The first-ever Open Design Forum in Hong Kong Dialogues and Actions to Co-create an Open Society through Design with Hong Kong Citizens

(Press release sent by Cultural Connections on behalf of Hong Kong Design Institute.)

The first-ever Open Design Forum in Hong Kong

Dialogues and Actions to Co-create an Open Society through Design

with Hong Kong Citizens  

 

(19 Nov 2014) Organised by the DESIS Lab for Social Design Research of Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI DESIS Lab), the inaugural Open Design Forum 2014, with a 2-day programme from 28 to 29 November 2014, aims to build an open platform to explore and develop new possibilities of an open society through design thinking and actions. HKDI DESIS Lab believes that the design process should not be exclusive to designers. In this Open Design Forum, citizens are encouraged to participate in dialogue on current local social issues with designers and international social design pioneers from the UK, USA, Italy, Sweden and Japan.

An open society welcomes all types of voices from individuals with different background; citizens are free from community burden while remain connected to one other. The HKDI DESIS lab invites over 200 citizens across different age groups and professions to rigorously participate in the Forum. Three Open Dialogues will be held on 29 Nov 2014, each session hosted by renowned international social design scholars. The first open dialogue, Open Language: You can speak design too!, will be led by Prof. Ezio Manzini and Prof. Fumikazu Masuda. The dialogue aims to break down discourse barriers among professions through design, so that the general public could easily get access to jargon which is normally only understood by a particular audience. The second dialogue Open Mind: Shake up taboo by design!, led by Prof. Lorraine Gamman and Prof. Pelle Ehn, attempts to break down the unspeakable issues in Hong Kong through the aid of design and to encourage a new perception towards taboos. With Open Heart: Bang! Bang! Design gangs! Prof. Roger Coleman and Dr. Patricia Moore looks for new perspective and ways of developing resilience among aging communities. The three sessions will be facilitated by groups of local and overseas moderators.

On top of Open Dialogues, two sessions of Open Actions moderated by two curators-in-residence encourage citizens to actively participate in the process of design: Mr. Pascal Anson leads an Open Light workshop to design light décor; Mr. Craig Au Yeung’s leads an Open Lunch and Open Coffee workshop to design their own meals.

On the 28^th November, attendants are also welcome to join the DESIS Showcase Hong Kong 2014, the open lecture on “Culture of Resilience” by Prof. Ezio Manzini and Prof. Fumikazu Masuda, and the book launch of DESIS lab.

 

Notes to Editors

Open Design Forum 2014

Date: 28-29 November, 2014

Time: 10:00 – 18:00

Venue: Lecture Theatre A001, Hong Kong Design Institute

(3 King Ling Road)

Event Website: www.hkdi.edu.hk/opendesignforum

Enquiry: 3928-2475

Free admission. Registration required. Please register via event website.

(Higher res poster download: http://goo.gl/Wc2OTM )

 

International Respondents

Prof. Roger Coleman (UK)

Prof. Pelle Ehn (Sweden)

Prof. Lorraine Gamman (UK)

Prof. Ezio Manzini (Italy)

Prof. Fumikazu Masuda (Japan)

Dr. Patricia Moore (US)

 

Curator-in-Residence

Mr. Pascal Anson (UK)

Mr. Craig Au-Yeung Ying Chai (HK)

 

 

Appendix 2: Biography of Speakers and Curator-in-Residence

Prof. Roger Coleman (UK)

Professor Emeritus of Inclusive Design, Founder of the DesignAge programme and Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art (UK)

As an ageing art, design and social activist, Roger Coleman has, throughout his life, retained a strong and guiding belief in making art and design accessible and understandable to all, and above all in the power of creativity to shape a better world through individual and collective action. In 1968, a year when revolution was in the air and he was shortly out of art school and university, he set up a community-based arts/performance/action group with a handful of fellow artists determined to challenge the elitism of the arts and what they saw as the divorce of creativity from everyday life under consumerism.

 

Prof. Pelle Ehn (Sweden) 

Founder of MEDEA and Professor in Media Design at Malmö University, Sweden

Pelle Ehn has for four decades (!) been involved in the research field of participatory design and in bridging design and information technology. Research projects include DEMOS from the seventies on information technology and work place democracy, UTOPIA from the eighties on user participation and skill based design, ATELIER from the last decade on architecture and technology for creative environments, and during the last years Malmö Living Labs, on open design environments for social innovation.

