Alastair Fuad-Luke
Alastair Fuad-Luke is a sustainable design facilitator, educator, writer and activist exploring emergent, hybrid design practices. His books include Agents of Alternatives (co-edited), Design Activism and The Eco-Design Handbook. He is Professor at the Faculty of Design & Art, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. Between 2011 to 2016 he was Professor of Emerging Design Practices at Aalto ARTS, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland and a Visiting Professor at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, 2014-2016. His recent work embraced co-designing with communities in Finland, Mexico, and the UK, a European Union project on eco-innovation (SHIFT), open fashion design with Mode Uncut, and the not-for-profit organization Agents of Alternatives.
Dissonant design: positive disruptions, transitions and hope!
Design is in flux, as witnessed by a plethora of adjectives co-joined with design (co-/eco-/open/participatory/social/slow/transition/ transformation). To date, these niche modes of designing are having little impact on our dominant socio-technical landscapes and regimes as viewed from a Multi-Level Perspective. Can we adopt a more paralogical stance (after Jean François Lyotard)? Can we trigger system(ic) changes with a ‘dissonant design’ approach which fosters a healthy societal agonism and active-ism? What role might design f(r)ictions play? And, who are the ‘designers’ that might implement these positive disruptions, encourage transition and give hope?
Recommended readings
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Agents of Alternatives: Re-designing Our Realities, Fuad-Luke, A., Hirscher, A.L. & Moebus, K.
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How to Thrive in the Next Economy, Thackara, J.
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The Pearl Diver. Designer as Story Teller, Berltolotti, E., Daam,H., Piredda, F., & Tassinari, V.
Statements / Questions
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Which emergent design practice(s) are triggering system(ic) change?
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Agreement, agonism and/or antagonism – which design strategy would you choose for transition?
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How do designers tackle embedded power- and infra-structures which are against change?