Design can, but design won’t
Danah Abdulla
About this video
Description
Over the past 15 years, the world has faced a series of severe disruptions—including economic recessions, the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, ongoing wars, widespread wildfires, industrial accidents and the unfolding climate crisis. Although the design field has responded to these challenges with new discourse and has broadened the discipline’s focus, meaningful structural change remains limited; efforts to adapt often appear superficial and cosmetic rather than substantive.
Trapped in a world that no longer exists, design education is fearful of change, producing 20th century solutions to 21st century problems. What are the possibilities of transformation in design education to ensure its relevance in the world we live in today? In this talk, Danah uses pessoptimistic thinking – teetering between hope and despair – to outline the issues faced by design education and presents possibilities for visions that are legitimate and viable.
Danah Abdulla
Danah is a designer, researcher and educator whose work explores new narratives and practices that challenge traditional disciplinary boundaries in design. She is a Reader in Anti/Post/Decolonial Histories, Theories, Praxes at the Decolonising the Arts Institute, University of the Arts London. Danah is the author of Designerly Ways of Knowing and Design Otherwise: Transforming Design Education in the Arab Region, and is a founding member of the Decolonising Design platform. She also founded Kalimat Magazine, a publication dedicated to Arab thought and culture.
Tag
Related
Robin Landa, Adolfo Ruiz
Sponsored
