Category: Uncategorized

Chaired by:
Ruth-Helene Melioranski, EKA
Oliver Laas, EKA

March 18, 9.30 – 10.30 CET

The workshop address questions about the present and future of both artistic as well as design research from the perspective of shared practices, future prospects and the impact of technical developments, such as automation, on the creative professions.

Ruth-Helene Melioranski is a design researcher in the Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia. She has a background in design practices and many of her projects explore how design can tackle societal challenges. Through these practice-based research projects she is conceptualising new and emerging design practises both in professional and higher educational contexts. In her professional practice, she is leading several strategic, service and co-design projects which aim to help partners to vision their future possibilities and build scenarios.

Oliver Laas is a philosopher, cultural theorist and artist whose research focuses on metaphysics, logic, philosophy of technology and semiotics. He works in EKA Faculty of Fine Arts as an Associate Professor and Junior Researcher.

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Chaired by:
Maarja Mõtus, EKA
Nesli Hazal Akbulut, EKA

March 17, 15:00–16:00 CET

Which new and exciting joint projects, unexpected cooperation initiatives have you carried out recently?  Which ones would you love to participate in in the future? Using a speed-dating format, we will play with the ideas of possible collaborations. The sweet part – participants will not be obliged for any commitments, so you can dream freely about what kind of collaboration you aspire for. Both, teachers and non-academic professionals are welcome in this playful workshop to explore alternative creative collaboration opportunities within the CIRRUS network.

Maarja Mõtus is an Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts and a service designer at the Estonian Government Innovation Team. Her design practice focuses on designing human-centred healthcare service-systems. Maarja has consulted Estonian Health Insurance Fund, the Ministry of Social Affairs and several other public and private organisations.

Nesli Hazal Akbulut is a designer-researcher and educator focusing on the impacts and interactions of emerging technologies. She holds an MA in Interaction Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn and a Communications BA from the Galatasaray University in Istanbul. She works as a visiting lecturer and a curriculum developer of the Interaction Design MA at the Estonian Academy of Arts. As an educator, she has led several industry collaborations shaped around interaction design and speculative design. 

Nesli is also a PhD student at EKA. Her research explores idesigning with, for and through the sensorial richness of interaction design, and how it might tackle the impossibility of empathy in computer-mediated communications.

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Chaired by:
Garðar Eyjólfsson, Iceland University of the Arts

March 18, 10.45 – 11.45 CET

The rhetoric of change seems to be all around us and similarly there seems to be a pressing need for education to respond and prepare students for a very altered future. The design institutions themselves are striving to adapt and respond to these changes often dealing with internal conflict within the fields. How can we adapt and mitigate these conflicts? – between the traditional modes of design (fields and tradition) and the removal(?) of barriers between fields (cross-disciplinary), theory, practice and skills (technology). We will attempt to map out relevant topics (such as climate change, (new) ecologies, emergent technologies and the dynamic relationship between the applied and the speculative) and discuss ways to implement and synthesize new and/or alternative ways of structuring design studies for the futures to come. 

Garðar Eyjólfsson holds an B.A (Honours) degree in Product Design from Central Saint Martins, London and a M.A (Cum Laude) Contextual Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. He mixes contextual, critical and narrative research in his work as a means to explore & translate zeitgeist topics. Utilizing a variety of mediums to manifest his voice, ranging from; artefacts, scenography, curation, fiction, video, performance, dialog and writing. 

Garðar is heavily involved in academia. He was the program director of BA Product Design at the Iceland University of the Arts (2012-2017) and program director of MA Design Explorations & Translations program (2017-2020) at the same institution. In addition, Garðar also lectures and conducts workshops in various universities across the globe. Balancing academia with studio practices his work ranges from developing his own projects, curating exhibitions, advising in the public and private sector, project managing and conducting workshops. Garðar also writes in various publications and gives public talks across platforms, often in the form of lectures and dialog in conferences, symposium, and radio.

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Chaired by:
Kristiina Krabi-Klanberg, EKA

March 18, 9.30 – 10.30 CET

Going digital has been a turbulent process over the past year. When replication of what we normally do in a classroom is not enough, we begin to explore and experiment.  Which new ways of learning and teaching have you implemented recently? What has helped you as a “long-distance educator”? What would you like to share with others?

For preparation.  Please prepare to share in 3-4 minutes 1–2 examples of concrete cases from your own practice. How have you managed to overcome the difficulties of distance-learning? Maybe even discovered something surprisingly valuable in the new situation – something to keep when the normalcy returns? Please prepare 1–3 pages in PDF-format to visualise your example and to share your screen during our Zoom-meeting. We will discuss a few examples to kick the session off and go in more detail in breakout rooms.

Kristiina Krabi-Klanberg has been teaching and researching at the field of higher and adult education for almost 20 years. She is a head of the Open Academy in EKA and is researching teaching practices in creative higher education. Also she has been the leader of EKA Summer Academy where we explore with our faculty and students the new fields of study, educational approaches. 

