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TASA-ICoD international conference on evolving design education conference 2024 qingdao (china) recap

04.11.2024 Announcements

The TASA-ICoD International conference on Evolving Design Education Conference 2024 Qingdao (China) was a collaboration between the International Council of Design and Tsinghua University to address the need for design education curriculum reform and enhance interaction between Chinese and international designers and design educators. The meeting was co-directed by Prof. Chao Zhao and David Grossman.

Tsinghua University Qingdao (China) location of the TASA-ICoD International Conference on Evolving Design Education Curricula meeting 2024

On 17-18 October 2024, representatives from 28 Member organisations from 16 countries gathered in Qingdao (China) for the Council's first TASA-ICoD International Conference on Evolving Design Education Curricula meeting, a place for ICoD Members to gather to explore common challenges and action for change in a participative format. The TASA-ICoD International Design Education Laboratory was established by Tsinghua University and ICoD. The event was co-directed by Professor Chao Zhao and David Grossman, to address the need for design education curriculum reform and enhance interaction between Chinese and international designers and design educations. The programme included keynote speeches from designers and scholars Anthony Dunne (Professor of Design and Social Inquiry, Parsons - The New School, USA), Bruce Tharp (Professor of Design, University of Michigan, USA), Keith Murphy, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, USA) and Alison Clarke (Professor of Deign History, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria); and reflections on the TASA-ICoD International Design Education Laboratory, which incorporated an EduLab Summer Session Roundtable discussion; a Speed dating activity to establish introductions among Members and participants; a roundtable for Education Curriculum Evolution, and Practice and the Design Discourse; followed by a Q&A on Codes of Conduct: Impact on education curriculum and practice and a roundtable discussion on current challenges facing Chinese design education Q&A; the ceremonies concluded with a presentation on the 2025 Platform Meeting to be held in Ahmedabad (India).

The EduLab Summer Session Roundtable discussion unpacked the possible outcomes on future design curriculum. Led by Chao Zhao and David Grossman, the participants included Prof. Ming Cao, Prof. Tom Kwan, Prof. Bo Zhao, Prof. Tanishka Kochru, Prof. Younghwan Pan and Michal Pauzner.

The four keynote presentations gave new perspectives on how design might conceive and realise alternate futures. Anthony Dunne presented speculative design models in which design is shaping new worlds, offering a glimpse at parallel worlds that challenge what is possible, what is here, just not-yet. Bruce Tharp discussed the concept he and his partner Stephanie Tharp have developed: discursive design as a broad theory of design that can encompass a multiplicity of emerging genres. Additionally, Tharp gave participants a preview into their current research on design energetics and frequencies, what the Tharps's call "the umwelt of the computor." Keith Murphy asked, What is designing as a human and social activity? a provocation to reconfigure design as a social and relational . As a social act of "form-giving" design gives form to the world in ways that are unconscious and socialised, intuitive and situated. Alison Clarke's critical talk on the legacy and significance of Victor Papanek's book Design for the Real World (1971) emphasised the intensification of global crises Papapek predicted, broadening our thinking on how design can be perceived and taught to further challenge Eurocentric models and connect with the critical disciplinary methodologies of history, ethnography, and art.

Keynote speakers Anthony Dunne (Professor of Design and Social Inquiry, Parsons - The New School, USA) and Bruce Tharp (Professor of Design, University of Michigan, USA) (above) appeared virtually, while Keith Murphy, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, USA) (left) and Alison Clarke (Professor of Deign History, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria) (right) presented and participated in-person.

The speed dating activity established introductions and information exchange among Members and participants early on.

The Roundtable: Practice and the Design Discourse brought together 11 representatives of design associations and industry from Lithuania, Finland, Turkey, Malaysia, Canada, Poland, Indonesia, Vietnam and China to discuss the current challenges facing design practitioners. Participants included Algirdas Oranhas, Anssi Kähärä, Melike Tascioglu Vaughan, Zel Zainoor, Johnathon Strebly, Olena Pianovska, Adprimo Rizky, Hõ Trong Minh, Difei Wang, Yong Mao and Shenghua Liang.

The Roundtable: Education Curriculum Evolution participants included school representatives from UK, Zimbabwe, Turkey, China, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia: Dr. Savithri Bartlett, Saki Mafundikwa, Prof. Alpay Er, Prof. Du Quin, Prof. Lulu Zhao, Prof. Ziyuan Wang, Prof. Lu Peng, Prof. Don Ryun Chang, Prof. Tonya Meyrick, Prof. Cahya Dauly, and Peter Childs.

Prof. Tonya Meyrick at the Roundtable: Education Curriculum Evolution

Melike Tascioglu Vaughan (left), Saki Mafundikwa (middle), and Don Ryun Chang (right)

Roundtable: Practice and the Design Discourse and a Q&A on Codes of Conduct: Impact on education curriculum and practice led Ana Masut (ICoD). Participants included Olena Pianovska, Peter Florentzos, Jonas Liugaila, Anssi Kähärä, Arez Esman, and Melike Tascioglu Vaughan.

Roundtable discussion on current challenges facing Chinese design education curriculum, including participants: Dengkai Chen, Tom Kvan, Ming Cao, Xiaoling Wu, Liang Xie, Jiangfeng Yu, Zhen Li, Qunye Gu, Yixin Zou, Lu Zhao and Lu Peng.