“Increasingly, society operates pre-factually. In such cases, analyzing existing options may not provide the necessary insights needed to respond successfully because the challenge is one that has not been dealt with before and the facts do not exist yet.”

                                                            Horst W.J. Rittel - 

                                                            The Reasoning of Designers 1987

Speaker : Mariana Amatullo, Co Founder and Vice President of Designmatters, Art Center College of Design

We can only understand the future as a possibility.  But it is one that implicates designers deeply.  They are the makers, strategists, visualizers, dream weavers and communicators whose work is essential to envisioning the material and immaterial forms of a more humane world.

Ten years into my work leading Designmatters, Art Center’s social impact design program, the question that is on my mind incessantly is what does it mean to engage our students effectively and responsibly in a knowledge domain fraught with complexity and uncertainty.   What does it take for art and design education today to enact new forms of knowledge, and directly engage with future-oriented forms of teaching, learning and practice?    Why does it matter so very much?  I am looking forward a dynamic conversation with you all!

RespondentLorraine Gamman, Professor in Design Studies, in the School of Graphic and Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.