LDA forum + international design day 2024 conference

IS IT KIND? CONFERENCE LIVE IN VILNIUS + ON ICOD YOUTUBE 

International Design Day Lithuania developed by LDA is an in-person forum (see below for more details) and conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. The conference, streamed online on The International Council of Design YouTube channel, will take place from 1:00 PM to 3:15 PM EEST.  

Register for the LDA event here. 

Watch the LDA conference on the ICoD YouTube channel.

The conference will be opened by Dominykas Karpovičius, Partner at Research & Design Agency THE CRITICAL, ISM lecturer and unprofessional philosopher, who will give a bird's-eye view of the theme of the conference and how contemporary design intertwines with kindness and humanity. Speaker Dr Dalia Čiupailaitė-Višnevska, researcher and lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Vilnius University, will present how social research can be applied to the design process. The conference will continue with Martynas Vitkus, Swedbank Accessibility Specialist and Social Activist, who has a visual impairment and uses a screen reader app every day that translates visual content into sound. Martynas makes it clear that this situation does not interfere with his life and will explain the importance of accessibility for people with disabilities. Dovilė Gaižauskienė and Saulė Norkutė, representing the Performative Design Association, will close the conference section by presenting two specific cases of performative design that combine sensitivity to context, unique creative methods, community and dialogue.

Dominykas Karpovič
Partner at Research & Design Agency THE CRITICAL, ISM lecturer, unprofessional philosopher

Together we will embark on a journey that expands from the nucleus of this year’s theme, exploring how design intersects with humanity and kindness in today’s world, unraveling its transformative potential for positive social change.
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With experience ranging from creating a professional basketball club to leading an award-winning startup, and from overseeing a restaurant business to serving in the diplomatic realm, Dominykas offers diverse insights. His perspective stems from deep contemplation of individual movement and observation of how consciousness moves.

Dr. Dalia Čiupailaitė-Višnevska

Researcher and lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Vilnius University.

Sociology offers a fresh perspective to design by examining the interplay of artefacts, behaviour, values, and social contexts. Studying how people engage with objects and systems, reveals valuable insights that can shape forward-thinking design and enhance the creative process. By utilising social research methods, design practice can be enhanced, resulting in the creation of user-centred experiences and even the advancement of technologies aimed at addressing acute social problems.

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Dalia is interested in how people experience and use spaces and places and form connections in their environments. Alongside academic research, she works with architects to create better spaces for people.

Martynas Vitkus

Swedbank Accessibility Specialist, Social Activist

My presentation is about what I know best - myself - and the importance of accessibility in the life of a person with a disability. This includes how I interact with the environment, what tools I use in my daily life, what solutions are helping and what solutions don't.

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Martynas is a digital accessibility specialist and probably the most important person in the Accessibility project team at Swedbank. He is completely blind and uses a screen reader every day to convey everything to him through sound. Although he has a disability, he is very clear that it does not interfere with his life. On the contrary, he is looking for ways to adapt. Technology, which he has mastered, is helping him.

Dovilė Gaižauskienė & Saulė Norkutė

Dovilė: Participatory design expert & co-founder of the Performative Design Association

Saulė: Member of the Performative Design Association

When asked about kindness we have chosen to highlight three aspects stemming from our work as performative design practitioners - sensitivity to context, the ways of creation, community, and dialogue. We will use two specific cases from our portfolio to tell a story of how these aspects emerge and intertwine in different stages of working with various communities in their problem site.

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Dovilė Gaižauskienė is a participatory design expert, initiator of the performative design direction, and co-founder of the Performative Design Association. Member of Lithuanian Design Council. Together with colleagues Dovilė initiated and implemented various projects focusing on societal challenges. Dovilė is bringing design and co-creation to policy-making and implementation.  

Saulė Norkutė is a member of the Performative Design Association. She operates in the field of performative arts and education. Her practice is heavily based on artistic and site-specific research and dialogue with communities and their members involved in the creative and educational processes.

LDA FORUM/WORKSHOP

The conference will be accompanied by a forum/workshop where using the "World Café" approach, designers will engage in a series of parallel moderated discussions on how to understand whether design is kind, what existing systems and approaches help and hinder the creation of kind design, how to incorporate kindness into our practices in a more meaningful way, how to distinguish between design that only just meets ethical standards and design that embodies kindness, and finally, what kind of metrics could be used to show the ‘successes’ of kind design? Answers will be sought, again by inviting not only designers but also members of the wider community, from a wide range of disciplines, to participate in the debate.

The workshop will not be streamed live, but the summarised outcome will be shared through the channels of the Lithuanian Design Association and the International Design Council.

The International Design Day event will take place in Vilnius, at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, on April 27 from 1 PM to 6 PM (EEST). The event is free and open to all, and it will also be streamed worldwide. 

OTHER WAYS TO PARTICIPATE

Create events around the theme locally: