Call for papers, 2/1//09

At the recent NEW VIEWS 2 conference at the London College of
Communication in July of 2008 there was some heated discussion in the
Interdisciplinarity Discussion Group. See conference site for more
details: http://newviews.co.uk/speakers.html) One visitor dropped in
for a visit after the group had met for several session and attempted
to provoke the group (his admitted intention) with the declaration
that Design is Dead. See Rick Poyner's article on the conference
(http://www.eyemagazine.com/opinion.php?id=160&oid=453). We don't
accept that Graphic Design is dead (as one presenter suggested) but
that certain views have reached their life span. The view of the
designer or designers' role as either the maker of an end product, or
on the other extreme as the “expert†who comes into a project with
“the answer†is one that many of us felt was no longer operative.

Interdisciplinarity is a given in design activity. What we can all
benefit from is a closer examination of the methods, theories,
difficulties and possibilities to form a stronger framework for how to
be part of the shift that re-visions the role of the graphic designer
in the current and next generation. We are looking to collect
submissions from both designers and those who have or wish to bring a
designer into their process for a special issue of MULTI
(http://multi.cias.rit.edu/).
We welcome traditional papers and non-traditional submissions looking at:
-theoretical, applied, and/or pedagogical practice
-the use of the term graphic design:do we abandon this term as some
suggested?
-evaluation/effectiveness of interdisciplinarity in the classroom (how
do we evaluate? what are the problems?)
-how does design bring together and integrate the views of science?
psychology? economy? ecology? politics? etc…
-what are the factors of change? (i.e. social change such as feminist
theory, technology…etc.)

Design isn’t dead, but it is at the crossroad of a new direction.
Let’s explore the possibilities together as designers, educators,
students and collaborators.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2009
We encourage any inquiries or letters of intent by this deadline.
Laura Chessin
lchessin@vcu.edu
or
Alex Bitterman
alex.bitterman@rit.edu