Politiken today has a small article about some of the teachers at the Danish Design School. They are complaining about current changes at the school: right now attempts are being made to make the Design Education more theoretically oriented. This involves hiring actually researchers to do design research - and fyi (because they dont mention that in the article) it has involved setting up a Center for Design Research, at which my former colleague and co-author Ida Engholm is now employed. Digital design is supposed to be part of the research field - Ida's ph.d. actually delt with the history of webdesign.

Design research is needed to change the design education into something more "business" friendly, claims the head of the Design School. It is because the students have learned to do proper design, that we are succesfully, claims the teachers of traditional "craftmanship" courses in ceramics and fashion design. They have quit their jobs, due to the ongoing changes, which means that new priorities are being made when new people are hired.

The clash between practioners and "theorists" is not unique to this environment, but perhaps more pronounced. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Politiken:"Designoprør" ("Design Revolt")

PS. The Center for Design Research hosts an opening conference on Monday September 13th. No program online.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 09:10