Ancient futures : Design and / or Happiness

anc ie nt KEYNOTE

Seewon HyunLabour of love, and design

Labour of love, and design

Seewon Hyun Currently, Seewon Hyun is an independent curator and critic on art/visual culture after studying Art Theory at Korea National University of Arts and has lead many independent/special exhibition plans. She has also written <Design Vice Versa)(2010, Hakgojae) and her new book <Rediscovery of objects in views>(2013, Hyunsil book, coming). Besides, she published visual/cultural magazine <Walking Magazine> as well as booklets for exhibitions. She is now co-editor of <Ob.scene3> and <Art Folder>. She gives lectures about design theory, modern art seminars, exhibition planning and visual culture at Kookmin University, Kyewon University, Korea National University of Arts, etc.

How have the tools of habit and labor evolved? Currently, what kind of happiness and joy can design offer in terms of human labor? ‘Labor of love’ represents labor which drives people into their flow of joy. In this presentation, Seewon Hyun investigates design that is found in public places and in daily lives that traces the link between a sense of happiness/unhappiness and the familiar. Socialist Richard Sennett indicates composure through the working process in calm and orderly ways according to the rules of operation within some attitudes towards rewards by citing philosopher, Adriano Tilgher. Is it possible that progress, happiness and satisfaction coexist? The speaker seeks to discuss perspectives of visual culture within daily life.

Yeakyung Yoon & Jiwon LeeDesign Speaking

Design Speaking

Yeakyung Yoon

Jiwon Lee

Yeakyung Yoon is a design writer, critic and educator specializing in design. He is Adjunct Professor in Green Design in the College of Art at Kookmin University in Seoul. In 2008, he co-found Designers' Speaking, an Internet Podcast radio show, and in 2012, co-founded Stephanus Bandelli, where he publishes books about design and art. Yoon's articles, columns have appeared in D+, g colon, GRAPHIC and many other publications, catalogues, and books. He has published a book What is good design(2012), and currently is working on his second book the Critical Biography of William Morris.

Jiwon Lee is a graphic designer, writer and educator. His expertise lies in type design, show hosting and design theory. His writings have been published as a book Uncomfortable perspectives of a graphic designer(2013), and translated three books Our Graphic Design of Our Time: An Anthology of Mr. Keedy(2013), Looking Closer 3(2010), Graphic Design Theory(2009). Jiwon is published in Eye magazine, Design Observer, D+, g colon, Hiut, CA Korea and so on. He is a co-founder and panel of Designers' speaking, an Internet Podcast radio show. After his study at CalArts, he worked at Crispin Porter and Bogusky, CO, taught at Old Dominion University, VA and currently is teaching at Kookmin University, Seoul. His latest conference as a planning committee, Chohyung Jeon, ran at College of Design, Kookmin University, Seoul in 2013.

The Podcast radio show, Designers' Speaking has been Online for more than three years. The five panels, Yeakyung Yoon, Jiwon Lee, Keywon Chung, Seonmee Kim and Eurae Kim proved their ability to speak up for design issues. Through out the show, they want to share a discourse about design and creative industry which is logical and intuitive, professional and public, transparent and omnipresent. They believe that design as a social study and activity cannot be built by a dogmatic idea but by diversified opinion by general public. What motivation lead them to spend their own money to keep doing this non-profit move? At this presentation, Yeakyung and Jiwon will talk about what they are trying to achieve with Designers' Speaking and their other activities.

James Powderly has been making technology and media at the fringes of robotics, graffiti, space science, tattoos, rice straw and rock n roll. His inventions, pranks and community art projects have been awarded grants, detentions and awards, including the 2009 Interactive Design of the Year from Design Museum, London, the 2010 Golden Nica from Ars Electronica, the 2010 Excellence Prize from the Japan New Media Art Festival and the 2011 Swiss Art Award at Art Basel. James has shown his work in Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, premiered his first feature-film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and was the keynote speaker in 2009 at SXSW. James worked as an adjunct professor at Parsons The New School for Design, a visiting professor at the Kyoto Seika University Creative Lab in Kyoto, Japan and an Assistant Professor of Visual Communications Design at Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. James was the cofounder of the Graffiti Research Lab, the Free Art and Technology Lab and his own design studio, Nasa Factory, and currently works on the Advanced Design Team at Samsung Electronics.

Emerging values systems, resilient old technology and new reinterpretations of fundamental science are increasingly challenging the unquestioned value of innovation and the unbridled advancement of consumer technology. Far from a ludditic manifesto, this lecture will present a refreshing vision of how a future of big, old, slow, DIY and disconnected technology, from neuromorphic chips to rice straw craft, might bring more value and happiness into society and our individual lives.

James PowderlyBrave New Old

Brave New Old

James Powderly

Linda KwonRedesigning Design

Redesigning Design

Linda Kwon Linda Kwon is a designer and health design strategist investigating the systemic health impacts of food and technology. She is currently developing ways of promoting public health through design and media. She has a background in graphic design, integrative health and recently completed an MA in Design Futures at Goldsmiths University of London. She also writes for the London based graphic design magazine Eye. Previously in Korea, Linda taught social design at Kookmin University and worked for the UNESCO affiliated Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific. She was a coordinator for the Seoul World Design Capital exhibition about urban revitalisation and was a researcher for the Discovery Asia documentary ‘Smart City Seoul’.

Design has evolved to cover a much broader scope that is in part a reflection of technological advancement as well as the understanding of what design can do. In more recent years, we have seen a growing emphasis on conscious design that actively serves societal needs rather than simply serving industry and commerce. There is a growing wave of designers seeking greater meaning and purpose in the work that they do. The time has come to take a step back and evaluate the role that design has played thus far and identify the default systems that we are tangled up in. Within this context, let us reconsider the role design could be taking from both a broad macro scale to the individual micro level. I believe a synchronized approach is necessary that both exposes the invisible systems at work undermining our health and happiness, and simultaneously provides a way to re-vision our world and realize that vision. It is ultimately about shifting from living by default, to living by design, and fully recognizing the role that we as designers can play in this process.

Dr. Joonsang BaekWhy stakeholders matter in design for social innovation and sustainability.

Why stakeholders matter in

design for social innovation

and sustainability.

Dr. Joonsang Baek Dr. Joon Sang Baek is an assistant professor and director of the DESIS (Design for Social Innovation and Technology) lab at the School of Design and Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). His main research areas include design for social innovation and sustainability, and transformation design in order to solve social problems. He studied product and interaction design in the industrial design department at KIST and received his PhD at Politecnico di Milano with a dissertation on the role of ICTs in empowering collaborative services from socio-technical perspective. He worked as a visiting researcher at the Center for Appropriate Technologies (GrAT) in Vienna and at the Hope Institute in South Korea.

Systemic solutions are known to be more effective than products in addressing complex societal and individual needs and at the same time delinking economic growth from environmental impact. Therefore, the design outputs are often in the form of a product-service mix or product-service system (PSS). PSS helps stakeholders understand and fulfill their needs. Thus, within PSS, it is substantial to develop a sustainable design solution. In this speech, limitations of user-centered approaches in designing sustainable PSS are illustrated with the story of two cities. At the end, the notion of stakeholder-considered design is proposed with a case.