CITY OF EXPERIENCES

George Brown College
Pandolfi, C.
The underlying goal for the City of Experiences project is to continue questioning how cities are constructed and who they are constructed for. The popular discussion and ideas around the smart city and tech-utopias are not new, although maybe the technology used to drive them is. What is needed now, as a society, is to stop waiting for the acceleration of technology to determine how we will live, and instead be active in creating the necessary platforms for society to imagine what experiences they see in their lives as a driving force for design. The City of Experiences is a project that, through different experiments and engagements, will continue to explore this hypothesis. The work from this exhibition is situated in the Interaction Design and Development program at the School of Design at George Brown College.

POST COLLABORATION AS A FORM OF COUNTER-CULTURE. The Birth of New Languages

University of Joannesburg
Adu-Agyei, D.
The three projects exhibited all show the potential that lies in the collaborative approach to the design studio. Our collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda and Ardhi University in Tanzania allowed our students to engage with issues that are broader than their immediate environment. Moreover, the studio also encourages students to use critical visual studies (Dee, 2004) as a tool to express themselves freely, producing a series of projects that are counter-culture to the traditional ways of how architectural studios respond to spatial issues. These projects aim to bring out the untold narratives (Spiritual, Gender and Political issues) of the spaces we inhabit.

DESIGN FOR SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN MEXICO. Living with Disabilities

Autonomous Metropolitan University
Yoshiaki Ando Ashijara, L., Jimenez Seade, H. A., Sanchez Ricardez, J. E., Fernandez Moreno, R. A., Garcia Gonzalez, A.
The Ergonomics Laboratory of the CyAD (Sciences and Arts for Design) Division of the Metropolitan Autonomous University campus Azcapotzalco in Mexico City, is con- formed of a group of research professors and students focused on designing, develo- ping and producing comprehensive systems that improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. Play objects, orthotics, prostheses and technical aids for motor and sensory disabilities are included. It works in an interdisciplinary way, in academic projects that address real problems of society, through the application of ergonomic criteria, which apply to social inclusion through product design, which contemplate concepts of accessibility and social sustainability.

NEW TEXTILE TOPOLOGIES. Experiments at the intersection of surface, textile and form.

The Swedish School of Textiles
Peterson, K. M. M., McQuillan, H., Talman, R., Walters, K. 
This exhibit presents examples of work by Riikka Talman, Kathryn Walters, Holly McQuillan and Karin Peterson, all members of the collaborative platform ‘Critical Textile Topologies’. Developed through experimental design research, the work of these four PhD students from the Swedish School of Textiles aims to propose alternative methods and systems in relation to textiles, surfaces and form. While these practitioners have independent research programs, their collaborative work produces cross-disciplinary multimorphic textile-form practices, resulting from a hybrid analogue/digital, 2D/3D approach, culminating in new, not previously exhibited work.

SELF-ACCEPTANCE TO SELF-INDULGENCE Fashion Styling & Image Design 2015-19

Pearl Academy
Gupta, S.
In an uncertain place, unknown depressed earth, where nothing grows in the damp shade. That is where they live. Where they grow from the inorganic, take root and spread until they become the other and the other becomes unknown – Shalini Gupta Historically when politics becomes skewed the arts and self-expression are the first to suffer its impact. Modern India has never been very accepting of the unabashed self. And yet, amidst this climate of hate and polarisation, a few young visual artists, have dared to break through the confines, despite its conservative family values and a conservative society, and presented themselves; their ideas, naked for all to see, the embodiment of the self-indulgent gaze. The self-consumed gaze.
An aversion to draw the viewer into a conversation. Almost cheeky, unconcerned with the gaze of the other. Self-indulgent explorations that appear to be caught unawares or are they posed to appear as such?

EXPEDITION 2 DEGREES

Zurich University of the Arts, University of Fribourg, Institute of Geography University of Zurich
Heeb, N., Jonas, C., Chow, N., Reto, S., Martin, H., Andreas, L.
Experts have been warning: the Alpine glaciers will have almost completely disappeared by the end of this century. Global warming cannot be stopped, although by global efforts the temperature increase can still be limited to not exceed 2 degrees. But what are the consequences for nature and landscape and what will change for us humans? Equipped with 3D glasses, the expedition members set off to explore these abstract questions in an Alpine environment.
The experience is intended to motivate reflection on individual decisions and efforts of the society, which in the end lead back to personal behavior. The project is originally aimed at school classes and includes a guided program in the classroom. Meanwhile, the project is on tour at various museums and events.

NEWCOMERS: Design for Immigrants 

Pratt Institute’s School of Design
Boym, C., Schweder, A.
Newcomers was a graduate course offered at Pratt Institute’s School of Design. For this course, students attempted to address daily problems of people living without legal status in the United States of America. (Their number is estimated at 12 million.) Chair of Industrial Design Constantin Boym and Professor Alex Schweder conceived the project in collaboration with The New Sanctuary Coalition in New York. Through this collaboration, students were able to speak directly with activists for immigrants’ rights and with people living in the United States without a legal status. A group of undocumented immigrants came to Pratt Institute as visiting critics to attend studio reviews.

DESIGNING FOR RESILIENCE. Creating New Possibilities for Industrial Cities

University of Monterrey
Perlatti, A., Huerta Fernández, C., Garza Sepúlveda, A.P., Gómez Díaz, M., Escalante Sánchez, I., Urquidi Díaz, M., Mehnert Stadeler, A., Villanueva Campoy, C., Cruz Morales, D., Cantú Ortegón, S.L., Lazo, A.G., Garrido, A.P., Pearl, A.P., Derbez, C., Sedas, Y., Martinez, L. Alvarez Moreno, A.C., Peñúñuri García, A.M., Leal Parra, F.F., Laffitte Armesto, L.J., García Fuentevilla, G.E., Hernández Paez, M. 
Known for its beautiful mountains and as the industrial capital of Mexico, Monterrey is also considered the most polluted city in Mexico. According to a 2017’s article from The Guardian “Pant by numbers: the cities with the most dangerous air”, Monterrey’s air may have more than 3 times as many ultra-fine particles of less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5s) as WHO recommended levels (36 micrograms per cubic meter compared with 10µg/m³). As University, we highly encourage our students to propose and design solutions based on the needs of our community, and we look for professors that will give them the support to search for these solutions outside of their comfort zones, aiming for innovative and creative proposals. Most metropolitan areas in the world suffer from the consequences of its industrialization: not only smog but also flooding, light and sound pollution.

UFO DRIFT: In Search of Practice

ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem
Van Den Boom, J., Cocchiarella, F.
A revolution doesn’t start alone, it’s a collaborative act with a wish to make a change phsyical, immersive and alive. Cumulus partners ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem (NL) led by Judith van den Boom and Manchester School of Art (UK) led by Fabrizio Cocchiarella present UFO Design Collaboratory.
UFO is developed to hover between the institutes, facilitating a collaborative mode for radical intervention and methodologies for education and practice. UFO creates pa- thways for test-sites, making space to listen and establish connections —all to inspire an affiliation of perspective and methodology.
Showcasing UFO ‘Drift’ and Brexit project ‘State of Unsettlement’.

THINKING

DESIGN FOR AWARENESS: User Meeting

ESDAP Catalunya
Serra Navarro, D.
The social impact generated by the artistic discipline of Design is one of the pillars that support the DNA of the Studies Final Works of the ESDAP Catalunya. In its four specialties, graphic, interior, fashion and product, different proposals are developed to put the user and his community at the central point of reflection and analysis to: identify, propose and evaluate different tangible solutions for the individual and so- ciety. This selection of 8 SFW’s mission is to show different projects with a common guiding thread: design as a tool for awareness, social transformation and awareness among users. Through different processes in which the designer-mediator is involved and in which the strategies and results of processes and artifacts that aim at em- powerment, social innovation in specific groups, and resilience.