Designers’ Inquiry

Designers’ Inquiry investigates the social profile of designers today.
In the form of an on-line questionnaire, it wants to capture and reflect on the complex and often precarious condition that characterises the experience of working in the field of design.

It is an open inquiry and there are no right or wrong answers. The information you are sending us (anonymously) will be included in the analysis as well as in the presentation of the results.

For our research it is important to also gather personal voices, so please feel free to comment questions throughout the questionnaire.

The inquiry will remain open until the 20th June 2012 and takes about 20 minutes to compile.

Go to the on-line survey (English)

Please help us spread this survey as much as possible by sending it on to your contacts. Thank you.

Designers’ Inquiry is an initiative by the Construction site for non-affirmative practice .

Cantieroteca is ready

Cantieroteca is the (growing) archive of the Construction site for non-affirmative practice . It wants to be a point of reference and connection for a collective practice-led research on alternative values within design in order to reconsider designerly approaches to contemporary questions. One section of the archive is dedicated to self-publishing initiatives that focus on social, political, economic and environmental issues.

Cantieroteca is hosted by Careof , via Procaccini 4, Milan. It is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday from 3pm to 7pm.

Self-published materials wanted

Archivio del Cantiere
a project by Construction site for non-affirmative practice
in collaboration with Careof DOCVA

During this year’s Salone del Mobile (Milan, 17-22 April 2012), the collective Construction site for non-affirmative practice inaugurates the project “Archivio del Cantiere” (archive of the construction site) at – and in collaboration with – Careof, a non profit organization for the promotion of contemporary artistic research situated at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.

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Laboratorio Campano at kunStart12

From the 16th until the 18th March Laboratorio Campano will be installed at the art fair kunStart12 in Bolzano inside the stand of Museion.

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Red Tape

Next Wednesday, together with Paul Thompson , Richard Gerver and Teal Triggs , we’ll join the discussion “Our Future: Education & Creativity” , organised by students of the Visual Communication programme at the Royal College of Art as part of the series Red Tape .

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm, 14th March 2012
ArtBar, Darwin Building
Kensington Gore SW7 2EU London

Into the Fold – Camberwell Press

On the 27th February, at 1pm, Bianca and some more people from Department 21 will be guests of the exhibition Into the Fold , organised by Camberwell Press .

Camberwell Press seeks to create and ideal and interactive studio within a public space for two and half weeks. The exhibition will culminate in a publication formed from material generated with collaborators via a series of talks, workshops, design & publishing projects.

Friday Session – 24.02.2012, 7pm, at public works

Next Friday, Bianca will be talking about Designing Economic Cultures at public works’ studio, during one of their beloved Friday Sessions . The evening, titled “Sunday soup and other ways to feed culture”, is organised and curated by Matilde Martinetti, who is currently collaborating with public works.

Friday 24 February, 7pm
public works studio
1-5 Vyner Street
London E2

Interview on Cultural Strategies Initiative

An interview with us by Brooklyn-based curator Yulia Tikhonova was published on the website of the Institute for Culture in the Service of Community Sustainability , a think tank dedicated to developing cultural strategies for the 21st Century.

Designing and Transforming Capitalism

Tomorrow Bianca and Caterina Giuliani will give a talk at the Designing and Transforming Capitalism conference at Aarhus University (DK) titled “Construction site for non-affirmative practice: building collective support structures for critically-engaged designers”.

ECO-Nomadic School in Brezoi (RO)

Recently we were invited by Kathrin Böhm (myvillages.org / public works ) to participate in a three day (6-8 January 2012) workshop in Brezoi (Romania), as part of the project ECO-Nomadic School (ENS).

ENS is based on a partnership between Atelier d’architecture autogérée (AAA), AGENCY , myvillages.org and Fundatia Communitara de Dezvoltare Local (FCDL), and it is supported by the European network RHYZOM , in which all these partners are involved. The project is a “nomadic and temporary school for mutual learning and teaching of eco-civic practices in different regions of Europe”.

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designingeconomiccultures.net

We’re pleased to announce that the website for Designing Economic Cultures is finally live and growing.

www.designingeconomiccultures.net

Werkstattgespräch

Giorgio Camuffo invited the Construction site for non-affirmative practice to give a talk tomorrow evening at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano as part of the series Werkstattgespräche.

Poster by Stefano Capodieci / illustration inspired by J.K. Gibson-Graham

Next Nature

We were totally surprised and pleased this morning, when we got our copy of Next Nature , a book edited by Koert Van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink, in which Brave New Winter is featured on two double spreads together with a ton of essays and visual contributions. Thanks.

Factory@everywhere

On the 13th December at 4pm we’ll give a short lecture with the people from the Construction site for non-affirmative practice at Stefano Maffei’s class Factory@everywhere at Politecnico di Milano .

Jederland

A small visual contribution to the project Jederland – Symbolic Actions for Our Present , we have been involved with over the past year, and which has now come to an end.

Designing Economic Cultures – seminar 6

Designing Economic Cultures – seminar 5

Designing Economic Cultures – seminar 4

Designing Economic Cultures – seminar 3

RUN RUN RUN RUN – mostra e incontri sul vivere precario – 4-12 ottobre 2011

Not translated. See Italian version.