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.
