“To mark the launch of the new Graduate Program in Transdisciplinary Design, this year’s Stephan Weiss Lecture Series in The School of Design Strategies is dedicated to the theme of transdisciplinary design. The series will explore the shifting of boundaries of design in a complex world. Designers are rethinking their practices as they increasingly confront a world in which the complexity and interconnectedness of its people, infrastructures, networks, and economies challenges traditional, disciplinary responses. Designers are increasingly designing businesses, services, experiences, policies, and even emergent social forms; and along the way they are inventing new methods, new tools, and new ways of conceiving design. This year’s series will include a diverse range of designers and design thinkers who are reflecting on these new conditions and envisioning future practices. Staged as a series of four moderated conversations, the Stephan Weiss Lecture Series for 2010 will present multiple vantages on the state of design today and the possibilities for design tomorrow.” (Parsons, MFA Transdisciplinary Design)

If you missed the first lecture, Transformational Networks, on Feb. 23rd, you can still catch the next two in the series:

Transfiguring Practices, Thursday, March 25, 6-8 pm

What are the pressures on design consultancies and businesses as the rules of the game are shifting in unpredictable ways? How are design-led businesses succeeding at defining new territories to work in and new ways of operating?

Transitional States, Tuesday, April 6, 6-8 pm

Can design play a role in governmental and non-governmental delivery of things like infrastructure, education, and health care? What kinds of alliances and collaborations are forming to bring design-led practices into large scale social and technological services?

Source: Parsons, MFA Transdisciplinary Design

Mary F Hanlon

Mary has a PhD in Sociology from University of Edinburgh, researching responsible fashion and transnational labour rights activism in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh.