Earth Logic Design

Imagine if design saw as its task to contribute to good and equitable lives within the limits of planet Earth – that is, imagine if design were earth-logical. Which practices, professional roles, collaborations, working models, kinds of education, economic systems, laws, norms, and indicators of success might be needed and arise?

This subproject stages a new, earth-logical arena for design where we will generate systemic and holistic understandings of how design can work as a strategic force for sustainability and generate ecological, social, cultural, and economic values.
This is achieved through collaborative research with cultural entrepreneurs in the fields of storytelling, performing arts, and craftship. The project will perform new speculative professional roles, investigate both local and global conditions for designers working as agents of change, and in collaboration with governance, education, and industry develop proposals for supportive infrastructures.
The subproject uses metadesign frameworks to investigate the interplay of design activities at local, regional, and global levels, as well as at product, system, and paradigm levels. As part of the new earth-logical arena, we explore the potential of understanding design as activities of learning, governance and languaging. The project builds on on findings from the Earth Logic and BOOST Metadesign projects.

Collaborative research

The subproject Earth Logic Design aims to generate concrete guidelines for and provide examples of how design for learning, governance and languaging can be used in a systematic and strategic work in for change. It will also focus on how the impact of this design activity, which occupies a new role compared to design in the conventional industrial context, can be measured and communicated.

Through co-creative research, the subproject will develop new and innovative methods, processes, working models, professional roles, and routines for design as a cultural agent of change. Additionally, the results of the subproject will be translated for use in other development work and research where design is part of transdisciplinary collaboration.

More specifically, the project aims to deliver

  • a framework for measuring and communicating the impact of design as agent of change
  • concrete methods for how cultural institutions can use design as a strategic agent of change and how its value can be communicated to industry, governance, education, and media
  • a resource providing concrete examples of how design can contribute to a sustainable and just transition, and a network of cultural practitioners working as agents of change.

Researchers from other universities

Kate Fletcher, the Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen