VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.
Abstract
With continued crises disrupting our society (environmental, pandemics, war, …), we need to rethink how we live, and how we respond to these disruptions. How do we need to learn to innovate, in order to survive? This question inspires us, as innovation educators, to get together and develop a smart living/learning studio, a playful education concept that teaches students the practice of smart innovation: The Smart Innovation Studio. But rather than understanding smartness as mere progress through technology the studio grounds smartness as intelligence through creativity. How can we creatively enlist (and omit) technology in our everyday practices and infrastructures to create a fulfilling synergy between social wellbeing and care for the environment? Where is it necessary to rely on high-tech smart technology and autonomous algorithms, and where do we need to enrich our lives with simplicity? In this paper we draw on concepts of a designerly mindset as an everyday practice, in order to identify the smart innovation skills that are required to sustain humanity and the (non-human) environment. These skills might encompass the making your own set of no-wash clothes, sourcing your food through urban gardening, or designing an energy-saving cooking/heating routine. The Smart Innovation Studio teaches students the art of smart innovation as a hybrid learning format on several levels: the module is envisaged to be both on-site and online, to be a simultaneous living and learning practice, and, in a more-than-human design philosophy, to synchronize the participation of human and non-human actors in a sustainable future.
Ruth Neubauer is a designer and design researcher. Her research interest are design practices, as well as theories of materiality and agency and how we might utilise these for responsible design. She has worked in the digital innovation industry in Vienna, London, and Brighton. Ruth has a doctorate from Loughborough University in Design Innovation, and she has a degree in painting and graphic art from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is an assistant professor at the New Design University in Sankt Pölten (A), a lecturer at the University of Art and Design Linz (A), and a visiting scholar at
Ksenija is an internationally recognised researcher and educator, whose work enquires into an emerging area of social design bringing together challenges of inclusion and sustainability. To this end, she researchers, engages with, and promotes collaborative, participatory and creative approaches to change that are situated, emancipatory and place based, contributing to the areas of education, service innovation, and community development. Ksenija is an Assistant Professor and Programme Director of MSc Design Innovation Programme at Loughborough University London, and an active contributor to the university’s equity, diversity and inclusion agenda on the topic of care. She is a member of the DRS, an Associate Editor of the She Ji: Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, and a guest co-editor of the Special Issue, Sustainable Design Education and Implementation, Sustainability;
Dr. Christoph H. Wecht, professor of management, New Design University, St. Pölten, Austria; lecturer, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.
7:00 am - 8:30 am
Wednesday 12th June, 2024