Design has the perspective of treating things as a “system” functioning rationally, scalable, and replaceable. However, the social movement in Minamata, for example, is also a human resistance against systemic design. By nature, design creates alternative realities and results in the transformation of the creators of those realities. Is it possible to overcome the social distortions that design has been involved in through the power of design?Translated with DeepL.com (free version) Lecturer Tomohide MIZUUCHI（Associate professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Center for the Possible Futures） Design researcher, project director, and associate professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology’s Center for the Possible Future .He is engaged in research to rethink the nature …

The primordial field is a ground where different things are undifferentiated. It is a place to rethink the relationship between people, the plastic arts, and the environment, just before the separation of art, design, architecture, and civil engineering. It’s also a place to consider how the plastic arts can be brought back into the larger biogeochemical cycle. Through concrete practices with ‘fresh soil’ and the insights gained from these practices rather than theory, the project presents the potential relationship between material and form, technique and place, and the possibility of renewing theconcepts of artwork and creation toward post-human art and life at the end of advancing inequality, conflict and climate …

If the work of aesthetics (the study of sense) is to discover and articulate new sensibilities through collaboration with people, objects, and nature, all different from oneself, then collaborative ‘places’ are generated in this process. I would like to consider these places and their design from the perspective of aesthetics. Lecturer Fuminori AKIBA（Professor, Nagoya University） Born 1966, Okayama, Japan. Specialized in aesthetics. He got a Ph.D (Literature) from the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University (Aesthetics and Art History). Currently, he researches what happiness means in a future society and what aesthetics and art theories can do to achieve it. He published several works including E no Kofuku (Pictorial Happiness: …

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, …

It has been a long time since well-being emerged as a goal to be achieved by design. Why is it that the focus is not on mere function or convenience, but on the “goodness” of being itself? This lecture will introduce the basic concepts of the “ontological design” trend that has been attracting attention in recent years, and explore its possibilities. Lecturer Toru KOGA (Kyushu University)Nobuhiro MASUDA (Kyushu University) Date Dec 20th, 2022: Opens at 16:50 p.m, Seminar starts at 17:00 p.m. JST. Online *Instead of inviting an outside lecturer, the staff of the Center will talk about the content as clearly as possible and answer your questions. Review When …

In a rapidly changing world, there is a need to open design initiatives to society. In this lecture, we will interpret “DESIGN WITH” not as a mere title or methodology, but as a fundamental issue that lies AMONG various dimensions, such as the diversity of people, humans and non-humans, and reproduction and non-reproduction, and look forward to another way of design that has not received attention up to now. Lecturer Takahito KAMIHIRA (Professor of Senshu Univ.)Design researcher and professor at Senshu University, born in 1972 in Akune City, Kagoshima Prefecture, completed the Graduate School of Art and Design, University of Tsukuba in 1997. After working as a graphic designer, assistant …

The expressions known as Bio Art/Bio Design have several contact points with ‘design’ because of the experimental procedures involved in the work and the incorporation of living things as elements of the work. In this talk, we would like to discuss the various aspects of Bio Art/Bio Design works or displays regarding the procedures, plan and layout. Lecturer Shiho Hasegawa (KeMCo: Keio Museum Commons)She specializes in modern and contemporary art theory (art history, design studies). She is particularly interested in the intersection of post-modern artistic expression and technology/natural science, from the perspectives of visual culture (film, video), media art, and bioart/biodesign. The completed doctoral programme at the Graduate School of …

Design is an alien concept to traditional East Asian culture, and modern design has been discussed along with the importation of Western civilization. However, for the professional designers who emerged in East Asia in the 20th century, the acceptance of design was not only one-way transplantation of Western civilization, but also an attempt at cultural fusion that aspired to create their own culture, creativity, and social change based on the long history of Eastern culture. We will consider the birth of professional designers through CHEN Zhifo, who studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and established the first design office in China. Lecturer Dr. ZHANG Jing, Lecturer at China …

It would seem that design cannot escape from the structure of pre-defined purposes and conditions. In other words, it only by being within this structure that the true value and order of design can be shown. This is not the case. Then, what is the intelligence of us who is natural born in such a way that we deviate from all structures, or rather, design of deviation? Lecturer Dr. Yukio-Pegio Gunji Professor, Department of Intermedia, Art and Science, School of Fundamental Engineering, Waseda University.http://www.ypg.ias.sci.waseda.ac.jp/index.html Date Oct 29th, 2021: Opens at 17:20 p.m, performance starts at 17:30 p.m. in Japan Time. Venue Online Review What is Natural-Born Intelligence (NBI)? According to …

Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) play a critical role in helping us understand the past, present and are helping us contribute towards a sustainable future. IKS is also critical to helping us better understand and reframe sustainability issues as related to sustaining human existence, which is a human need. Traditional discourse on IKS and sustainability tends not to focus on human needs. Human needs are often identified as infinite, ever-changing, dependent on circumstance, culture, or time. However, Max-Neef (1992) suggested that this is not so — on the contrary, needs are finite and universal. He defined nine basic human needs subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom. When …