Questions
of design and ethics take on a new currency, form and prescience in a post-industrial, ‘post-truth’ landscape. The technological
shifts that have re-organised work through the automation of labour are intimately connected to global social problems relating
to immigration, racial and gender politics. New classifications of intelligence, ‘artificial’, ‘alternative’ and ‘false’,
are produced and consumed through the design and management of infrastructures of information. Meanwhile, new experts in algorithmic
cultures, engineering and synthetic biology pursue the application of these forms of intelligence in medicine, security, health
and social care as practical solutions to complex social problems.
Design and architecture occupy a powerful
and precarious responsibility within this complexity, which goes beyond mere application and facilitation. The Papanek Symposium
2017 considers the deeply embedded social and political implications of design; a practice which can be so vulnerable to co-option
and yet conversely so valuable as a form of dissent. It explores the unique position of design practice and research- contemporary,
historical and anthropological-to address questions of ethics in design. Bringing academics and designers into dialogue, it
aims to generate new ideas and critical thinking on the state of ethics in design and architecture today.
Speakers
include Jan Boelen (Z33, Belgium), David Bruemmer (5D Robotics, USA), Prof. Chris Csíkszentmihályi, (Madeira Interactive Technologies
Institute, Portugal) Dr. Bianca Elzenbaumer (Leeds College of Art/Brave New Alps, UK), Corinna Gardner (Victoria and Albert
Museum, UK), Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (Royal College of Art, UK), Dr. Orit Halpern (Concordia University, Canada), Dr.
Alison Powell (London School of Economics, UK), Matthias Tarasiewicz (RIAT, Austria), Prof. Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths, University
of London, UK).
Papanek Lecture 2017: The Architectural Sensorium Following
the Papanek Symposium 2017: Design & Ethics, Professor Eyal Weizman, Architect, Professor of Spatial and
Visual Cultures and Director of Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London will deliver the 2017 Papanek Lecture,
‘The Architectural Sensorium’.
In recent years Forensic Architecture began using novel research methods
to undertake a series of investigations into human rights abuses. Today, the group provides crucial evidence for international
courts and works with a wide range of activist groups, NGOs, Amnesty International, and the UN. Beyond shedding new light
on human rights violations and state crimes across the globe, Forensic Architecture has also created a new form of investigative
practice that bears its name. The group uses architecture as an optical device to investigate armed conflicts and environmental
destruction, as well as to cross-reference a variety of evidence sources, such as new media, remote sensing, material analysis,
witness testimony, and crowd sourcing. In this lecture Eyal Weizman, the group’s founder, provides an in-depth introduction
to the history, practice, assumptions, potentials, and double binds of this practice.
Directed by: Professor
Alison J. Clarke
Organised by Dr. Leah Armstrong and Professor Alison J. Clarke
Hosted by His Excellency Dr. Martin
Eichtinger, Austrian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Austrian Embassy UK
Organised in collaboration with
the Austrian Embassy, London and Austrian Cultural Forum, London and in official partnership with the London Design Festival.
Public event, free of charge, registration required.
For more information, including full programme
and registration, please visit:
http://papanek.org/symposium/http://papanek.org/lecture/http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/victor-papanek-symposium-lecture-2017 
