Design Culture(s) took place on June 8-11, 2021 in Rome, Italy and virtually.
The conference was hosted by Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Architecture and School of Industrial Design and co-chaired by Sapienza University Loredana Di Lucchio, Full Professor in Design, and Lorenzo Imbesi.
Aligned with the vision of Cumulus Association, the aim of the Conference is to map the most advanced research and education in design, by reflecting on the idea of design as a form of culture, while drawing its field and opening to new directions.
Design Culture(s) is investigating not simply on the concept of culture as a monolithic expression of a specific knowledge that reflects on itself, but as the product of an investigation that is open to many different “Cultures” which are emerging and revolving around it in society, in the places and in history.
Conference Theme
The conference called for designers, academics and experts to tackle the relationship between Design and Culture, with the purpose of valorizing interdisciplinarity and diversity in the Cumulus community. The title of the Conference is “Design Culture(s)” aimed to map the most advanced research and education in design, by reflecting on the idea of design as a form of culture, while drawing its field and opening to new directions.
Design Culture(s) addressed the concept of culture not as a monolithic expression of a specific knowledge that reflects on itself, but as the product of an investigation that is open to many different “Cultures” which are emerging and revolving around it in society, in the places and in history.
We live in an increasingly complex society, which is crossed by new social, cultural and economic challenges and at the same time it is more global and multicultural than ever, more and more enriched by new languages and the flows of people. As a consequence, design is evolving as a wide-open field with many new applications and cultural meanings. Design as expression of Culture(s) took into consideration the cultures we are inheriting from the past and which should be granted for the benefit of future generations, intertwining past and future, tangible and intangible, innovation and tradition.
Learn more about the conference at cumulusroma2020.org. You can also download the Conference Proceedings.
Design Culture(s) Conference Program Highlights
Conference Tracks
The Conference was organized into 9 parallel tracks in order to address several different Cultures of Design. After the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, a new special track to understand how the Design discipline is dealing with the Covid-19 as a global challenge was introduced to explore design’s responses generated during or after the pandemic crisis. The tracks were: Artificial, Languages, Life, Making, Multiplicity, New Normal (post-Covid-19), Proximity, Resilience, Revolution and Thinking.
The Cumulus Roma Design Culture (s) call for Papers, Posters and Exhibition is available in PDF format here. The conference proceedings are also available for review.
The conference included sessions by the Cumulus working groups below. Please visit the Cumulus Roma conference website and the working group pages for more information:
Art and Design Teacher Education and Pedagogy (AADTE)
Business, Strategy and Innovation
Contemporary Art
Design for Health, Ageing and Wellbeing (DEHA)
Digital Culture
Fashion and Textile
New Eating Habits
Research Vectors through Design and Arts (REVEDA)
Service Design
Women in Design
X-Files for Internalization
Other Highlights
The conference hosted a session organized by Cumulus partner DESIS; a special session of the Cumulus PhD Network initiative and a number of exhibitions, and cultural programs. Please review the conference website for more detailed information.
Keynote Speakers
Roberto Marchesini
Roberto Marchesini is an Italian philosopher and ethologist whose work is significant for the rethinking of animality and human–animal relations. He is the Director of the Center for the Study of Posthumanist Philosophy, as well as the School of Human-Animal Interactions, both based in Bologna, Italy.
He is the Director of the Center for the Study of Posthumanist Philosophy, as well as the School of Human-Animal Interactions, both based in Bologna, Italy.
Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico
Salvatore Iaconesi is a robotic engineer, designer and artist; Oriana Persico is a cyber-ecologist, autobiographer and expert in digital inclusion. Living and working together since 2006 under the brand [ AOS – Art is Open Source ], they have created artworks and performances of global interest united by the exploration and observation of contemporary technological human beings and societies – and their continuous mutation.
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Pier Luigi Capucci
Pier Luigi Capucci has been concerned since the ‘80s with the studies on communication, the new media and the new art forms, and with the relationships among arts, sciences and technologies. His theoretical activity is concerned with technologies of representation and communication, with technoscience-based art forms and with the media archaeology studies.
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Chiara Luzzana
Chiara Luzzana is an Award-winning Sound Designer. Her work combines Sound Design, Music Composition, Sound Branding, Soundtrack and Audio Installation and partners with companies and agencies all over the world. In notable projects such as “The sound of city,” she explores and listens to the artifacts of the urban environment, and the products of the industrial cultures all around the world.
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Conference Team
Chairs
Loredana Di Lucchio
Full Professor in Design, Sapienza University of Rome
Lorenzo Imbesi
Full Professor in Design, Sapienza University of Rome
Conference Managers
Angela Giambattista
PhD, Research Fellow, Sapienza University of Rome
Viktor Malakuczi
PhD, Research Fellow, Sapienza University of Rome
Scientific Committee
Mariana Amatullo
President of Cumulus Association
Banny Banerjee
Director of Stanford ChangeLabs
Luisa Bocchietto
President of World Design Organization
Lin-Lin Chen
Chair of Design Innovation Strategy, Eindhoven University of Technology
Luisa Collina
Past President of Cumulus Association
Rachel Cooper
President of Design Research Society
Cees de Bont
Dean School of Design, Loughborough University
Claudio Germak
President of Italian Scientific Society of Design
Christian Guellerin
Past President of Cumulus Association
Antonio Paris
Emeritus Professor in Design, Sapienza University of Rome
Rodrigo Rodriguez
President of Material Connexion Italia srl
Yrjö Sotamaa
President Emeritus of Cumulus Association
Francesca Tosi
President of Conference of Italian School of Design
Cumulus Student Ambassadors
Every Cumulus Conference host selects student ambassadors to be their representatives and special envoys. Design Culture(s) counted with the participation of:
Camilla Gironi and Dimitri Russo
Sapienza University
Felipe Borbón Vásquez, Juliana Edith Rojas and Valeria Rozo Moreno
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Cumulus Plus Grantees
Each Cumulus Conference welcomes a select group of distinguished scholars and practitioners from different parts of the world who are recipients of this grant program. Design Culture(s) welcomed:
Dr. Noha Essam
PhD, MA, MSc ( London South Bank University (LSBU) and German University In Cairo (GUC), Egypt
Ralitsa Diana Debrah
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, West Africa
Schalk van Staden
Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
Conference Activities
Articles
Now available Reflecting on Design Culture(s) publication
The Cumulus Roma 2021 conference presents the volume #1 of the proceedings that were published in the Cumulus...
