The aim of our research program is to foster social resilience by focusing on transforming practices and societies. We do so by designing and evaluating in complex socio-technical systems.
publications 2021-11-05 23:11:05 +0100 CET Our current education systems do not adequately support students to learn how to deal with complex challenges and to create together alternative practices aimed at sustainable futures. We have developed a design approach and repository for transforming practices (TP) in order to engage with the world in co-response-able ways. During the past 20 years, we have explored and transformed educational practices to enable situated, self-directed and lifelong learning. In this paper we explain our journey of transforming our education systems and how the 5 principles of TP have been guiding this process, i.e., complexity, situatedness, aesthetics, co- response-ability and co-development. We illustrate with examples from our own educational practices how TP can help transforming current education systems into corresponding lifelong learning practices that support designers and participants in designing for alternative complex, sustainable futures.
Publication
2021
Education as a transforming practice: designing together for complex, sustainable livingpublications 2021-10-21 12:29:52 +0200 CEST This collection of infographics is a visual journey through the development, the application, and the communication of our approach in designing for transforming practices. This is a collection of perspectives: how do we view and shape societal transformation through a dialogue across different standpoints? While the work is grounded in design research as the driving tradition of knowledge production, the collection embraces multiple kinds: disciplinary, cultural, social, and organisational perspectives. It respects the systemic nature of the act of transforming. The purpose of the upcoming pages is not to propose clear-cut solutions regarding how to achieve societal goals, but rather to sketch a landscape of learnings, experiences, and opportunities for a specific kind of transformation to happen. One could see this collection as a teaser for a bigger journey through uncharted territories of transforming practices. Buckle up and we hope you enjoy the journey.
Publication
2021
Designing for Transforming Practices: Maps and Journeysprojects 2020-04-26 13:38:26 +0200 CEST Transforming Practices (TP) considers the transformations of our societies, dealing with major societal issues, local challenges for social resilience, or everyday activities, as well as their interrelations. Envisioning transformative practices, we question through designing the how, who, why and what of design for these major societal issues.
Projet
avr. 2020
Transforming Practices squadpublications 2019-09-23 13:46:08 +0200 CEST In this chapter, the concept of Transformative Practices is introduced, i.e. shared relative steady ways of living and working with others (Wittgenstein, 1993), including specific configurations of actions, norms and knowledge (Freeman et al., 2011) and related tools and environments, focused at addressing our societal challenges, by transforming (elevating) our personal and social ethics and related behaviour through designing new ways of interaction with each other and the world. Through design research and innovation within these practices, we work together towards social-culturally, environmentally and economically sustainable communities.
Publication
2019
Design research and innovation framework for transformative practicesprojects How would our world look like 20, 30, 40 or 50 years from now? Will we monitor each individual on the planet to live a low-risk life? Will we replace organs, eyes, or other parts of our body with artificial alternatives? Will we upload our brains and live on a server? Or do we seek ways to embrace a life more related to mother earth? In this Design Fiction project, several potential healthcare futures are explored. The project is a collaboration between Philips Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Design Academy Eindhoven, and Frank Kolkman.
When designing and developing for an audience, as was done in this project, a wide range of different opinions have to be dealt with. A well-known example are robots and Artificial intelligence (AI). Some people only see the positive side and potentials: what if robots could take over all our work so we have full-time vacation? Others only see the downsides and risks: what if robots become smarter than people and start attacking us? Either way, the truth will be somewhere in the middle, but it is very important to capture such opinions and discover what society thinks of current developments. The goal of this project was to do exactly that by developing design probes for four potential healthcare futures – based on a framework by Philips Design – and exhibiting them during the Dutch Design Week (DDW) and within Philips to provoke a debate.
During the first part of the project, four teams each developed a design probe for one of the potential futures, which were exhibited at the Dutch Design Week.
The project was continued within another team and a fifth probe was designed based on the insights gathered at the DDW. This time, the focus was laid on preventive healthcare in the present time, which led to the design of a fictive device that helps parents to monitor their baby’s health and aids them in growing a healthy child.
2019-09-03 16:27:15 +0200 CEST In this Design Fiction project, several potential healthcare futures are explored in a collaboration between Philips Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Design Academy Eindhoven, and Frank Kolkman.
Projet
sept. 2019
Probing Futurepublications 2013-09-10 20:07:29 +0200 CEST In this month’s cover story, Caroline Hummels and Pierre Lévy propose an alternative, value-based vision for design: Can we create alternative ways to engage with the world based on trusting our senses? Where intuition is as valuable as logic? Where commitment and engagement are valuable assets for growth? Where people can take a first-person perspective and be in the moment, instead of forever worrying about efficiency? Growing out of a long history of work in the Designing Quality in Interaction group at TU Eindhoven, Hummels and Lévy’s vision is rooted in phenomenology and the ideas of 20th-century philosophers such as Dewey, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Over the course of the article they build their case for this new approach, highlighting projects that illustrate aspects of the vision they outline. As the cover image hints, even typically mundane objects such as vending machines can produce rich, aesthetically rewarding experiences when their design is inspired by phenomenology and its associated values such as embodiment.
Publication
2013
Matter of transformation, designing an alternative tomorrow inspired by phenomenology