 

Prof. Lorraine Gamman (UK) 

Professor of Design; Founder and Director of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at University of the Arts London(UAL) and Co-director of the Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub, Central Saint Martins (CSM), (UK).

Lorraine Gamman is Professor of Design at Central Saint Martins (CSM), part of the University of the Arts London (UAL), as well as Visiting Professor/Research Associate with the Designing Out Crime Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has written many articles, most recently (2011) as Co Editor of Socially Responsive Design, a special edition of the Co Design journal and Sustainability via Security, a special edition of the Built Environment journal (2009).

 

Prof. Ezio Manzini (Italy) 

Chair of Design for Social Innovation at the University of the Arts, London (UK), President of DESIS International

For more than two decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Recently, he focused on social innovation and started DESIS: an international network on this same topic. He collaborates with the Politecnico di Milano and, currently, is guest professor in Shanghai, Wuxi, London and Cape Town.

 

Prof. Fumikazu Masuda (Japan) 

Professor in Industrial Design & Sustainable Projects at Tokyo Zokei University and President of Open House Inc. (Japan)

For the first half of his career, Fumikazu Masuda has worked mainly on projects for major Japanese industries, including electric home appliances, electronic devices, audio visual equipment, transportations, packages and many other products from various deferent categories. The latter half of his career has been dedicated more to work for local SMEs as a design consultant while studying and teaching at design schools , and as a representative of o2 Global Network, o2 Japan, which is an international network of eco-designers.

 

Dr. Patricia Moore (US) 

Industrial designer, gerontologist and author; President of MooreDesign Associates (USA)

Patricia Moore is an internationally renowned gerontologist, designer and leading authority on consumer lifespan requirements. Named one of The 40 Most Socially Conscious Designers in the world and one of The 100 Most Important Women in America, ABC World News featured Moore as one of 50 Americans Defining the New Millennium.

 

CREATOR-IN-RESIDENCE:

Mr. Pascal Anson (UK) 

London-based designer, maker and educator

Pascal Anson studied three-dimensional design at Kingston University. He completed his studies at the Royal College of Art in London in 2000 with an MA in Design Products.

He works across many disciplines in art and design from graphics to clothing to vehicles. Anson runs his own design practice and is a Senior Lecturer in Design at Kingston University in South West London. He is currently developing a book and television series on Design and Making.

 

 

Mr. Craig Au-Yeung Ying Chai (Hong Kong) 

Creative writer, cartoonist, experienced cross-media artist

Craig Au-Yeung is involved in radio and TV programme production on cultural issues, working actively in graphic design, art direction, comic and illustration. Au-Yeung also offers commentaries on travel, home living and food, his writings and comix works appears extensively in newspapers and magazines in greater China region.

Au-Yeung has authored books and hosted TV programmes on food and loves to cook. Recently, Au-Yeung started the Taste Library at PMQ.

 

Appendix 3: About HKDI and HKDI DESIS Lab

About Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI)

As a leading design education provider in the region, HKDI is committed to offering excellent learning opportunities to keep pace with the growing demand of the creative industries.

The state-of-the-art HKDI campus at Tseung Kwan O is an international award-winning architecture, designed to encourage a dynamic flow of people and ideas, and equipped with the latest learning facilities and exhibition spaces, to enhance the creative learning experience at HKDI.

Our comprehensive design programmes encourage active participation and nurture our students’ creative thinking, cultural sensitivity and global perspective.  Active collaborations with industry provide our students with first-hand knowledge of the latest industry trends.

 

About HKDI DESIS Lab for Social Design Research (HKDI DESIS Lab)

HKDI DESIS Lab for Social Design Research is a new cross-disciplinary action research group at the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI). HKDI DESIS Lab is set up as a research platform on social design – an emerging field that advocates a new approach to design: ‘designers as enablers of social change’.

HKDI DESIS Lab is part of the DESIS International Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) collaborating with over 40 DESIS Labs around the world. The network aims to advance international knowledge in design for the social good and develop social design practice to benefit Hong Kong society.

Officially started in summer 2013 on the behalf ‘Everyone can design’, HKDI DESIS Lab explores new design education modules and projects that respond to social needs. HKDI DESIS Lab brings together staff members and design students as well as creative citizens to explore the possibilities of everyday living through design actions.