A letter to all New Views Participants


Dear New Views 2 Participant,

As you know this year’s New Views 2 symposium is opening up our understanding of academic conferences. In keeping with the theme of this symposium - ‘conversations and dialogues in graphic design’ - and through its associated poster exhibition we hope, that collectively we will explore the role and practice of graphic design for the future. In order to realize this outcome, we are designing as many opportunities for people to share and explore ideas as we can; and this means we are going to be doing some things a little bit differently…

As you prepare for the symposium we would like you to be mindful of the following structure, which will be different than the traditional academic presentation/Q&A format.

PRIOR TO ARRIVAL
In order to help you prepare for the event and to get to know the interests of your fellow workgroup members, we will be posting submitted propositions on the website prior to the event for you to download. Paper-based proceedings will be available at the conference when you arrive.

THE PROCESS
1. Symposium presenters will be divided into themed working groups with like-interested colleagues. The groups will be charged with the challenge of exploring the core objective of the event – ‘where to next for graphic design?’ - within your group’s particular area of interest (e.g. education, social responsibility, history etc.). Please refer to the conference schedule for your allocated group and schedule of activities: http://www.newviews.co.uk/schedule.html

Please note that other conference attendees (i.e. those that didn’t submit a proposition) will also be participating in the groups.

2. Work groups will have 3 sessions in which to explore their topic. These sessions will be held concurrently with other themed groups and be held in the studios at London College of Communication.

In session one (Thursday 10th July), you will have the opportunity to present your core proposition or area of interest to your colleagues.

Presentation Time: 5 minutes
Format: Technology-free

Please note these are technology free presentations, although you may bring images, drawings, diagrams, etc. which you will be able to place on the wall in the studio. You may want to use these later during the discussion groups for further elaboration.

3. Following the proposition introductions, group members will then under the guidance of your group facilitator, be asked to set out to explore your area. Each group will be able to decide for themselves how they go about doing this.  (Please note that a student facilitator will be attached to each group documenting the event and gathering material for web casting during the symposium in order to encourage further dialogue outside of the event.)

4. On the following day, in the morning session (Friday11th July), you will be able to send out scouts to visit other groups and find out what they are doing, make comments and bring back information to your core workgroup.

5. During the final workgroup afternoon session, you will refine your ideas and prepare to present your findings/outcomes to the rest of the conference community as part of the final session. With your colleagues, you will decide what the core issues or agenda for research or area of exploration that is important for the future of graphic design.

Group Presentation Time: 10 minutes

Professor Richard Buchanan will provide his own thoughts as the last keynote of the event and provide a few pointers on how to move forward.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We fully recommend that participants use the event’s conversations as an opportunity to refine their propositions for inclusion in their final papers.

Workgroups will be encouraged to explore potential themed publications through this process. These could result in proposals for special issues of  journals, books, e-publications, exhibitions, blogs, etc. We are compiling a list of potential opportunities for individuals or themed groups to follow-up.

There will also be an opportunity for final, edited papers to be submitted as pdf files for inclusion on the website. Submisison details will be provided during the event.

Selected papers will also form the basis of a proposal on the subject of graphic design and its future for an edited book co-edited by the conference organizers.

PROJECTS TO SHARE?
Got a project you would like to share with others? We are aware that a number of people have projects that they would like to share with others. To help make this happen we are inviting conference attendees to submit PDFs with a maximum of 8 slides that tells the narrative of your project. These will be shown within the main lecture theatre throughout the breaks and before the keynote presentation.

Submit your projects here.

AND FINALLY…
We are committed to ensuring that this symposium and the associated events and activities, provide participants with the best opportunity to share, connect and explore issues that they are passionate about with their colleagues. This is a sharing, exploring and listening symposium and not a ‘telling’ one. We hope that you find this to be a beneficial, exciting and fun event.

If you have any questions or concerns about the presentations, etc. then please ask away. We are looking forward to seeing you in July.

All the best,
Teal and Laurene