DESIS

Urban Dynamization! That is the official cluster under which we as Desis Colombia are moving and as such we have plenty of NEWS! embracing activites which move from the academia to the streets. Besides, there are new partners getting involved.

NEW PARTNERS:

Re-Uso. A project started by Catalina López and Samuel Córdoba designers, architects and filmmakers who after having worked with the palafittes communities in Tumaco realized that the underwater garbage catched by the hooks of the pile dwellers, could be re-read and re-use in the city (www.tumacopacifico.com) but the projects goes way beyond, it involves urban action, films and documentaries that bond ancient knowledge from our country with the everyday life of cities. Among the many ideas that this synergy Desis Colombia + Re-Uso can be brought about, there is special interest in the development of workshops and Spots to bring the topic of social innovation closer to the field of audiovisual creation and communication design. Blog to the documentary: http://www.tumacopacifico.wordpress.com

We will posting more accurate information with regard to this partnership in the comming weeks.

Biking circuits. At all levels and having different members, the biking issue keeps on growing in Bogotá. The Universidad Central and its Cultural Managment unit headed by Mariana Guhl, are promoting a series of cycling trips during the day in downtown Bogotá. Among their comming activities there is,on this 4th of February, their organization/participation in what has been called: Day Without Car, an official journey banning private cars in the city.  To enjoy this celebration there are plenty of routes providing cyclist (and specially non cyclists) the possibility to commute by bike this day. These routes (meaning groups of people who will be peddaling together along the already established cyclepaths)  have been designed by the ciclopaseodelosmiercoles, a collective interested in raise awareness regarding mobility in Bogotá.Members of the Desis Crew will be joining this initiative of  Feb. the 4th, specially a new initiative called : How Do I Drive… Cómo Conduzco. Pictures, after Feb the 4th will be posted in our gallery. After this date, this collective will continue intervening the urban traffic.

THE ACADEMIA

Caldas University has shown great interest not only regarding the insertion of the Social innovation topic among their curricula but also offering a platform to exchange knowledge and see how  feasible it is to bond the audio-visual world with our topic of interest. Among others they are organizing the International Image Festival April 13th through the 17th including a call for sound proposals, workshops, academic forums and exhibitions, besides their PhD lauching on Creation and Design. THE CALL IS OPEN.  For more information: http://www.festivaldelaimagen.com/portal/

Desis-Rad Workshop on Social Innovation. How is it moving, by whom?

La Tadeo University is working on two fronts, one moving from the Graphic Design faculty and its dean Pastora Correa, there the academic insertion of the topic is  leaded by Professor Mauricio Hoyos who is organizing a forum to introduce the topic to his students and a cathedra from which audiovisual essays done by the students, as well as the organization of the final Desis-Rad 2010-1 exhibition will be done.

On the other hand, the Industrial Design Faculty and his dean Manuel Parga, has devoted a cathedra to the issue leaded by Professors Cesar Sierra and Nicolás Rojas. They already have 23 students dealing to start the Case Collection Quest.

The Industrial Design Faculty at the Pontificia Universidad Bolivariana UPB headed by Julian Ossa, has started a course called Community and Product, leaded by Professor Javier Cardona, from there they will be mapping cases as result of regional-local analysis in which the social is seen as the pillar to the development of products.

Professor Eliana Castro from the National University in Palmira, has shown great interest to join the topic to her field of expertise: Health promotion in Working Places, she is now studying the possibility to formaly contribute to the Desis progress.

At Los Andes University, Design Department, we have already started to work on the specific topic and cluster, Urban Dynamization at the interior of our Sustainablity Class. The students involved in the quest are: Adriana Chaves, Andres Casanova, Juan Manuel Gallego, Santiago Ramirez and Jaime Vargas.

“OLD” FRIENDS AND PARTNERS:

THE FUNDACIÓN CORONA has always been very active in the     process since we started last year, the aim of this partnership is to examine their database and see which of their cases are more likely to be worked by both, our “old” desis crew and the students. The highlight there, from whom we hope getting in touch in the near future is Sueños Films, a documentary troupe based on the outskirts of Bogotá, with all the “flavour” that it implies.

BEYOND NEWS:

How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today!

Bibliography

Extremely important: PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT NOWTOPIA (available at amazon) AND TO THE LAST HAPPINESS REPORT ISSUED BY THE YOUNG FOUNDATION: http://www.youngfoundation.org/files/images/wellbeing_happiness_Final__2_.pdf

Filmography

Professor Manzini’s at the National University, interview by Ivan Chaparro:

To end up with, an interesting link:

http://www.i-sustain.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2624&Itemid=54

Febrero 4. Día Sin Carro…

Pudo haber sido el primer día de una época sin humo…. pero ahí están los cerros quemando… ¿qué tiene que ver el humo con la innovación social? con la dinamización  urbana…? con la pereza de los ciudadanos para… hacer algo

Call for papers:
Cumulus Shanghai Conference 2010: Young Creators for
Better City and Better Life.

CUMULUS Shanghai Conference 2010 will be held by College of Design & Innovation of
Tongji University from Sep. 7th to Sep.10th during World EXPO 2010. The theme for
CUMULUS Shanghai Conference 2010 is Young Creators for Better City and Better Life.
The conference aims to explore how the young generation of designers can improve our
environment and life in creative ways. The emerging missions and visions of future design
education, research and practice, together with its economic, political and social impacts of the
era, will also be discussed during the conference.
Design educators, practitioners, and researchers are invited to join our cross-disciplinary
conversation. Submitted work should relate to one or more of the sub-themes below:
Sustainability & social innovation
Local wisdom & globalization
Socio-economics & design
Old & young

> Sustainability & social innovation
By Ezio Manzini *
The transition towards sustainability asks for the most careful use of all the available resources.
On a small, densely populated, highly connected Planet, social resources are the most
abundant ones. Their valorization is therefore the most effective strategy towards
sustainability.
Today, looking at the complexity of contemporary society, we can observe that people’s
creativity, entrepreneurship, knowledge and skills are generating new and sustainable ways of
living and producing. This represents a large social innovation process where solutions are
conceived and developed by actors directly involved in the problems to be solved.
Facing social innovation, the design community must use its specific design knowledge to
support it. That is: to trigger new ideas, to orient the resulting innovations and to conceive
enabling solutions. In this framework, a particularly important role can be played by the design
schools. In fact, in the knowledge society, schools should be the living laboratories where
diffuse creativity can be catalyzed and social innovation enhanced.
* Academic Coordinator of Sub-theme Sustainability & social innovation, Professor of
DIS-INDACO, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

> Submission
All submissions will be peer reviewed. Authors will be notified about acceptance of their
abstract by the beginning of March 2010. Those whose abstracts are accepted will be invited
to submit the full paper by May 10, 2010. Notification of full paper acceptance will be given on
July 1, 2010 and the final version is due on August 1, 2010.
Deadlines:
Abstract deadline:      March 1, 2010
Notification of abstract acceptance:  April 5, 2010
Full paper deadline:        June 1, 2010
Notification of full paper acceptance:  July 5, 2010
Full paper submission deadline:   August 5, 2010
To submit abstracts and papers:
cumulus2010@tongji.edu.cn
Website:   www.cumulus2010tongji.org