Updates

2024.2.1

The 29th Design Fundamentals Seminar, Science and Technology as Cultural Identity: on the case of East Asia

Science and technology sometimes reinforce the cultural identity of a country or society, such as the former Japanese home appliances and the US space exploration, to name but a few examples. While they have a high impact because of its obvious results, science and technology also have negative consequences, such as promoting patriotism. Using Taiwan as a case study, this talk examines the image of science and technology as a cultural icon and the role played by design. Lecturer Osamu SAKURA Born 1960, Tokyo. PhD, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. After working as a visiting researcher at the University of British Columbia, Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences, Yokohama …

2023.9.21

The 28th Design Fundamentals Seminar, Re-Designing Education: Opening the Landscape with Children to Society

Fundamental reform of child care and education is required. However, the oppositional relationship between the government and citizens, and between schools and parents, will only lead to the closure of the space in which children live. We will hear from a practitioner who started out as a photographer and turned a street corner park into a nursery school, about the re-design of education as a landscape open to society. Lecturer Sakiho SAKAI Photographer, Representative of ALBUS Inc., Director of Ifukumachi Nursery School and Goshogadani Nursery School, Representative Director of Welfare-Design Incorporated Association, Chairman of Furukogarasu Park Patronage Association. As a member of Kyushu University Children’s Project until 2009, she created …

2023.7.21

The 27th Design Fundamentals Seminar 'Feminism on the Street: Disruption of a Clean City'.

Urban redevelopment under the banner of ‘diversity’ and ‘sustainability’ has led to the eviction of poor and homeless people from their places. However, among the people on the streets, there are various detailed relationships of mutual help based on corporeality that are being stretched out. This talk discusses examples of activities and art projects that resist urban cleaning and cultivate their own place in the city. Lecturer Misako Ichimura(Artist) Misako Ichimura is an artist and activist who has lived in a blue tent village in a park in Tokyo since 2003, and runs a barter café called “Enoir” with other residents of the tent village. In 2007, she founded Nora, …

Contents

Outline

Design Fundamentals refer to the accumulation of thoughts that establish design as a discipline through fundamental consideration of what design is, its truth, value (ethics), and aesthetics. To realize this goal, we have established four pillars of research. The first is the practice of stimulating critiques that question design from its roots, the second is the development and practice of basic and common design education, the third is the clarification of design methodology and attempts to systematize it, and the fourth is the promotion of cultural diversity in design. The Center for Design Fundamentals Research aims to envision the future of design through these research projects.