Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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PAPERS: Queer(ing) Complexity by Design Location: Appleton Tower, LT5 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-5-edinburgh Session Chair: Jess Parris Westbrook (they/them), Jess Westbrook | |
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Absent Voices, Alternative Futures: What Design Issues Didn't Say About Design (1984-2025) 1: Future Design School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China; 2: Haikou University of Economics, China Can Western design theory be a universal panacea? Celebrating Design Issues' 40-year legacy (1984-2025), "The Unfolding Culture" exhibition asks how culture will shape design's future, yet overlooks whose culture dominates design discourse. Through critical analysis of Design Issues, the author reveals three structural absences that question theoretical universalism: (1) Medium constraints—text-based format systematically excludes sound, video, and material-based knowledge production, eliminating epistemologies that resist textualization; (2) Temporal lag—non-Western topics arrive decades late, revealing one-way delayed recognition rather than dialogue; (3) Divergent concerns—East and West simultaneously focus on fundamentally different design questions yet lack mechanisms for synchronous exchange, resulting in parallel monologues rather than cross-cultural conversation. These absences expose design theory's provinciality: decades of isolated development, occasional belated recognition, but no sustained dialogue. The author argues for infrastructures enabling real-time, reciprocal, pluriversal conversation across divergent concerns. View Paper: https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1380
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