Craft ACT is thrilled to announce the program for the inaugural national design writing conference, Object Subject, presented as part of the 2017 DESIGN Canberra festival.
The main conference program will be presented on Friday 10 November, followed by a dedicated research forum on Saturday 11 November. Related DESIGN Canberra festival events will follow throughout the weekend.
Object Subject is realised with the support of Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and British Council.
Thursday 9 November
6:00pm – 7:30pm Opening Reception, Vibe Hotel
Jane Caro, author, novelist, journalist, broadcaster, columnist, advertising writer and social commentator, will speak at the opening reception and MC the main session of Object Subject, the inaugural national design writing conference.
Friday 10 November
8:30am – 5:00pm Conference (Day 1)
Session 1
Keynote lecture (40-45 minutes)
Alice Rawsthorn: Design Rewritten
Design has adopted many different meanings at different times, and is still prone to muddles, misunderstandings and clichés. Alice Rawsthorn considers the part that writing has played in this process, and how it could help to foster a more enlightened and nuanced understanding of design in the future.
Panel discussion
Design for social inclusion: makers making a difference
Chaired by Minister for the Arts and Community Events, Gordon Ramsay MLA, with Emily McCulloch Childs (Indigenous Jewellery Project), Tasman Monroe (Tapestry Couch), and Niklavs Rubenis (Object Therapy).
Session 2
Keynote lecture (40-45 minutes)
Dana Tomic Hughes: Design Meets Digital Media, A New Way of Storytelling
Design has been democratised by the digital media revolution, this has presented its own set of challenges for designers, writers, makers and the media. We live in a visually cluttered and noisy world where we are constantly bombarded with items that demand our immediate attention. There is an overwhelming amount of information pumped through the internet every single second – it is no wonder that we find ourselves unfocused and distracted.
With an increasingly lower attention span, capturing and sustaining the attention of an audience can be tricky. In her keynote, Dana will explore best practice in the digital space and share her experiences around the areas of; delivering value; creating engagement; cultivating trust; and building an ongoing relationship with a design audience that’s becoming more fickle in a digital space that’s constantly changing.
Panel discussion
Object narratives: storytelling as a tool used by designers in the design process
Chaired by Penny Craswell (The Design Writer), with Nicole Monks (trans-disciplinary artist of Yamatji Wajarri, Dutch and English heritage), Lou Weis (Broached Commissions) and Sarah Rice (Ekphrastic poetry).
Session 3
Paper presentations
Ewan McEoin, inaugural Hugh D.T Williams Senior Curator of Contemporary Design & Architecture at the National Gallery of Victoria. The role of the provocation: writing to set the scene and commission new work
Grace Blakeley-Carroll, emerging art historian and curator. Designing for the library: Fred Ward and the National Library of Australia
Suzie Attiwill, Associate Professor, Interior Design, Deputy Dean, Learning & Teaching, School of Architecture & Design, RMIT University. Experiments in the middle
Panel discussion
Designing Responsibilities: How media and design writers can support and promote original design
Chaired by Anne-Maree Sargeant (Authentic Design Alliance) with leading design magazine editors and writers David Clark, Angela Ferguson, Heidi Dokulil and Lisa Green, and industrial designer Tom Skeehan (Skeehan studio). Presented in association with the Authentic Design Alliance
Session 4
Panel discussion
Where do we go from here? Vision and wisdom projects in design and design writing
Chaired by Jane Caro, with Alice Rawsthorn, Dana Tomic Hughes, Ewan McEoin and Penny Craswell.
Saturday 11 November
9:30am – 1:00pm University of Canberra Research Forum (Day 2) held at Vibe Hotel Canberra Airport
Session 1
Paper 1: Lisa Scharoun, University of Canberra. Design for social good inspired by Singapore design for healthy ageing
Paper 2: Tom Lee and Berto Pandolfo, University of Technology, Sydney. Design practice, things and language: an iterative collaboration
Paper 3: Gene Bawden and Alli Edwards, Monash University. Pride of Place: design thinking tools, play-based community engagement, and the Victorian Pride Centre
Session 2
Paper 1: Gyungju Chyon, Parsons School of Design (NY). Embodying Betweenness: designing lively artefacts through imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness
Paper 2: Janice Rieger, QUT School of Design. Doing dis/ordered Mappings: Embodied and Material Explorations of Design
Paper 3: Bryan Harris, Ph.D. student at The Australian National University School of Art and Design. Designing the Boundary Layer: Unpacking the Box, the Basket, and the Cupboard
Related Design Canberra festival events
Bloggers Breakfast with Dana Tomic Hughes
Cost: $60 (Includes breakfast and a designer goodie bag valued at over $100)
Time: 8.30am – 10:00am
Date: Saturday 11 November
Location: Vibe Hotel Canberra
Design as an Attitude: Alice Rawsthorn public lecture
Cost: $20*
Time: 2pm
Date: Saturday 11 November
Location: National Gallery of Australia
*registered conference delegates save 50% on the full price of Design as an Attitude: Alice Rawsthorn public lecture at the National Gallery of Australia. To claim this discount, please use the code provided to you upon your conference registration.
For any further information, contact us at [email protected]