The Covid-19 Pandemic has once more reminded us how fragile our existence on this planet is and how fragile the planet itself has become. It also made us critically rethink design activities we have been carrying out to shape our environment in order to make ourselves more resilient. Our species is now going through a painful awakening, realizing that in order to make human life last, we have to care for all the living and non-living on a planetary scale.

The coupling of design and authority in a google search, the “internet search authority,” surprisingly results in entries which have more to do with the procedural and legislative aspects related to design: The “authority” issues rules for which the product of design or the designer has to comply with, or claims privilege in shaping the design product. Authority is usually attributed to an agent of enforcement regulating products and to an extent, that those produce design. Understood as a form of legitimized power, authority is realized only by the mutual recognition of those who hold power and those who do not.

In the context of representing the other Gayatri Spivak once said: “And I don’t think, really that we will solve the problem today talking to each other; but, on the other hand I think it has to be kept alive as a problem.” it cultural The statement can be applied to many contexts of identification. Be, disciplinary, or individual identities, boundaries that define them are constructed rather than given. Contrary to essentialist claims, they need to be constantly questioned, deconstructed, and re-formed. This year’s symposium will question the boundaries of design and the possibilities to cross-over those boundaries. Hence the title, Cross (-) abilities in Design.

"Our era prefers the images to the things, the copy to the original the representation to the reality, appearance to being." (Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, 1857)
Feuerbach’s pronouncements marks the symptomatic loss at the heart of modern experience: loss of tradition, loss of the Creator, loss of a connection one formed with what one produced, and loss of a solid ground. These losses were mediated through the hopeful belief on human rationality, science and progress.

“It was inevitable:”
Reads the opening of Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s much acclaimed book, Love in The Time of Cholera. “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” And it is inevitable: every news item on wars, revolts and disasters reminds us of the fate of people suffering. It is inevitable for designers not to ponder the place of design in a world in turmoil. Turmoil, as a state of great disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty may apply to subjects as well as cultures, societies, and marginalized identities.

The protest movements that have recently broken out in different regions of the world including the Arab Spring, the occupy movements and the recent Gezi protests in Istanbul have brought onto the agenda the potential of creative resistance. Particularly the advent of digital technologies has enabled rapid production and widespread distribution possibilities. As such these demonstrations have proceeded with their own peculiar visual culture, icons and symbols. Protests which were set off by strong economic and political concerns were marked by the creative use of artifacts, images and spaces. The most pertinent aspects in terms of design studies were the elements of humor, play and creativity that prevailed during the struggles.

Despite being a constituent element of any social practice, gender often remains an excluded issue from design discourses and practices, yet it plays a significant, and at times transformative role at almost all levels of design, ranging from the identity of the designer and the designed object to the systems of representation and users’ perceptions. Seeing gender as a constituent element of design disciplines raises questions regarding the construction of the very boundaries of those disciplines. Contemporary gender debates, which can no longer be reduced to the woman/man binary, problematize the articulation of the concepts of femininity and masculinity with specific subjects, objects and power relations. Questions regarding the place of design in this web of complicated relationships involve such issues as the modes of articulation of different design areas with various aspects of gender constructs, and critiques of founding assumptions of design disciplines.

One of the institutions going through rapid and radical changes in the 21st Century is the museum. On the one hand the number of museums keeps increasing all around the world, on the other hand the way we conceive, consider and consume museums are being reconstructed. Digital museums are entirely new to us. While we are reviewing the concept of the museum, we are also reviewing the history that we think, we know.

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