Well..What Is It?

Design has many connotations when you think about the word. Clothes, interior, designer big names, no names, architecture…the list could go on and on. But never would i have imagined design and social to be merged together. Social Design. I had recently gotten accepted into a M.A. program for Social Design at MICA. Excited with the opportunity to not only learn, study, and research but to also explore my creative practices and passions.

Social Design is described as a way to use design thinking frameworks and methodologies to help solve complex societal issues and problems..no we’re not aiming to create utopias like The Giver but there is some element of being present and thinking and re-imagining the future and what it can be.

My place right now in relation to Social Design is to question and investigate. To think about the past, present, and future of Social Design and what that means for artists and researchers like myself.

This week I am reading “Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook” by Dori Tunstall

This particular quote has stayed with me, “ My aspiration is that Decolonizing Design will show you a current and future possibilities of design. It approaches design from a much broader perspective than the making of objects, graphics, environments, and interactions, because decolonizing design requires that we break down our basic assumptions of what design is and what it has been, then rebuild a new with a more inclusive understanding of its theories and practices.”

Tunstall outlines her perspective by defining what

Decolonizing Design means..

1. Putting Indigenous First
2. Dismantling the Tech Bias in the European Modernist Project
3. Dismantling the Racist Bias in the European Modernist Project
4. Making Amends through More than Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
5. Reprioritizing Existing Resources to Decolonize

Tunstall’s work requires me and hopefully other designers to think about where they fit in or do not fit in.