Dates: 21-22 November 2016
Location: Royal College of Art, London, UK
Website: MEDIATIONS
Deadline for submissions: EXTENDED 15 June 2016
Theme: MEDIATIONS: Art & Design Agency and Participation in Public Space
TRADERS - 'Training Art and Design Researchers for Participation in Public Space' - is a three year EU Marie Curie research project examining different dimensions and roles of participation in public space. In the project's closing conference we would like to invite participants to join us in exchanging experiences and knowledge in the field of participation in art and design.
The conference will explore approaches through which artists and designers can pursue THE EMPOWERMENT OF PUBLICS IN THE DECISION-MAKING FOR, AND CO-CREATION OF, PUBLIC SPACE. Operating within the context of public space means dealing with discrepancies between a multiplicity of forces (e.g. political, economical, environmental, legal, etc.), concerns (e.g. social justice, privatisation, digitalisation, etc.) and actors (e.g. citizens, policy makers, urban planners, etc.). Artists and designers who aim to empower citizens in often 'AGONISTIC' SPACES [i] need to MEDIATE BETWEEN VARIOUS ASPIRATIONS in order to help bring about desired social and/or political change. Such a mediation can take shape in many ways: mediating between different stakeholders, between the client and the public, between different publics, between topdown and bottom-up, between theory and practice, between ideas and action, between imaginaries and reality, and so on.
The KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, USMAN HAQUE, JANE RENDELL, SUSANNAH HAGAN and RAMIA MAZÉ, will explore how designers' agency and attitudes towards the design and production of public spaces have evolved over the last decades; how issues of gender play a role in the use, behaviour and appropriation of public space by a multiplicity of publics; how different participatory approaches can reconfigure existing power relations in art and design processes, and how new technologies can promote greater citizen participation in the design, use and sustainability of public space.
More information about the programme and submissions can be found on the conference website.
[i] Mouffe, C. (2000) Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism. Political Science Series 72, C. Neuhold (Ed.). Vienna: Department of Political Science, Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS).
[ii] Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p.14.
TRADERS focuses on processes that bring together citizens, designers, artists, architects, policy makers, local social and cultural organisations, start-up companies, and industries. Therefore, the TRADERS conference invites participants from a wide range of fields to submit contributions in the form of ACADEMIC PAPERS for paper sessions, as well as visual contributions of PARTICIPATORY (ART AND DESIGN) PROJECTS for an exhibition.
Through SIX PAPER SESSIONS, an EXHIBITION and FOUR KEYNOTE SESSIONS we will ask:
Royal College of Art Architecture
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
http://www.rca.ac.uk
http://twitter.com/rca
http://facebook.com/rca.london
Location: Royal College of Art, London, UK
Website: MEDIATIONS
Deadline for submissions: EXTENDED 15 June 2016
TRADERS - 'Training Art and Design Researchers for Participation in Public Space' - is a three year EU Marie Curie research project examining different dimensions and roles of participation in public space. In the project's closing conference we would like to invite participants to join us in exchanging experiences and knowledge in the field of participation in art and design.
The conference will explore approaches through which artists and designers can pursue THE EMPOWERMENT OF PUBLICS IN THE DECISION-MAKING FOR, AND CO-CREATION OF, PUBLIC SPACE. Operating within the context of public space means dealing with discrepancies between a multiplicity of forces (e.g. political, economical, environmental, legal, etc.), concerns (e.g. social justice, privatisation, digitalisation, etc.) and actors (e.g. citizens, policy makers, urban planners, etc.). Artists and designers who aim to empower citizens in often 'AGONISTIC' SPACES [i] need to MEDIATE BETWEEN VARIOUS ASPIRATIONS in order to help bring about desired social and/or political change. Such a mediation can take shape in many ways: mediating between different stakeholders, between the client and the public, between different publics, between topdown and bottom-up, between theory and practice, between ideas and action, between imaginaries and reality, and so on.
The KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, USMAN HAQUE, JANE RENDELL, SUSANNAH HAGAN and RAMIA MAZÉ, will explore how designers' agency and attitudes towards the design and production of public spaces have evolved over the last decades; how issues of gender play a role in the use, behaviour and appropriation of public space by a multiplicity of publics; how different participatory approaches can reconfigure existing power relations in art and design processes, and how new technologies can promote greater citizen participation in the design, use and sustainability of public space.
More information about the programme and submissions can be found on the conference website.
[i] Mouffe, C. (2000) Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism. Political Science Series 72, C. Neuhold (Ed.). Vienna: Department of Political Science, Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS).
[ii] Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p.14.
TRADERS focuses on processes that bring together citizens, designers, artists, architects, policy makers, local social and cultural organisations, start-up companies, and industries. Therefore, the TRADERS conference invites participants from a wide range of fields to submit contributions in the form of ACADEMIC PAPERS for paper sessions, as well as visual contributions of PARTICIPATORY (ART AND DESIGN) PROJECTS for an exhibition.
Through SIX PAPER SESSIONS, an EXHIBITION and FOUR KEYNOTE SESSIONS we will ask:
- What alternative empowering practices exist in art and design that can promote citizen participation?
- How can artists and designers "make a difference"[ii] within existing/established distributions of power?
- How can they use their agency to empower others (e.g. citizens) to bring about desired social or political change?
- In other words, through what means, modes and/or practices can artists and designers mediate between multiple actors with diverse agencies?
Royal College of Art Architecture
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
http://www.rca.ac.uk
http://twitter.com/rca
http://facebook.com/rca.london
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