[Air-L] CFP --- Changing the Change Conference

[Ken Friedman]

10-12 July 2008

CHANGING THE CHANGE: DESIGN VISIONS, PROPOSALS AND TOOLS

An international conference on the role and potential of design 
research in the transition towards sustainability

Torino, Italy

http://www.changingthechange.org

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Organised by Co-ordination of Italian Design Research Doctorates

in cooperation with the

Conference of Italian Design Faculty Deans and Programme Heads

In the framework of WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL TORINO 2008

An ICSID initiative of the IDA

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Endorsed by the Design Research Society

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The conference "Changing the Change" seeks to make a significant 
contribution to a necessary transformation that involves changing the 
direction of current changes toward a sustainable future. It 
specifically intends to outline the state-of-the-art of design 
research in terms of visions, proposals and tools with which design 
can actively and positively take part in the wider social learning 
process that will have to take place. At the heart of the conference, 
design researchers will present concrete and documentable research 
results. This will be complemented by invited keynote speaker 
presentations that will help paint a clearer picture of the common 
ground from which the conference will take off.

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AIMS

The conference seeks to make a significant contribution to the 
twofold transformation underway. It specifically intends to outline 
the state-of-the-art of design research in terms of vision, proposals 
and tools with which design can actively and positively take part in 
the wider social learning process that we refer to as "changing the 
change." The conference has a double aim:

- to consolidate a design research culture and practice oriented 
towards a constructive critical attitude able to reach all design 
disciplines. The conference intends to focus on the way in which the 
question of "changing the change" is present and widespread 
throughout the research community and in relation to all design 
fields: from product design to communication design; from interior 
design to interaction, service and strategic design; from social 
design to fashion design.

- to outline the state-of-the-art of contributions that design 
research is today able to bring to social conversation about the 
future. The conference seeks to bring visibility to significant 
results. This with particular attention to visions of the future, to 
feasible solutions and to tools to help bring them into being. It 
will also enable us to make of the conference and its published 
output a tool for communication with the outside world; a tool able 
to demonstrate what design research can offer today to help 
re-orientate the transformation underway.

In view of these aims, the conference will centre on the presentation 
of research results that could make a positive contribution to 
'changing the change'. It will welcome contributions that take as 
their starting point transformations that have already taken place 
and those underway, and the necessity to re-orient them towards more 
sustainable outcomes. It hopes to present the widest range of 
possible world visions, feasible proposals and the design tools that 
could bring them into being.

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THEMES

The field of interest of the conference is vast and will be divided 
into various specific themes within which more precise, focused 
discussion will be possible. This organisation into specific themes 
will be undertaken after contributions have been selected, so as to 
take into account what will actually be proposed. For the moment we 
only indicate an initial, general division into the three themes 
already introduced: visions, proposals and tools. Visions: this 
section will present research results that lead us to imagine 
possible worlds, or parts of possible worlds. It includes the results 
of activities in the field of scenario design and more general 
visions produced by research into specific products, communications 
and services. It also includes a comparative analysis of visions 
emerging from design history and from a comparison of different 
cultures.

Proposals: this section presents results of design research that give 
rise to concrete solutions containing elements of systemic 
innovation. They are also legible as concrete steps towards a new 
generation of sustainable products, services and systems. So, 
products, services and product and service systems are proposed along 
with the communicative artefacts that link several actors and 
artefacts together. It also proposes places for a new everyday life, 
the activities that take place within them and the new production and 
consumption networks that emerge from them. Tools: this section 
presents the results of research that aims to redefine and develop 
conceptual and operational tools which enable designers to operate 
within change and influence its direction. Such tools enable them to 
participate constructively in new design networks, and deal with 
emerging problems. Tools may be proposed for conceptualisation and 
representation, for calculation and appraisal of results or for 
stimulation and prototype making.

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AUDIENCE

The conference will mainly be a meeting point for academics, 
researchers and research students in the field of design theory and 
practice. However, in uniting a high academic level with the effort 
to present concrete results of activities carried out, it will also 
be of considerable interest to the wider design community and to 
those economic and social operators who recognise the potential of 
design practice and design research.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstracts should be between 500 and 700 words long, excluding the 
bibliography. The deadline for the reception of abstracts is January 
21, 2008. Reception of abstracts will be acknowledged and notices of 
acceptance or rejection will be sent by March 3, 2008. The abstracts 
will be evaluated and selected by a blind peer review process. Full 
papers are limited to 6000 words. The deadline for full papers is on 
May 26, 2008.

Selection criteria

The abstracts will be evaluated and selected by a blind peer review 
process. Coherently with the conference aims, the Peer Review 
Committee will base its decisions on three major criteria: (1) 
relevance to the topics of "Changing the change"? as outlined below 
and in the website, (2) focalisation, in terms of clarity of the 
vision, of the proposal or the design tool and theory they present, 
and (3) reliability, in terms of the quality of the design research 
on which the paper is based.

More precisely:

- abstracts must be clearly defined as visions, proposals or design 
tools and theories (please select the proper option at the head of 
the abstract template and delete the others) : visions refer to 
scenarios of possible worlds, or parts of possible worlds; proposals 
present specific solutions to specific problems; tools and theories 
introduce conceptual and operational devices enabling designers to 
operate in contemporary contexts.

- abstracts must clearly refer to the contemporary context and to its 
on-going transformations (considering the different ways they are 
taking place in different regions of the world). In this framework, 
they should present design research results that, moving from a deep 
understanding of these transformations, propose a design contribution 
involving a re-orientation towards more sustainable directions.

- abstracts must present design research results and clearly indicate 
the specific research programme they are based on (with its aims, 
methodology and main actors). Given these three pre-requisites, 
abstracts (and the papers that will follow) can deal with any topics 
in any design fields: from product to communication; from interior to 
interaction; from service to strategy; from social design to fashion.

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CALL FOR VISUALISATIONS

Special consideration will be dedicated to abstracts/papers 
presenting design research projects with highly communicative visual 
results.

Therefore, together with the abstract/paper, a visualisation can be 
submitted as material for an exhibition that will be organized 
parallel to the Conference.

The visualisations do not substitute the papers. To be accepted for 
evaluation they have to refer to a paper that has to be selected by 
the Peer review Committee.

The conference will host an exhibition based on the visualisations 
proposed by selected papers. These visualisations are not the 
traditional scientific posters. They are visual presentations of 
design research results. They have to show visions of possible worlds 
and proposals for sustainable solutions. Whoever intends to deliver a 
visualisation must submit a first draft together with the abstract of 
the paper presenting the research on which the visualization is 
based. (Deadline: January 21, 2008)

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PUBLICATIONS

All selected and presented papers will be published on line, and 
placed in the conference website in printable form.

A special peer review jury will adjudicate the best papers
submitted. The best papers and the presentations of the keynote 
speakers will be published in book form.

http://www.changingthechange.org

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