Design for Collective Action Workshop - Info Session

The public domain is born each time that one individually or collectively exercises their civic rights in public by speaking up, resisting, seeking change or working towards transformative action. Historically, artists and designers have been instrumental in instigating, curating, or enabling such forms of collective action by mobilizing groups around shared interests. However, such collective actions run the risk today not of creating a sensation but rather of sensationalizing themselves, and in the process marginalizing greater awareness of the very issues at stake.

Acknowledging both the risks and affordances involved, the "Designing for Collective Action" workshop will focus explore ow can artists and designers come together to create new public domains, both online and offline, through collective action?

This workshop is part of an ongoing workshop series called “Design for Civic Engagement: Instruments of Expression, Dialogue, and Critique.” The series is organized by Krzysztof Wodiczko from Harvard GSD, Orkan Telhan from University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and Sergio Araya from Universidad Adolfo Ibañez Design Lab. Previous meetings “Workshop I: From Individual to Collective” and “Workshop II: Individual & Collective’s Relation to Public Space” were respectively held in Santiago and Cambridge, Massachusetts. This initiative is funded by The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University.

Work from past workshops can be seen here.

As part of the workshop, there will be a roundtable discussion on Friday, March 27, 6:00PM at the Slought Foundation.

The workshop will take place at the Morgan Building and be offered to a limited number of students. To apply to the workshop please email to: otelhan@design.upenn.edu