IN SESSION: talks

Design as a practice often works well in the playgrounds of others. The domains of design and foresight have been circling each other for a while now. Foresight has been moving out of long, dry reports and into practical demonstrations of worlds that may be born, whilst design now keeps a firm eye on faraway horizons as it grapples with the entangled implications of its actions. 

What does this tell us about the world we live in today, and how we might want (or urgently need) to change it? Join Charlie Warwick, Associate Director of Foresight at Arup, and pioneering industrial and interaction designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino as they unpack what makes Foresight and Design increasingly inhabit the same spaces, in conversation with the leaders of the RCA’s Futures Through Design course, Dr Rob Phillips and John V Willshire.

Design until recently has been a global business. With the new geopolitics – not to mention questions of sustainability – will design businesses become more local, national and regional? If so, what are the upsides and downsides of this shift? This session brings together two major figures in the global design business, who have both worked globally – but what does the future hold?

Watch this conversation moderated by Philip Dodd, Chairman of Made in China (UK) Ltd. With Gina Diez Barroso, pioneering Mexican entrepreneur and philanthropist, and Jack Godfrey-Wood, founder and managing partner of Heirloom.

https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/in-session-whats-next-for-design-global-vs-national/

In conversation, Contemporary Art Summer School course leader Dr Despina Zacharopoulou, alongside multidisciplinary artist Emma Fineman and visual artist and lecturer Dr. Giorgos Kontis, explored the dynamic theme of Ana-Meta-Materialisms: Contemporary art practice reinventing, rethinking and referencing itself. In an era dictated by the virality and mutation of information spread throughout social media, Artificial Intelligence, and the circulation of fake news, this talk will delve into the urgent need to reimagine contemporary art practice via processes of redoing, repeating, mutating, self-referencing and rethinking, that might give birth to new artistic paradigms.  

Ana-Meta-Materialisms: Contemporary art practice reinventing, rethinking and referencing itself

A conversation between writer and organiser Dr Lola Olufemi and curator, editor and researcher, Dr Laura Vallés Vílchez, introduced by Professor Victoria Walsh.

Exploring publishing as an expanded curatorial practice, this conversation between Dr Laura Vallés Vílchez (Senior Tutor, Curating Contemporary Art, RCA) and Dr Lola Olufemi (writer and organiser) considered Black feminist thinking and speculative imagination as radical political tools to envision new futures.

Why Publish? Publishing as Expanded Curatorial Practice

Hosted by RCA tutor and Typography short course leader, Adrian Shaughnessy, this session interrogated the work of three practitioners: Dr Charlotte Lengersdorf, Mark Webster and Jack Llewellyn, who are, in different and highly individualistic ways, shifting typography into a post-semantic realm of visual expression.

Typography Abstraction

In conversation, Dr Nicolás Rebolledo (Senior Tutor, RCA), Eva Guerra(Hidden Strategy), and Peter Neufeld (EY) explored how to lead these transformations and how organisations are leveraging design to achieve their most strategic objectives.

Leading Impact for Service Design

Adam Cheyer, the mind behind Siri, in conversation with Special Projects' Adrian and Clara Westaway about bringing magic to technology interactions.

with Adam Cheyer, Clara and Adrian Westaway

A panel discussion showcasing how design innovators are pioneering interventions and developing technologies to tackle the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world.

with Nadia Danhash, Dotplot and Know Your Lemons Foundation

A conversation between Ben Evans (Director, London Design Festival), Philip Dodd (Chair, Creative agency Made in China) and Nadia Danhash (Director, InnovationRCA). Together, they discuss their views on the issues that Design Education faces in the 21st century.

with Ben, Philip and Nadia

This talk, introduced by Professor Victoria Walsh, brought together internationally renowned media artist Refik Anadol and curator/researcher Linda Rocco to discuss the impact of AI and emerging technologies on established ‘art world’ norms, reshaping the conditions of curating and art-making.

with Refik Anadol & Linda Rocco

This talk brought together three independent publishers, all of them graphic designers to discuss the art, craft and practicalities of publishing books at a time when the world is increasingly turning digital and virtual.

with Adrian Shaughnessy, FUEL and Plan B

This talk brings together artist, Marco Brambilla with Daniel Birbaum, director of Acute Art and John Slyce, Senior Tutor, RCA to discuss how VR is changing contemporary art and the impact 3D imaging technologies have on the art world ecosystem.

with Marco Brambilla, Daniel Birbaum and John Slyce

This talk brought together Artist Kathrin Böhm, RCA Tutor Dr Gerrie van Noord and RCA Tutor Dr Rosie Ram to discuss the role of publishing, editing and writing as part of an artistic practice.

with Kathrin Böhm, Gerrie van Noord and Rosie Ram

This event brought together Dr Rob Phillips, Senior Tutor in Design Products at the RCA and Anna Meroni, Professor of Design at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, to discuss ways designers can navigate and trigger societal change for the common good and public interest.

with Dr Phillips & Anna Meroni

This event brought together Professor Ashley Hall, RCA and Professor Venere Ferraro, POLI.design, both experts in healthcare and wellbeing, to discuss the role of digitalisation in the healthcare sector using the perspective of the design discipline.

with Ashley Hall & Venere Ferraro

This event brought together three renowned figures from the visual arts to investigate the role of artificial intelligence in the production of creative visual work.

with Adrian Shaughnessy, Jessica Helfand and Michael Horsham

This event brought together Adam Kingl in conversation with the RCA’s Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Rama Gheerawo, to discuss new tools and perspectives about creativity and leadership. The conversation was hosted by Ve Dewey who comes from both the creative and business side of work.

with Adam Kingl, Rama Gheerawo & Ve Dewey

This event brought together Sir Geoff Mulgan in conversation with RCA’s Head of Service Design Clive Grinyer, to discuss sustainability, social innovation and policy and the role of creativity and design in building imaginative futures.

with Geoff Mulgan & Clive Grinyer

This talk brings together Dr Jiayu Wu in conversation with Martin Uhlarik and Rikesh Shah to discuss pioneering innovations incorporating human centred design in automotive, new mobility and public transport systems at scale.