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Chaired by:
Mathilde Aggebo, Royal Danish Academy
Anna Bascuñan Skaarup, Royal Danish Academy

March 18, 10.45 – 11.45 CET

• What is the role of design education, in archiving the 17-SDG?
• Which competencies is needed for the future designers, to contribute at a high level and gain influence?  What new opportunities open up, when working on a global agenda within sustainability, that 193 countries have agreed on?
• What difficulties have you faced in implementing sustainability and The Sustainable Development Goals, at your school and in your field of study?   

The agenda for the session is:

• Short presentation of how we work strategically with SDG’s at The Royal Danish Academy 
•  Break out session (in groups of 3) 
• Overview of findings from breakouts
• Rounding off the session

Mathilde Aggebo is a dean of design at The Royal Danish Academy. She graduated from The Danish Design School, holds a MBA and is a member of the Society of Artists at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She is a member of several boards, including The Danish Art Foundation, The Danish Design Council and AHO in Oslo. She is an experienced leader of design education and focuses on the education in transformation; on the future designers’ skills and competences in a society in rapid change – technological, demographic and resource-related. The societal change calls for action of designers who can visualize and suggest new solutions for a sustainable future. Mathilde Aggebo has been designer at KVADRAT since 2006 and has realized many major projects in Denmark among them artistic decoration for New State Prison in Denmark.

Anna Bascuñan Skaarup is a PhD candidate at The Royal Danish Academy. She holds a MSc in Digital Design and Communication, a BA in Graphic Communication and has 10 years of practical experience in working as a designer. She is part of the Futuring Danish Design research cluster at the Royal Danish Academy. Her research examines which competencies designers of the next generation should encompass to become active co-creators of a sustainable future. The aim of her PhD project is to provide knowledge about how to strengthen designers ability to design for sustainability – by using a research through design approach in different educational cases and design experiments.

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Chaired by:
Stella Runnel, EKA
Triin Amur, EKA

March 17, 15:00–16:00 CET

Besides design skills, what else should we teach students to better prepare them for the world full of uncertainty? Workshop consists of interactive brainstorming and group discussions. Max number of participants is 12.

Stella Runnel is the Head of Department of Accessory Design and Bookbinding in Estonian Academy of Arts. In addition, she runs her own accessory brand Stella Soomlais which is storngly aligned with the philosophy of circular economy. Both, in and outside of academia, Stella is actively involved in discussions on what kind of support of our students need to have a successful professional career after graduation.

Triin Amur is a lecturer and a coordinator in departments of Fashion Design and Accessory Design in EKA. She’s also lecturing in Tartu University Viljandi Culture Academy, on cultural sustainability of fashion and textile design. For the past four years, she’s been working as an art director and project manager for OmaMood Fashion Show and as a head of the production design team for the international Viljandi Folk Music Festival.

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Coordinators workshop 1

Chaired by:
Tuuli Junolainen

March 17, 15 – 16.00 CET / 16 – 17.00 EET / 14 – 15.00 GMT

Lecture: Supporting mental health in the turbulent times (of COVID-19)
Discuss principles as well as strategies and concrete techniques of how to support your own mental health and others in the times of uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought to our lives.

Tuuli Junolainen is a psychologist and a coach working at Telesis Coaching and Peaasi. She works with organizations identifying areas for organizational, team and individual development as well as designing and providing strategies to enhance business performance. She use exclusively evidence based and scientifically proven methodology – behavioural science, cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy and co-active coaching.

Coordinators workshop 2

March 18, 9.30 – 10.30

Mapping CIRRUS, Hanna Karkku (Aalto). What do we need to make exchanges more smoothe, information more accessible? Give us your input!

Joint platform for Nordic networks or not? Lina Koseleva, Aalto. Do we need an app/webpage/database to know more about Nordic networks of similar disciplines (KUNO, Nordic-Baltic Academy of Architecture, etc).
Discussions in groups.

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Chaired by:
Lone Dalsgaard André, CIRRUS Chair, Kolding School of Design
Maria Göransdotter, CIRRUS board member, Umeå Institute of Design

Leadership workshop 1

March 17, 15 – 16.00 CET (link sent to those who have registered)

Presentations: Round of 2-minute overviews by leadership from each of the 18 member schools/institutes. No visuals. One person per school.  What is the national focus on in higher education in your country now? What are the main big challenges for your institution at the moment?

Leadership workshop 2

March 18, 09:30 – 10:30 CET

Workshop: Conversations in small groups, joint re-cap and full group sharing: Strategies for the upcoming academic study year and how to restart post/during-pandemic; The situation with international students; Other pressing topics.

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Chaired by:
Johan Redström, UID

March 17, 13:55–14.35 CET

Keynote “Uncertainty/Complexity”
Being invited to talk about complexity and uncertainty in design, this will be a somewhat speculative story about the two notions, and how they might be related as design evolves towards what often seems to be increasing amounts of both. In particular, I would like to discuss why it seems we, as educators and researchers in these forms of higher education, can take less and less for granted in design even as we learn more and more about designing.

Johan Redström is Professor in Design at Umeå Institute of Design. Working at the intersections, and interactions, between research through design and design philosophy, recent interests tend to involve emerging technologies, posthumanist perspectives and new design practice.

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