Design: producing new social technologies
[des]
interface
Design an engineering response to a social and ecological issue that is affecting the region of Bambui, Cameroon. Consider issues associated with the Anthropocene epoch such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation, water usage, resource depletion, food production, sanitation, transportation, and loss of biodiversity.
How can you collaborate [col] to produce social designs that are flexible and responsive to rapidly changing environmental conditions?
What does the design process look like?
What does design thinking involve?
How are creativity and aesthetics involved in design?
What is the relationship between learning and design?
[col]
[jus]
Developing 'soft skills': theory-based understandings of the natural and physical sciences, including conceptual understandings of mathematics, information science, and statistics.
Engineering is a practice of 'applied, fluid mechanics' involving the 'fluent application' of 'established methods' and 'concrete structures'.
A 'creative, innovative and proactive demeanor' enable an engineer to work across 'multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary, and multi-cultural dimensions'.
- From the eth(n)ologist's fieldnotes, 14/7/2015
[aff]
We make things, test them, get it wrong, and keep going
We make using anything at our disposal
We build ideas to test them
By making something we reveal new potentials and complexities
We can prototype anything at any stage
We are biased towards action
We immerse ourselves in the worlds of others
We don't cling to ideas any longer than necessary
We hear the voices of those we are designing for
We resist interpretation and defer judgement
- From the eth(n)ologist's fieldnotes, 14/7/2015