[spectre] Call for Papers : "Artists in Industry. The Role of Design in the Digital Age" International Conference, Bucharest.

[Asociatia 2580]

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Call for papers

Artists in Industry. The Role of Design in the Digital Age.
International Conference, Bucharest, Romania
November 1 - 2, 2012.


Deadline for proposals: 23 of September 2012.

Artists in Industry, the International Conference on The Role of
Design in the Digital Age, will be held November 1-2, 2012, at “Ion
Mincu” University of Architecture and Planning in Bucharest, Romania.

The project Artists in Industry was initiated by 2580 Association with
the support of AFCN – National Administration of Romanian Cultural
Fund.


About the conference
Considered by many as being one of the constitutive texts of modern
design, the 1919 Bauhaus manifesto aimed to put into discussion the
place of the arts in the modern world. Its program was to reconfigure
and make significant  the role of visual arts in the context of
industrial production.

These same questions, but in a more programmatic way, had also
constituted the corpus of the ideological debate that took place
during the first years of the Socialist Revolution in URSS. The
“soviet model” was lately implemented in the countries of the Eastern
Europe. Although the presence of artists in industry was encouraged -
being seen as the only valuable contribution artists could make to the
socialist economy - the authorities of the time continued to emphasize
the expansion of production in the detriment of creativity and
innovation. Despite the fact that industrialization was seen as
materialization of socialist ideology - a driving force towards
economic development and modernization - it did not really succeed in
revolutionizing the structure of the production forces.

Living in today’s digital age and facing the problems related to
worldwide financial and economic crisis, questions related to the
status of art and design are resurfacing in various forms. If there
were voices affirming that once past the “information society” we
would enter a post-industrial era, some supported the idea of a
hyper-industrialized world. The latest developments in digital
fabrication and interactive systems are about to confirm the latest
suppositions. Trying to answer the questions raised by the digital
industry and economy, we are more or less required to strike a balance
between an analytic and a programmatic evaluation.

By using the theoretical tools that a historical analysis of design
phenomena can provide, we would like to encourage a critical debate
about the status and manifestation of contemporary design in the
current digital industry and globalized economy.

The main objective of our project is to provide a better understanding
of the problems a designer may face by providing the necessary
information and analytical tools for a better understanding of the
past, and by establishing a platform for discussion on the future of
industrial design. Put it otherwise, we would like to discuss the
relationship that exists between design, industry and economy, and
between design and technology in order to produce a critical analysis
of notions like “made in” or the newest “designed in/designed by”,
“sustainable design”, “open source design”, “collaborative process
design”.



The questions to be addressed are:
In which way the digitalization has an impact on the process of design
and production?
What was the role of the artist/designer in the industrial society
(being that liberal or socialist) and how does it compare to its
present status?
Can the definitions of consumer and user still be informative in the
context of a digital economy?
What were the design challenges in the industrial age and which are
the challenges it faces in a digital economy?
We welcome papers and posters expanding on or challenging any of these
questions.

Possible topics to be addressed in the conference include, but are not
limited to:
Design definitions and methodologies (art and design research,
practice based design, research by design, etc.)
Design policies
Educational aspects of design
Production issues and design (craft, industrial design, co-design,
open source, D.I.Y.)
Distribution and consumption issues and design (patents, Creative Commons).
Both theoretical approaches and study cases can be presented.

Papers and posters will be selected from the submitted proposals on
the basis of multiple peer reviews by the members of the Conference
Committee. Authors will be notified on the results via email by
October 1st, 2012.

Generally, 20 minutes will be allowed for each presentation and 10
minutes for discussion. A special posters session will be organized.
Every proposal for a paper or a poster has to be accompanied by an
abstract (500 words) and a short biography (100 words).

Conference committee : Bogdan Ghiu, Tincuta Heinzel, Augustin Ioan.

Invitated speakers : Janis Jefferies (Goldsmiths University of
London), Gesche Joost (UdK, Design Research Lab, Berlin), Zilvinas
Lilas (KHM, Cologne), Sophie Pène (ENSCI, Paris).

Important dates:
September 23, 2012	Deadline for abstracts (500 words) and biography (100 words)
October 1, 2012	Notification of acceptance
November 1 – 2, 2012	Conference

Submissions should be sent in “.doc” or “.rtf” format as attachments
only to Tincuta Heinzel at: conference[at]artistsinindustry.com.
For more information please visit the conference's website :
http://conference.artistsinindustry.com


Special note from the organizer : 2580 Association will grant
accommodation to all of the selected participants. Participants will
be responsible for their round-trip fares and living expenses during
their stay in Bucharest.