Job profiles of designers around the globe are changing with dramatic speed and educational institutions have to keep track with these changes. How should design education be structured in a way that design graduates can work effectively in the future? To what extent is the current training still applicable – or does it need to go in a completely new direction? If a new type of design college was founded tomorrow, which could fully draw on new sources of inspiration without being restricted by any consideration for old structures – what content and methods would be taught there? I am honoured to have been invited as one of 24 selected experts from Africa and India by the iF Design Foundation to a two-day conference to discuss some of these questions and future of design education. A catalogue of 80 widely diverse questions based on an international study by the iF … Read More
Collaborative People in Challenging Places
These are some thoughts that arose from a request by Prof Ezio Manzini for me to provide some prior input into the DESIS DxCC Seminar on Collaborative People in Challenging Places which took place at the Cumulus Bogotà Conference on the 19 September 2019: “Much of my research engages with individuals who were previously legally marginalised under apartheid, and now even with a majority elected democratic government in place for the last 21 years, continue to find themselves on South Africa’s margins, both physically and politically. Cities in Africa, and South Africa in particular, hold the hope for a better future and hence have been the locations for extensive urban migration. The Gauteng-City Region, where I am based, is home to a quarter of South Africa’s total population. It generates a third of the country’s GDP, on just 2% of South Africa’s total land area. However, such economic stats only speak to those who are formally employed, which in … Read More
Global Summit on Social Innovation
From the 14-15 of March 2017 I will be representing the Design Society Development DESIS Lab at the Global Summit on Social Innovation in Bogotá, Colombia hosted by the The Rockefeller Foundation and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter–American Development Bank Group. The Summit is an exciting opportunity to bring together leading actors from across the social innovation spectrum – from labs to social enterprise accelerators – to learn, share, inspire, and collaborate. The Design Society Development DESIS Lab was one of a select group of key actors, stakeholders, and practitioners in the social innovation space that were identified as being able to help drive truly systemic social change. Today’s global challenges are more complex and rapidly changing—traditional approaches to problem solving can’t keep pace. But at the same time, social change agents have more tools at our disposal, and more diversity of ideas to draw from through processes like crowdsourcing or … Read More
World Information Architecture Day 2017
I will be speaking at World Information Architecture Day on Saturday, 18 February 2017 The topic of my presentation is “Exploring Human Activity: Technology Innovation on the Periphery” Professional designers often disregard users’ design agency. Negating the power of “lay designers” thus, is arguably at the cost of the relevance of a final design for its intended users. This is nowhere more evident than in so-called “developing” contexts where people have always been driven to design and innovate due to inequality, poverty, and unmet needs. Utilising the framework of activity theory, I will explore exceptional examples of grassroots innovation in South Africa. The aim of this is to encourage expert designers to shift their gaze and align their skills to amplify the efforts of lay designers in order to result in more sustainable and appropriate change. Tickets for the event can be bought at: https://worldiaday2017-johannesburg.eventbrite.com – General admission: R200.00pp (includes lunch, snacks … Read More
ACU Commonwealth Summer School
The 4th ACU Commonwealth Summer School: Global Food Security: Can We Feed a Growing World? I have been granted one of ten partial bursaries internationally (valued at £350) to attend the fourth ACU Commonwealth Summer School: Global Food Security: Can We Feed a Growing World? together with 80 other post-graduate students from Sunday 17 – Sunday 24 August 2014 at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Semenyih. “The Commonwealth Summer School was instigated by the ACU in 2011. It aims to provide a forum to bring together high quality students from every corner of the Commonwealth to discuss multidisciplinary issues of global importance. A key element of the School is its desire to mix local/regional students with those who may have never had the opportunity to leave their own regions. The inaugural School was held at the University of Buea, Cameroon, in July 2011 followed by the 2012 School hosted by the University of Botswana and in 2013, … Read More
Innovation in Food, Ag and Integrated Resource Systems
Workshop: Innovation in Food, Agriculture and Integrated Resource Systems: Creating Sustainable Opportunities in Soweto Presenters: Sander Mager and Dr. Christopher Peterson Facilitator: Dr. Naudé Malan When: Thursday 5 June 2014 11:00 – 17:00 Where: VIP Lounge , University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus , Chris Hani Road South Africa is not unique in facing social, environmental and economic challenges. To address these three successfully would require innovative solutions that bring together state agencies and departments, non-governmental organisations and private enterprises. Two leading experts in the creation of sustainable enterprises will in this workshop share their experience of addressing these challenges. Dr. Christopher Peterson and Sander Mager are leading the creation of the Global Innoversity which is an innovation accelerator aimed at inspiring and supporting the world’s metropolitan regions in developing and sharing innovations in food, agriculture and integrated resource systems. The workshop will share the methods used and experiences gained in creating ecological, social … Read More
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