[ A Series of Lectures in Design Theory ]

[ Schedule ] [ Concept of the Lecture Series ] [ Supported by ] [ slovensko ]

CLIVE DILNOT | 13. 5. 2008

SUSTAINABILITY AS A MOVEMENT OF HISTORY?
Six Conditions for a Sustainable Future

Thinking of unsustainability in terms of “ecological crises” can make us lose sight of the fact that the unsustainability of our present modes of consumption is also a crisis of history. The potential for global destruction (economic and political as well as ecological) is a marker of the fact that the artificial (and not the natural) is now the horizon and medium of our existence. But this potential for destruction also means that for the first time in human history the global future is not assured. This changes the necessary work of our culture. That work now has to be one of creating the conditions under which a humane future can exist. The question for designers is how the capabilities they deploy can be directed towards this project. The lecture will explore these capabilities in the context of defining six key conditions by which we can move towards a less unsustainable world and thus towards a more humane future.

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Clive Dilnot is currently a professor of design studies at the Parsons School of Design and the New School in New York. He has taught the history, theory and criticism of art and design in Britain, at Harvard University in the United States, in Hong Kong and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was director of design initiatives. He has written extensively in these areas; his recent publications include Ethics? Design? (Chicago: Archeworks, 2005) and Pirelli Work (London: Steidl, 2006). His current concerns focus on the role of design capabilities in terms of understanding how we can create the conditions for a humane world.

[ Parsons - the New School for Design ]
[ The Archeworks Papers ]

Prof. Dilnot's lecture is supported by

[ U.S. Embassy Ljubljana ]
[ Antalis ]

[ Schedule ]