Networks of Design
responds to recent academic interest in the fields of design
history, technology and the social sciences in the ‘networks’
of interactions that inform knowledge formation and design.
Studying networks foregrounds infrastructure, negotiations,
processes, strategies of interconnection, and the heterogeneous
relationships between people and things.
Within the wider context of post-modernism
and post-structuralism we are, it seems, experiencing a paradigm
shift in design history and this conference offers an opportunity
to address, explore and assess that shift, providing a platform
for international debate and exchange.
The interest in networks emerges from actor-network
theory (ANT) and the work of, among others, the social theorist
Bruno Latour. While the conference will explore the wider
implications of ANT for design history, rather than focus
on detailed discussion of ANT (although this may feature in
some of the strands), a brief outline of Latour’s theory
contextualises the conference structure and themes. A network,
in Latour’s view, involves a set of negotiations in
which both human and non-human actors assume identities according
to prevailing strategies of interaction. The study of networks
raises the challenge of understanding processes of mediation
as interactions; humans are not the only beings with agency
(matter also matters) and networks can include people, social
groups, artifacts, devices, entities and ideas.
The concept of networks, with its expanded
notion of mediation and agency and its emphasis on infrastructure,
accords with shifts in design history away from a discipline
that studies prescribed objects, individuals and processes
(the modernist canon of design) to investigate wider concerns
about mass consumption, mediation, identity, material culture
and the meaning of things. Networks of Design will
encourage a more collaborative and inter-connected approach
to design (lateral as opposed to hierarchical) allowing a
variety of ‘takes’ upon an already versatile discipline
to be formulated.
The possibilities that network theory opens
up are timely for the study of design and its histories. Networks
of Design will explore and expand on networks within design,
which inform design history, opening up other fields of enquiry
and allowing exciting inter-disciplinary connections to be
made.
All proposals for papers will be double-blind
peer reviewed. The conference convener is in disucssion with
Brownwalker Press regarding the publication of the conference
proceedings: http://www.brownwalker.com
Additionally, selected papers will appear
in a special issue of the Journal of Design History on Networks
of Design.
Thematic Strands
Papers will be organised around five broad themes:
>
Networks of Texts including images, documents & databases
> Networks of Ideas including theories, disciplines
& concepts (among them ANT)
> Networks
of Technology including mechanical & virtual technologies
> Networks
of Things including material & technological artefacts
> Networks
of People including collectives & individuals
The themes will be composed of a number of
sub-strands that may include panels on particular aspects
of networks of sustainability, the media, gender, consumerism,
'race,' globalisation, communication, leisure, tourism, the
exotic, actor network theory, theory and practice, metaphor,
memory, cross-cultural networks, inter-disciplinary networks
(art, craft, architecture, design, science), professional
networks, networks of practice, narrative, or dissemination.
>
MORE INFORMATION ON THEMATIC STRANDS
>
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW A LIST OF IDEAS FOR THE CONFERENCE
PAPERS
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