DesignInquiry's Futurespective Exhibition : Opportunities to Engage
JOIN DesignInquiry for two gatherings at the Institute for Contemporary Art at MECA in Portland, organized in conjunction with DesignInquiry’s Futurespective exhibition. Pop-Up Inquiry // topic: CURRENCY October 10-13, 2019 -and/or- DesignInquiry CONVIVIUM November 2, 2019.
CURRENCY POP-UP INQUIRY \ CALL FOR QUESTIONNAIRES
PORTLAND, MAINE, USA
OCTOBER 10-13, 2019
CURRENCY is often taken simply to mean money, but if currency also suggests relevance, presence, value and systems of exchange, what exactly has currency in an era in which value systems seem to be shifting? When a state of fluidity characterizes everything, how is value built and enhanced, and what kind of currency is worthy of our investment?
CURRENCY \ CALL FOR QUESTIONNAIRES
PORTLAND, MAINE, USA
OCTOBER 10-13, 2019
Location: DesignInquiry's Futurespective exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA.
Inside the gallery, we will have a working space with a risograph printer, a giant cinderblock letterpress, projector, wallspace, bread-making cart, crockpot array, and spotty wifi.
Cost: need-based sliding scale of $100-250 USD includes registration, some materials, some light meals (so people can enjoy Portland's food scene.) DesignInquiry thanks you for your support of the Inquiry and the Futurespective.
Limited scholarships are available. Accommodation is not provided.
Timeline:
Thursday Oct 10th: evening welcome and kickoff
Friday Oct 11th and Saturday 12th daytime : Inquiry
Saturday 12th evening : public event TBD by Inquirers
Sunday Oct 13th : wrap up and conclusions
This is first in a series of Inquiries and events surrounding DesignInquiry’s 2019-2020 topic, Currency.
Given the short amount of time on hand, the desire to make an artifact of our work, and the need to be timely and urgent in relation to our topic, we are interested in proposals leaning towards making. How might we respond to systems and hierarchies of value? To social constructs determining material realities? What are the invisible currencies we live by and how might we shed light? How do we transfer value? What do we treasure? What is worthless?
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To apply to join DesignInquiry’s Currency Inquiry, send your application with answers to the questions below to info@designinquiry.net. Framers review questionnaires and assemble DesignInquirers based on potency and other/wise compatibility. Applications close when the residency is full.
Proposal for 2019 Currency ICA Portland (500 words max)
1) The Basics. Name and Contact information.
2) Tell us about yourself (and list team members, if applicable).
3) Describe a prompt and/or what you hope to accomplish during your time in the Inquiry environment. A prompt can be a short invitation to make something, as broad as a question or a specific list of instructions. It may present an angle of view, a perspectival shift, a code switch that for a moment mobilizes the energy and steers the thinking power of a group.
3) How does your project embody Currency, as related to your personal sphere of practice (or not)?
4) Describe a possible distribution and dissemination strategy for the project’s outcomes and the project’s anticipated impact.
5) Who else needs to know about DesignInquiry Currency? We welcome bright lights from varied disciplines who can help expand the topic in all directions. Please forward their email to us, or us to them.
Send your application with answers to info@designinquiry.net. We'll get back to you ASAP.
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DesignInquiry’s Futurespective Convivium -- CALL FOR PAPERS
Saturday, 2 November 2019, 10-5
Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Portland, Maine, USA
DesignInquiry invites your participation in the Futurespective Convivium at the ICA in Portland. Neither an academic symposium nor a design conference, the Futurespective Convivium is a congenial day-long gathering in which we will debate and discuss and ruminate and celebrate the significance of a futurespective perspective in design and culture.
Though management gurus have commandeered the futurespective as a team building activity, DesignInquiry prefers the multi-layered approach of avantgardist performer John Cale, whose Barbican Futurespective (in March 2018) rejected nostalgia while finding new possibilities in the past. For Cale, futurespective was “doing old material in a new way”--presenting “different moments, anchored in the period when they were created, and redesigned for today’s ideas.”
What does it mean to rethink the past in the present in order to point to the future?
We invite thinkers and makers from diverse disciplines, both inside and outside of design (and inside and out of the academy), to answer this question as appropriate to each person’s practice and discourse. Proposals should take the form of a 500 word abstract for a 100 word paper.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Brevity should not be mistaken for a lack of rigor. Rather, it suggests taking only the most important, critical, and essential part of your idea and refining it for presentation. Think of a 100 word paper like a finely-cut diamond or a well-drawn parti, like a haiku on steroids or a pecha kucha on a diet or a tweet that’s meaningful. TED believes that 18 minutes is “long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention.” DesignInquiry believes that 100 words is short enough to be serious and long enough to hold people’s attention.
Proposals should be emailed to futurespective@designinquiry.net no later than September 1st. Please include the paper title in your subject line and paste your 500 word abstract in the body of your email, followed by your name and one sentence biography. Collaborative proposals (for sequential 100 word papers) are welcome, but each collaborator should submit an individual abstract. All proposals will be acknowledged.
Direct all questions about the Futurespective Convivium to gabrielleesperdy@designinquiry.net
Cost of attendance is free thanks to the support of the Moser Family Foundation and the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA.
Convivium Calendar
Abstract submission deadline: 9/03/2019
Notification of acceptance: 9/16/2019
Attendance notification deadline: 10/01/2019
Paper submission deadline: 10/14/2019
Futurespective Convivium: 11/02/2019
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DesignInquiry FUTURESPECTIVE EXHIBITION
Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA, Portland, Maine
Join us for the Opening Reception: October 4, 2019 7:00pm
On view: October 4-December 13, 2019