Social
Spaces

Under the LSM program (Limburg Sterk Merk: Limburg strong brand), the MAD-faculty in Hasselt and Genk (Belgium) obtained substantial fundings in order to stimulate the research at the MAD-faculty (PHL and MDA) through doctoral fellowships, starting in Jan. 2011. In total it concerns 7 full-time PhD-fellowships for four years in arts & design research.

The proposed project and research question of the applicant will have to match the theme of one of the MAD-faculty research groups, among them Social Spaces (see our mission statement under ‘About’). In addition, there has to be a potential for upgrading the Limburg region. There are several substantive criteria that the application must meet. The detailed call with the assessment, template, LSM file and multi-year plan of the research group Social Spaces, will be made public during the first week of July 2010.

Interested? Contact MSterckx [at] mail.phl.be or liesbeth.huybrechts [at] mda.khlim.be

Our Social Spaces collegues Virginia Tassinari and Nik Baerten were part of Designing household energy practices. A “non-conference” bringing together designers, companies and academics “.…beyond awareness raising and formal education for sustainability, how could the affordance of products support new and more sustainable ways of living? After giving visibility to energy flows, how can design help to rethink the basic interactions with our domestic environment to scripting practices that requires less energy?” More information on this event, you can find here.

It has been an exciting week with the Cumulus conference coming to Genk. I will report on this conference more thoroughly soon, but first I want to congratulate our collegue Virginia Tassinari that she has been elected to be part of the Cumulus board. Two times a year she will, together with designers and thinkers all over the world, meet and exchange practices and knowledge.

Our Social Spaces researchers had an active day yesterday making and sharing stories about their research and personal work and experiences. We joined a workshop on Cultural Probes and a Pecha Kucha evening.

The Waag Society, a Dutch organisation that investigates social applications of networked technology, designed a “Story table” (“Verhalentafel”) a few years ago with film, music and spoken word fragments which date from the period between 1920 and 1980. Old people can digitally leave their comments on this table, so it requires an active attittude. It is a risky design, since it introduces quite advanced technology and a very hybrid collage of media in a elderly home. At the same time it plays with trust, through de design of a classical, wooden table. This table aimed at older people overcoming their fears about new technologies and breaking down their social isolation (www.waag.org/project/verhalentafel). In the meantime a mobile version, in the form a wooden suitcase, is designed adapted to changing life circumstances of elderly in Dutch society (http://www.waag.org/project/mobieleverhalentafel). We are very curious about the sequel!