Visual Soliloquy the Anti-Social of Design

Visual Soliloquy contributes to the discussion of how graphic and information design contributes to social through design. In linking the work to notions as self-branding, micro celebrities and self-branding in defining social value for individuals. The use of the soliloquy concept is aligned with both the anti-social undertaking and social endeavor of design as praxis within the field of communication design. As evidence, the concept is supported through examples of design work and their material explorations

Techno-Art-Activism: the Implicit Technology of Design Social

This photo essay comments on the influence of artactivism in the process of the ‘social’. Moving away from the conventionality of social approach to betterment, the approach follows an artistic take, amalgamating new forms of media with the processes of design and art

Drawing the Impossible: the Role of Architectural Drawing in the Production of Meaning in Social Space

This pictorial essay reflects on a unique category of architectural drawing that depicts spaces that cannot physically exist. It suggests that this specific mode of drawing plays a significant role in the production of meaning in social space through depicting ephemeral characteristics of our social relations. This argument is discussed in relation to Michel Foucault’s theoretical allegory of the heterotopic mirror, and illustrated through accompanying images of the drawing project The Virtual Relations (2009). This project used the methodology of “drawing the impossible” with Henri Lefebvre’s theory for the production of space to explore ephemeral conditions of social interaction in the domestic interior as five spatial descriptions

The Social and the Spatial, Urban Models as Morphologies for a ‘Lived’ Approach to Planning

How and in what manner has the social been instrumental in formulating planning policies, and does Hong Kong ascribe to any social concept that facilitates its current spatial planning framework? The legacy of the social in planning originally came to fruition within the Chicago School of Social Sciences during the early 1920s. Since then, the understanding of the social and how planning responds to the social has been wide and varied. This paper examines the social’s application in spatial notions in addition to its context within Hong Kong. At its core this argument outlines the consequences of a social notion within planning and the spatial modes of recourse. Issues of scaling are brought into question when addressing planning as well as economic focus, in both the local as well as regional governance levels, which further emphasises the dynamic proxies of social and spatial factors for territorial planning. Having neither of these, the argument then highlights the realities of economic asymmetries in the disempowerment of a local populous through land speculation and housing shortages

Adventurous Upcrafting Ventures

Since 2015, the Research Institute of Organic Treasures (R.I.O.T.) has combined fermentation practices and social experimentation in Hong Kong to give biological byproducts from human and urban metabolisms a regenerative purpose. Here putrescible wastes emitted from our kitchens, toilets, and bodies are considered our most foundational design material that contributes to a “world of eaters” (DuPuis 2015). In this applied design work, the concept of upcycling is socio-materially extended into shared forms of upskilling, and therefore referred to as upcrafting. In an effort to combine practical outcomes with long-term welfare creation, R.I.O.T. brings together laypersons, natural scientists, and artists, into open-ended explorations of alternative knowledge and change making, or what Melanie DuPuis calls “extended peer communities” (ibid. 155)

Digital Infrastructures and Militarised Environments: Spaces of Conflict in the (post-)Anthropocene

This paper presents the idea of multispecies diplomacy on the background of unstable and violent political geographies of the Anthropocene. The idea is first defined in terms of associated notions of sympoiesis and habilitation. After the preliminary arrangement of the conceptual framework of the paper, the possibilities of multispecies diplomacy are assessed in relation to current militarisation of environment, that prevents any diplomatic solution of climate change and leads to increased environmental injustices worldwide. This is illustrated with an example of conflict in the Negev desert, where changing climate is inherently integrated into the structure of conflict. Secondly, digital infrastructures are identified as an ambiguous factor influencing the outlooks of future practices of multispecies diplomacy. Thanks to their capacity to redesign existing environment, they can act as forces of deterritorialisation that can either stabilise existing hegemonies or lead to subversive appropriation. As far as digital platforms are open to ideological reframing, ecosocialist politics engaging in multispecies diplomacy is encouraged to appropriate them in terms of cognitive mapping and habilitation

Serious Games as Social Innovation: Case Hong Kong 2003-2017

This article investigates existing digital games that are developed and used in Hong Kong to serve the local community and tackle various educational, social, and environmental issues. An online review and interviews of experts in the field found that 517 games were used and developed in Hong Kong. The games are mostly available online for free use. In this article, a categorisation of fourteen domains is proposed based on the games\u27 general themes and learning goals. This article discusses some examples of the games in the review, and explores the existing potential of serious games as social innovation in Hong Kong

Arts-Based Methods as Tools for Co-design in a South African Community-based Design Co-operative

Arts and visual participatory methods can be effective tools to facilitate the experience of rural design actors involved in a co-design process that could be seen as contributions to the emerging praxis called “Design Social.” We identify the inclusion of visual processes to co-design and comanufacture Venda-fusion products with members of a South African rural-based sewing group called Zwonaka Sewing Co-operative. The co-design process involved a set of iterations that used visual modes such as Photovoice, painting, photographs, collaging and appliqué to create and market these products. Statements shared by the group members reveal the development of their personal agency, as well as confidence in product design, manufacturing, and ownership of the design process. These are significant outcomes for this particular social context, and we propose that the use of arts and visual methods enhances capacities of reciprocity, creative thinking and ownership through the co-design process