[Air-l] A Decade of Webdesign - Register Now!

S.M.C. Niederer s.m.c.niederer at hva.nl
Mon Dec 6 05:56:01 PST 2004


A DECADE OF WEBDESIGN
A two day international conference
21-22 January 2005, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
www.decadeofwebdesign.org & www.designtimeline.org 
Conference registration: 
http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/practical_info.html.

A Decade of Webdesign
In 1994 the world wide web crept out of its scientific and academic egg 
and entered the first phases of popular consciousness. At this point 
the web design explosion began. Ten years later, we would like to stand 
back and attempt to map something of these years of frenetic and 
inventive interdisciplinary work.

What do we mean by web design? At the most obvious level, web design is 
about bringing visual organisation and power to computational and 
networked processes. It means organising sites by means of graphic 
elements and structuring devices. But increasingly digital media 
designers also work in the area of what used to be walled off 
as 'technology'. Designing is now as much about formal language, that 
is to say, code, as much as it is about more subjective, free-form 
or 'natural' and visual languages. Designers make and link digital 
processes which are then taken up by social processes. They do this 
with a sensibility that is as much in dialogue with technicity as with 
a visual aesthetic or a model of communication.

Until recently web design discourses have been dominated by a frantic, 
market driven search for the latest and coolest. The ongoing media buzz 
around 'demo design' has prevented serious scholarship from happening. 
Technical innovations such as frames, Shockwave, Flash, WAP and 3G have 
dominated the field. Until 2001 a substantial part of the sector's 
activities was geared towards instruction and consultancy. The dotcom 
crash and IT slump have cleared the field - but not necessary in 
positive ways. Due to budget cuts some firms now believe they can do 
without design altogether. Instead of asking ourselves what the Next 
Big Thing will be, we firmly believe that future design can be found in 
the understanding of a recent past that offers a rich mix of utopian 
concepts and undigested controversies.

In short, this ten years of web design has seen design change as much 
as it has seen the impact of a new form of global media. We want to 
celebrate this and to use a consideration and testing of the recent 
past to provide a platform for thinking about what is to come. In this, 
the conference will be unprecedented, the first event of its kind.

SESSIONS

Histories of Web Design
What do social, technical and cultural historians propose as ways to 
make an account of the last decade?

Meaning Structures
As automated site-design becomes increasingly important, the history of 
the interweaving of technology and culture up to the point of semantic 
engineering is mapped out.

Modeling the User
Creativity and usability have often been set up as the two key poles of 
web design. This panel asks instead for a more sophisticated narrative 
about the change in understanding of user needs and desires over the 
last ten years.

Digital Work
Can we redesign work? From economics, sociology and design, key 
observers and critics of the changing patterns of work in web design 
will comment on the decade and encourage you to have your say.

Distributed Design
The web amplified an explosion of non-professional design. This panel 
will ask what happens to design once it becomes a non-specialist 
network process.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Geke van Dijk, Rosalind Gill, Michael Indergaard, John Chris Jones, 
Olia Lialina, Peter Luining, Peter Lunenfeld, Adrian MacKenzie, 
Franziska Nori, Danny O'Brien (NTK), Steven Pemberton, Helen Petrie, 
Schoenerwissen/OfCD, Hayo Wagenaar. The conference programme and the 
speakers’ biographies are available online at 
http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/programme.html.

DESIGN HISTORY TIMELINE

Make Web History at www.designtimeline.org
As a core part of the project, beginning before and continuing after 
the conference we have initiated an open research website/database into 
the first decade of webdesign. The online forum is a visual and textual 
timeline generated out of a self-customisable questionnaire. Using a 
custom content management system the site allows for users to add 
images, comments and links to make a collective history of the web as 
it developed. Such elements might include histories of their own first 
homepage; the first use of a technology; original html code; 
reminiscences of key designers, innovators, critics and technologists. 
Using a question based interface users can write their own questions 
and respond to those of others. All questions entered will then be 
available, ensuring that no one set of views or way of writing 
predominates. The site is designed for use both by the general public 
and as a simple structured tool which can be used for research and 
teaching. The site started on October 1, 2004 and will continue for six 
months after the conference, at which point it will be archived and 
remain publicly available.

During the conference breaks you are invited to prepare a short 
presentation of Timeline hotspots based on your responses in the 
www.designtimeline.org website.


PRACTICAL INFORMATION

A Decade of Webdesign
Two day international conference
Friday 21 and Saturday 22 January, 2005.

Location
The conference will take place in 11, located on the top floor of the 
TPG-building / Post CS, Oosterdokskade 5, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 
http://www.ilove11.nl

Entrance fee
30 euros per day / 50 euros for two days.
Students: 17,50 / 30 euros
Conference dinner: 30 euros

Registration
For registration please visit 
http://www.decadeofwebdesign.org/practical_info.html .

A Decade of Webdesign is an initiative of:
Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academie 
Hogeschool Rotterdam http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdma/ 
Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam Interactive 
Media http://www.networkcultures.org 
In collaboration with: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 
http://www.stedelijk.nl

A Decade of Webdesign and the Design History Timeline are supported by: 
Gemeente Amsterdam, Dienst Maatschappelijke Ontwikkeling, Afdeling 
Kunst & Cultuur Mondriaan Foundation Digitale Pioniers Thuiskopiefonds

For further information about the conference and press, please contact: 
Sabine Niederer at sabine at networkcultures.org or Kim van Haaster at 
kim at networkcultures.org.

For further information about the Design History Timeline, please 
contact: Femke Snelting at snelting at geuzen.org.

Graphic design: Léon Kranenburg & Loes Sikkes.

-- 
Sabine Niederer
Institute of Network Cultures
Amsterdam Media Reseach Centre
www.networkcultures.org
Phone: +31 (0)20 5951866
Fax: +31 (0)20 5951840





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