future; and another pioneer in speculative practice, Jimmy Loizeau (Goldsmiths, University of London). Last but not least, there will also be Sara Božanić and Petra Bertalanič (ITD) from the Slovenian Institute for Transmedia Design. Moderating the discussion will be Assistant Professor Ivica Mitrović (Visual Communications Design Department, Arts Academy in Split) with the help from Oleg Šuran from the same institution.
By speculating, designers re-think alternative products, systems and worlds. Such an approach to design does not focus on meeting the current and future consumer needs, but rather on re-thinking the technological future that reflects the complexity of today’s world. Speculative practice opens space for discussing and considering alternative possibilities and options, and imagining and redefining our relation to reality itself. Via its imagination and radical approach, by using design as a medium, it propels thinking, raises awareness, questions, provokes action, opens discussions, and can offer alternatives that are necessary in the today’s world.
Through this discussion, we will try to detect the current state of critical future-oriented design practices and consider their role in the educational process and the “real world”. More about the project: SpeculativeEdu.eu.
