New Views 2

At the recent NEW VIEWS 2 conference at the London College of Communication in July of this year (2008) there was some heated discussion in the Interdisciplinarity Cluster. (For those unfamiliar with the concept of a cluster, the closest way to describe it would be a dialogue group which met, debated, defined problems and issues and then presented their vision at the final session of the conference. See conference site for more details: http://newviews.co.uk/speakers.html)
One visitor dropped in for a visit after the group had met for several session and attempted to provoke the group (his admitted intention) with the declaration that Design is Dead.
We believe that Design in the old school is dead. What is soon to be outdated is Graphic Design whereby the designer enters at the end of the process and produces a material thing: an object. A poster, a website, a logo.

Interdisciplinarity is a given is design activity. What we can all benefit from is a closer examination of the methods, theories, difficulties and possibilities to form a stronger framework for how to be part of the shift that re-visions the role of the Graphic Designer in the current and next generation. In the Interdisciplinary Cluster we explored how to expand the role of the designer in the process.
We are looking to collect submissions from both designers and those who have or wish to bring a designer into their process for a special issue of MULTI (http://multi.cias.rit.edu/). We welcome submissions that are:
-theoretical
-applied
-pedagogical practice
-are we graphic designers/do we abandon this term?
-evaluation/effectiveness (how do we evaluate?)
-how does design bring together and integrate the views of science? psychology? economy? ecology? politics? etc…
-what are the factors of change? (i.e. social change such as feminist theory, technology…etc.)

Design isn’t dead, but it is at the crossroad of a new direction. Let’s explore the possibilities together as designers and collaborators.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2009
We encourage any inquiries or letters of intent.
Laura Chessin
lchessin@vcu.edu
or
Alex Bitterman
alex.bitterman@rit.edu