Virtual Colloquium: Sandra Groll – The Contribution of Design to a Society of Crisis

In this week’s session of the Virtual Colloquium we will have Sandra Groll as our guests, her talk is titled ” The Contribution of Design to a Society of Crisis”

Design as a profession and discipline has been around for some time. Still, its results seem limited when designing or even influencing sustainable, non-harmful macrosystems. In my contribution, I will argue that the 20th century was already a century of design and that this form of design contributed to the troubled society and uncomfortable problems we now face. As I will show, the reason for this is also a certain lack of clarity in the concepts of how social systems, their own logic and interdependence are conceived. It will be crucial for design in the 21st century to find relational approaches beyond naive system concepts. In my contribution, I will outline systems-theoretical figures of thought and guidelines for such an understanding of design.

Dr. Sandra Groll is a systems theorist, design researcher and designer. She studied at the HfG Karlsruhe and did her doctorate at the HfG Offenbach. Since 2010 she had been teaching at various universities, including FH Potsdam, FH Bielefeld, Free University of Bozen, HfK Bremen, Zhejiang Wanli University Ningbo, Design Factory International and Brand University. From 2016 to 2018 she was visiting professor for systems design at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Since 2017 she is a member of the editorial board “BIRD – Board of International Research in Design” at Birkhäuser Verlag, co-editor of the series of the same name and co-host of the “NERD-New Experimental Research in Design” conferences. Her research focuses on network, and systems theories, as well as design contribution to modern societies. In addition to her academic work, she works as a freelance consultant in the creative industries.

For the speakers list of this semester and for information on registration, please have a look here.