Event

Cost: $40 for general admission; $20 for students, please show student card at the door.

Date: Tuesday 24 November

Time: 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start

Venue: Ainslie Arts Centre

Address: 38 Elouera Street, Braddon

Bookings: Buy tickets online at www.bit.ly/designbuzz

 

Not quite a lecture and not quite a debate, DESIGN Buzz is an opportunity to discuss some of the big questions facing the world of design. This event series, held over two nights, will bring together some of the best designers, craftspeople and thinkers from across the world to share their thoughts on design in relation to issues including collaboration, place making, sustainability and the future.

 

Emcee: Jen Webb (ACT)

Jen Webb is the Director of the University of Canberra Centre for Creative and Cultural Research. Holding a PHD in cultural theory and a Doctor of Creative Arts in creative writing, her research interests focus on the connection between ‘artistic production and the wider social domain, including how representations are made in art, creative writing and other cultural texts.’’ She shares responsibility for the Australian Postgraduate Writers Network, an online community and repository of information. Jen has been working as an academic since the 1990s and publishing work since the 1980s, including short-prose fiction pieces and poems, in Australia and abroad. She also produces handmade books, and has exhibited these in Australia and Hong Kong.

 

Session 1: Placemaking and Culture

Speakers: Professor Jessica Hemmings and Lucy Simpson

Is there an Australian design culture? If so, what are the main influences on its development? How does our physical environment and the materials at hand inform and influence the way we design? Join Kevin O’Brien, Architect behind the Finding Country Exhibition, and Professor Jessica Hemmings, Professor of Visual Culture and Head of the School of Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, to discuss the relationship between placemaking and cultural identity and the impact of the international flow of cultural and artistic ideas and influences.

Professor Jessica Hemmings (UK)

Jessica Hemmings is Professor of Visual Culture and Head of the School of Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She writes, curates and lectures about textiles and their role within culture and society. Her most recent editorial project, Cultural Threads (Bloomsbury: 2015), considers contemporary artists and designers who work at the intersection of multiple cultural influences and use textiles as their vehicle. She is the co-editor of Make Believe, an online journal that fosters innovative writing about craft and design. Jessica curated ‘Migrations’, an international exhibition touring throughout 2015, exploring the portability of textiles and the notion of textiles as carriers of multiple cultural influences.

Lucy Simpson (NSW)

Lucy Simpson is a Sydney-based artist / designer with a focus on storytelling and narrative; sharing aspects of country and contemporary South Eastern Aboriginal culture. She is a Yuwaalaraay woman belonging to the freshwater country of the Walgett Lightning Ridge and Angledool areas of North West New South Wales, an area from which she draws inspiration for much of her work. She founded design studio and textiles label ‘Gaawaa Miyay’ in 2009 and continues as the Artistic Director and Principal Designer.

Lucy has exhibited works in group shows at Object Australian Design Centre, Blacktown Arts Centre, Casula Powerhouse, as part of the London Design Festival and at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad India and is currently showing new works in Primavera – the Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual show of young Australian artists. In 2013 Lucy’s practice was documented on the National Indigenous Television series Colour Theory with Richard Bell and in 2014 Lucy was named one of the four recipients of the British Council’s Indigenous Creative Leadership Program Accelerate.

 

Session 2: Sustainable Futures

Speakers: Ingrid Van der Wacht and Peter Cuming

There are few more pressing and critical goals for the future of humankind than to ensure steady improvement in the quality of life for current and future generations, in a way that respects common heritage and the planet. Designers and creators have a critical role to play. Beyond the ‘elimination of negative environmental impact’, sustainable design must create projects that are a dynamic balance between economy and society, and generate long-term relationships between user and object/service that are respectful and mindful of the environmental and social differences. Ingrid Van der Wacht, a Netherlands-based connector, communicator and collaborator, and Peter Cuming, founder of Sustainable Futures Australia, will discuss the importance of sustainable design and the different tools from different disciplines they draw on to deliver practical solutions to real world problems.

Ingrid Van der Wacht (The Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Ingrid Van der Wacht, a Netherlands-based connector, communicator and collaborator, is highly experienced in all areas of design thinking, particularly the use of design as the driver for innovation, economic growth and sustainable development. She brings extensive experience in cross-sectorial partnerships between public authorities, industries, businesses and designers with a focus on new methodologies to co-design. Ingrid is a ambassador for Design for Europe, an organisation developing tools to help Europe’s public and private sectors to use design to accelerate innovation. She is also international projects manager for Dutch Design Week. Previously, Ingrid was development and project manager for PROUD Europe (People Researchers Organisations Using Design for co-creation and innovation). She is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Dutch Creative Industries Fund to participate in DESIGN Canberra.

Peter Cuming (NSW)

Peter Cuming is an experienced environmental planner, project manager and facilitator of community-government partnerships and planning processes with over 20 years’ experience in Australia and overseas. He is on numerous government board and committees, and was previously a NSW local government councillor over two, four-year terms. Peter has developed engagement, decision-making and planning tools to support collaborative planning work and a range of award-winning innovative and influential sustainability planning and facilitation processes and models in Australasia. Sustainable Futures Australia, which Peter founded in 1987, is an award-winning team of multi-disciplinary consultants specialising in sustainability planning, design and education.