Interaction Design Programme, Application process opened at CIID

 My colleagues at CIID, Copenhagen,  are looking for students to start their Interaction Design Programme in January 2013. This is a unique inspiring and creative environment where textile designers interested in future textiles, smart materials, new technologies, cross-disciplinary design and obviously interaction design could really bring much to the course.

If you are interested please see further details below and on CIID's website.

There is a rolling deadline but students applying before March 2nd will be given priority.

What CIID Looks For

As an education concerned with the broad potential of design and technology, the Interaction Design Programme is looking for a wide diversity of students. We welcome applicants from all over the world and from any background.

You should be curious and creative; enthusiastic about design and working in a cross-disciplinary environment. Whether you're currently studying or working, you should be interested in the connections between education and interaction design practice. We plan to have a class of up to 25 students.

Requirements

To apply for the Interaction Design Programme, you must have a prior university or college undergraduate degree (or equivalent experience) and submit an application and other supporting documentation. Qualified applications will be invited for a phone interview, after which we will make our final selections.

Perspectives on future sustainable design

Come and join us for this exciting TFRC research event at the occasion of Central Saint Martins' Green week on the 6th of February. Further details on TFRC's  blog.

Out of Control - 8th International Conference on Design & Emotion

London 11–14 September 2012

The organising committee of the 8th International Conference on Design & Emotion is very pleased to invite you to participate in this event. This conference is a forum held every other year where practitioners, academics and industry leaders meet and exchange knowledge and insights concerning the cross-disciplinary field of design and emotion.

We are looking for researchers, academics and practitioners to submit proposals.

Conference Topic

While Design &Emotion is the overarching focus of the conference–allowing us to consider all aspects of the relationship between human experience and design understood in its widest senses–the theme this year is "Out of Control".

For a number of years, uncertainty, crisis and chaos have been keywords describing the experience of many of us. A world driven by uncertainty, crisis and chaos demands different responses from design (as a community, a practice and a process). On one hand we can mitigate against these designing systems which can withstand, or manage, the challenges they produce. Here there is a focus upon design as a "problem solving" activity. On the other, we can use them as springboards to a creative future. In this way, design as "opportunity mapping" becomes important.

We would like to encompass both of these approaches to design and to examine how they impact upon, or are generated by, the whole spectrum of human emotion experienced at the macro (socio-cultural), micro (personal), meta (philosophical), processural (methodological) and strategic levels.

This conference is open to any theoretical, empirical or methodological work on Design & Emotion and we are particularly interested in receiving papers from researchers, academics and practitioners in the following topic areas (though they are by no means exhaustive and other work relevant to the theme will be considered):

 SOCIETY/CULTURE
Socially Responsive/
Responsible Design
Design for Behavioural Change
Design & Space/Environment
Design for Digital Media
Corporate Social
Responsibility

THE SELF/THE OBJECT
Design & Identity
Design & Well-Being
(incl. food, healthcare & love)
Design & Illusion,
Fake & Fraud
User Experience
(inc. Human Factors & HCI)
Experience Design

THE PHILOPHICAL
Design without Emotion
Design, Affect & the Materiality of Experience
Design, Magic & Enchantment

 PROCESSES, METHODOLOGIES, TOOLS & METHODS
Research Methodologies
Theoretical Foundations
Empirical Approaches

DESIGN, STATEGY & INNOVATION
Design & the Future (foresight/trends)
Designing Services Business Experience Branding

Deadlines

1 February 2012 -Papers & Case Study submissions

1 May 2012 -Workshops/Masterclasses submissions

Further details on the conference website

Vacant PhD scholarship "Complex Modelling"

Though it is not specifically related to textiles, I thought I would just mention this great opportunity for PhD studentship as it might interest some of our architects and digital crafting friends. The PhD will take place at CITA, Centre for IT & Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture from the 1rst of April 2012. The Scholarship is for 3 years and fully funded. The position is placed within the framing research topic Complex Modelling.

A bit more content is provided below with introduction to the context of research but for full details about the application please visit this link.

Over the last 30 years, we have witnessed a large-scale digitisation of archictectural practice. Contemporary architecture is almost exclusively produced using digital tools, and the computer has become a key tool in the way architecture is thought of, designed and produced. Today, digital tools have an impact on architecture on the most simple level to the most complex one. If on the one hand, the computer is a simple drawing tool that we use to represent our surroundings, its is on the other hand also the medium through which we seek solutions to complex contemporary issues that our society faces. It is through these digital tools and their potential to compute large amounts of data with a high degree of complexity that we as a knowledge society seek to find solutions to the urbanisation of mega-cities, globalisation and sustainability.

This shift has placed new demands on our represenation forms. The new information models that are able to actively calculate the economic, environmental and spatial effects of a proposal, have transformed architectural representation into a dynamic and flexible medium that is able to interface directly with outside knowledge fields. However, information models also have there own inherent problems. They become larger because they contain data from the many practices that constitute the construction industry, they become longer because they are expanded to include several of the building phases and they become deeper because the specific volumes of information, which the models must be able to handle, are growing.

This results in a dramatic increase in complexity, and leads us to question the fundamental ways in which information models are organised. If we as architects and engineers must work with large datasets and must be able to simulate and analyse these in ways that make sense, it is necessary that we consider how these models may be presented.

Today, information models are reproduced in accordance with architecture’s traditional development in three dimensions. As an automation of plans and section views, the 3D model serves as a continuation of the traditional architectural drawing hall. This PhD project will explore how other forms of information organisation may help to create intelligent tools for architectural design, analysis and realisation. To manage these digital models concretely and optimally, it is essential to have a critical understanding of how parametric and generative computer models may be developed and monitored.

Applications are to be handed in no later than Wednesday 1 February 2012 at 12.00 noon.

The Role of Material Evidence in Architectural Research: Drawings, Models, Experiments

The Role of Material Evidence in Architectural Research: Drawings, Models, Experiments, by Anne Beim and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen is one of the recent publications of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design and Conservation discussing what is regarded as valid evidence in arhcitectural research and how to evaluate these materials.

The publication gathers the results of the debates initiated during the seminar of the same name organized at the school in November 2010. It gathers texts and interviews from guest researchers as for instance Jonathan Hill discussing Design Research as a 500 hundred years tradition or Yeoryia Manolopoulou talking about Enaction Drawing. The book is also an introduction to on-going PhD projects at the school which range 'from tectonic inquiries into material qualities and properties to computational crafting and model making, to the creation and testing of theoretical models for simulation or articulation of tectonic principles in ordered pictograms'. A modest but rich contribution to the debate of practice-based research methodology.

With contributions by

Researchers

Jonathan Hill, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Peter Bertram, Billie Faircloth, Karin Søndergaard, Merete Madsen, Mikkel Kragh

PhD Students

Anne-Mette Manelius, Aurélie Mossé, Peter Andreas Sattrup, Ofri Earon, Nanet Krogsbæk Mathiasen, Jacob Riiber Nielsen, Søren Nielsen, Johannes Rauff Greisen, Jan Schipull Kauschen, Cecilie Bendixen, Tore Banke

Precise writing

Here I would like to share two references that will benefit PhD students in their writting-up period, especially useful for non-native speakers

Williams, Joseph M. 1988. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Scott, Foresman, & Co.

William Strunk, Jr., 1918, The Elements of Style

These are good tools to help you structuring your writing more accuretaly. Beyond reminding you about generic rules, they provide very useful vocabulary lists/examples.

New materials within a design professional and sustainable frame of reference.

Call for PHD fellowship

Kolding School of Design invites applications for a PhD Fellowship starting 1 February, 2012 or as soon as possible after that date. The fellowship has a three year duration and is in the field:

New materials within a design professional and sustainable frame of reference.

The position will be affiliated with the future doctoral school under the auspices of the Architect and Design Schools with place of employment at Kolding School of Design, Department of Product Design.

The project will contribute to building knowledge of new materials in a broad design sense within a sustainable frame of reference. The Department of Product Design comprises three specialist domains, Fashion, Textile, and Industrial Design, and sustainability represents one of the school’s strategic target areas.

New knowledge in this field intends to strengthen creativity and innovation in terms of education and practice, contribute to renewed self-understanding, and support design solutions to the many future challenges of product design.

The application should investigate the significance of new materials on design practice. The investigation should relate to relevant, existing, international research environments that work with material knowledge at the most advanced professional level. Moreover, in terms of methodology, the project should connect to action research and/or practice-oriented research traditions such as e.g. research-through-design. Furthermore, the application should explicate how the contribution will support the development of the three specialist domains of the department, including how it will strengthen the future development of design practice and create renewed professional self-understanding.  

The Application:
There is no application form. The application must be in writing in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish or English and allow for the appointment committee to be able to assess the applicant’s qualifications and potential for completing the project.

The Application must include:

• Project description stating the subject and the thesis and delimiting the theory and methodology expected to be applied.

• A preliminary timetable which includes any expected stays with other research institutions, organisations, or companies.

The project description must be a relatively detailed design presentation of the PhD project, while the timetable must be a brief outline of the expected course of study on a quarterly basis. The application, including notes, may not exceed 14,400 characters corresponding to approx six A4 pages.

Attachments must include:

• Copy of master’s degree diploma or corresponding diploma

• Curriculum Vitae and list of any scientific or other publications which the applicant wishes to present in support of his or her application

• Any recommendations

Where possible and relevant, attached should also be:

• Information concerning project specific teaching requirements

• Information concerning special requirements regarding equipment and facilities – including requirements due to any disabilities.

• Information concerning specific requests regarding main supervisor and project supervisor as well as any secondary supervisors.

Submission and Deadline:
Application marked ”New materials within a design professional and sustainable frame of reference” must be forwarded in 4 copies to Designskolen Kolding, Aagade 10, 6000 Kolding att. Research Secretary Lise Yde no later than 15 December, 2011 at 12 PM. An electronic version (PDF file) of the application must also be uploaded via the following link:

http://golf.hr-manager.net/ApplicationInit.aspx?ProjectId=65707&DepartmentId=7546&SkipAdvertisement=true

We encourage everyone regardless of their personal background to submit their application. 

FURTHER DETAILS HERE

For more information regarding the contents of the PhD Fellowship, please contact Head of Department Mathilde Aggebo, telephone +45 76 30 11 00 or mobile +45 21 42 77 04 (ma@dskd.dk).