With Martin Uhlarik, Rikesh Shah & Dr Jiayu Wu

The talk brings together Christian Bason, Danish Design Centre CEO in conversation with two academics who have pioneered social change through design research - Mariana Amatullo, Parsons School of Design and Jeremy Myerson, RCA to discuss about design and the future of social innovation.

With Christian Bason, Mariana Amatullo and Jeremy Myerson

This discussion brings together Jeremy Millar and Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery, about writing, curating and contemporary art, and the ways in which these practices address different publics. The event was chaired by Dr Rosie Ram.

With Jeremy Millar, Ralph Rugoff and Dr Rosie Ram

This talk brings together Dr Ben Cranfield and Patrick Flores as they consider the potential for contemporary art and curating to offer new ways of engaging with archives. The event was chaired by Dr Rosie Ram.

With Dr Ben Cranfield, Patrick Flores & Dr Rosie Ram

This talk brings together Lynda Gratton and Jeremy Myerson, they drew on their latest research about the future of work and shared ground-breaking ideas on how to ‘redesign work’ in the hybrid era.

With Lynda Gratton & Jeremy Myerson

This talk brings together editor and curator Dr Gerrie van Noord, Gary Clough and Richard Nash where they discuss the importance of art direction, critical writing and content curation in the construction of a portfolio.

With Dr Gerrie van Noord, Gary Clough and Richard Nash

This talk brings together Dr Rosie Ram (Visiting Lecturer in Curating Contemporary Art and Course Leader, Curating Contemporary Art and Design: Theory and Practice at the RCA) and Dr Zoé Whitley (Director of Chisenhale Gallery and graduate of MA V&A/RCA History of Design, 2003). The discussion will explore the ecologies of curating that sustain the production and presentation of contemporary art and design across local, national and international contexts.

with Dr Rosie Ram and Dr Zoé Whitley.

This talk brings together Despina, Marily and Dimitra to discuss strategies of empowering contemporary artistic practice in uncertain times.

with Dr Despina Zacharopoulou, Marily Konstantinopoulou and Dimitra Nikolou

This talk brings together Ninela and Oli to explore three themes that are central to a world-wide building back better: How can we create products, services and environments that are people-centred, stakeholder-inclusive and change life for the better? What is the role for design in enabling companies to identify and seize opportunities for innovation in an overstretched global economy? How do we ensure that solutions to the challenges of today have long-term sustainability and impact?

with Dr Ninela Ivanova and Oluchi Ikechi-D'Amico

This talk brings together Nick, Emma, Inara and Judah to share with you what it takes to create and deliver an innovation strategy, build the capacity inside your organisation as well as how to unleash the creativity and innovations of your customers, business partners and supply chain alike.

with Nick de Leon, Emma Frost, Inara Khan & Judah Armani

This talk brings together Gary Clough, Richard Nash and renowned graphic designer and publisher Tony Brook to discuss their individual practices and parallels between the progression portfolio and art & design publishing.

With Gary Clough, Richard Nash & Tony Brook

This discussion considers the ecological imperative driving change within design curriculum and pedagogy.

With Harriet Harriss & Delfina Fantini van Ditmar

This talk explores enabling conditions for system change, ecological thinking and social infrastructure, the role of designers and how far can we go to fix a cultural disconnection between the man-made world and the biosphere? 

With John Thakara & Jeremy Myerson

This conversation explores the implications of the global experiment in home-based work during Covid-19 and ideas relating to 'going to work', 'being at work' and 'leaving work' from the contrasting perspectives of Silicon Valley and the home.

With Frances Holliss & Claudia Dutson

This talk focuses on the challenges that founders face balancing their impact goals with the harsh realities of building a successful business, from offender rehabilitation, access to sanitation through to climate change.

With Judah Armani & Nadia Danhash

This discussion is about the emerging area of Creative Leadership, how the three values of Empathy, Clarity and Creativity can affect personal and professional practices.

With Christopher Patnoe & Rama Gheerawo

This session explores the opportunities people can collaboratively develop for constructing economies, innovation and generally skills that account for the planet and its natural resources as social assets.

With Henk Ovink & Laura Ferrarello

This conversation unpicks ‘Communities of Place’, a sociality cultivating a network of relationships that, after the crisis, could evolve into hybrid communities of place.

With Ezio Manzini & Rob Phillips

This talk explores the role designers should play in building a better post-Covid world, how a design museum might bring the creative community together and whether the extravagant claims of liberal institutions to cultural leadership can be justified.

With Tim Marlow & Jeremy Myerson

This conversation is about the importance of collaborative and inclusive Open Innovation (OI), its impact in London, the role of place in designing OI strategies and the importance of diversity and inclusion in OI.

With Laura Citron, Theo Blackwell & Nick de Leon

This session shares strategies for change, stories of challenge, celebrates success and voice aspiration. How can design open its doors and windows to a variety of experiences and cultures… and ensure that they stay open.

With Dori Tunstall, Carole Bilson, Mark Rutledge & Rama Gheerawo