This programme proposes to develop a community of practice including academics, artists, architectural and design professionals as well as government, business and industry in order to understand how people perceive and shape the world around them through creative practices of designing, making, building and inhabiting.
The programme aims, firstly, to rethink the concept of environment so as to situate the lived experience of engaging with our surroundings within a more encompassing ecosystemic context, and secondly, to reconsider the meaning of design in a world that is perpetually under construction by way of the activities of inhabitants.
A third aim of the programme will be to question the tendency to attribute the creativity of design to innovation rather than improvisation – that is to the novelty of prefigured solutions rather than to the capacity of inhabitants to respond with flexibility and precision to ever-changing environmental conditions.
The programme will run for 4 months from September 2009. It will include close collaboration with the Lighthouse in Glasgow and the Dundee Centre for Contemporary Arts who will host a touring exhibition of art and design related to the themes of the programme.
Programme team: Tim Ingold, Anthropology, University of Aberdeen; Mike Anusas, Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde; Simon Roberts, Intel Digital Health Group, Leixlip, Ireland; Ian Grout, School of Design, Glasgow School of Art; Anne Douglas, Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University; Emilia Ferraro, St Andrews Sustainability Institute, University of St Andrews
Register your interest
From here you can register for access to the group and document repositories.
Please note that registering for the group and document repositories does not guarantee a place to attend the programme events. If you would like to attend a particular meeting or event, please email the organisers to enquire about attendance. Some events may have only limited places available.
Learn more
If you would like to learn more about this programme, please email the organisers.
Listen to an interview with the conveners
On 17th September 2009, the programme conveners and participants discussed the aims and themes of the programme on BBC Radio 4's Leading Edge. Click here to listen to the programme.
Public events
On Friday 22nd January 2010, 6pm. Making New Worlds: Policy and Academia. This public lecture with Jan Bebbington, will be hosted by the DCA. Free and open to all but please book a space by email. Download a flyer.
Two public lectures will be held in November as part of the programme.
On Wednesday 11th November 6.30pm leading environmental and ecological artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison will give a talk entitled "The Little and the Great: from a Knoll to a Village to the Tibetan Plateau." This lecture will be hosted by the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall street, Glasgow G2 3JD. Download a flyer, or read more about the lecture.
On Thursday 12th November, Ezio Manzini, will give a talk entitled "Small, Local, Open, Connected: An Orienting Scenario for Social Innovation and Design in the Age of Networks". The talk will be held in Lecture theatre M405, James Weir Building, 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow G1 1XJ, from 6pm. Download a full abstract, a flyer or visit Ezio Manzini's blog.
Both events are free and open to all but please book a space by email.
Programme events and meetings
The programme will include four 2-3 day workshops (10-11th September; 6th-8th October; 10th-12th November; 15th-17th December).
Please note that participant numbers for these workshops are restricted. If you would like to attend and are not already in touch with the organising team, please email the conveners to enquire about attendance. IAS and programme organisers reserve the right to refuse entry to non-registered participants.