Authors are invited to submit works for the FIFTH issue (volume 3, issue 1) of Dialectic, a biannual journal devoted to the critical and creative examination of issues that affect design education, research, and inquiry. Michigan Publishing, the hub of scholarly publishing at the University of Michigan, is publishing Dialectic on behalf of the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC). The fifth issue will be published between August 13 and September 10, 2021. The deadline for full versions of papers and visual narratives written and/or designed that meet Dialectic Issue 05’s categorical descriptions (see below) is: 5:00 pm CDT, Friday, April 9, 2021.

Dialectic’s fifth issue seeks papers and visual narratives that critically examine, interrogate or reveal how and why design processes informed by various aspects of making have affected (or should affect) the workings of complex systems wherein people “actively participate in generating the content and quality of [their] experiences.” (excerpted from Armstrong, H., Blume, M., Chochinov, A., Davis, M. et al “The AIGA Designer of 2025,” published by AIGA, NY, NY, USA, 2017). Papers and visual narratives that explore design’s evolution from being rooted in the making of artifacts and messages to its expansion into making more human-centered endeavors rooted in experiences, services, interactions and even public policies are welcomed. Submissions are also encouraged that effectively document how design processes can or should affect collaborations that involve broadly informed, egalitarian conversations-cum-collaborations.

Within the theme described above, Dialectic’s fifth issue also seeks to publish work that explores what the near-future of design research, scholarship and educational inquiry should or could possibly achieve (and why). In this context, “near-future” specifies the span of time that begins with our target publication date of the late summer of this year—2021—and the late summer of 2025 (or sooner). Contextual frameworks for what will be published in our fifth issue could include, but are not limited to,

• the effects of recent, globally ubiquitous events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and its socio-cultural, economic and public policy ramifications,
• recent political paradigm shifts in countries on each continent save Antarctica,
• calls to re-imagine and re-shape a broad amalgam of social, technological, economic, environmental and political issues and conditions within and across many of the world’s societies to make them more diverse and inclusive, and
• what—if anything—design research scholarship and education can do to address the growing threat of global warming and its many consequences.

We invite design educators, researchers and practitioners from around the world who wish to share scholarship, research or criticism that aligns with the themes described above to submit their work for possible publication in our fifth issue. These include, but are not limited to, members of the Design Research Society and/or presenters at their recent conferences and events, members of Cumulus and/or presenters at their recent conferences and events, members of the Interaction Design Association and/or presenters at their recent conferences and events, and members of the User Experience Professional Association and/or presenters at their recent conferences and events.

Authors planning to contribute to this issue are reminded that their work should be framed in one of the submission types described in the “categorical descriptions” section that appears later in this communiqué. All submitters are hereby notified that all work we publish MUST satisfy our editorial guidelines (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/policies-guidelines), and MUST ABIDE BY FORMAL PARAMETERS SUCH AS WORD COUNTS (see below). Prospective authors should note that submissions that require extensive, line-by-line editing will be rejected!

Each piece that Dialectic will publish must be based on fundamentally sound scholarship and inquiry, and be written or designed so that is broadly accessible, and be focused on topics relevant to our audiences.

Dialectic’s web address for submissions:
https://mpub.janewaysharedhosting.com/dialectic/submissions/

Submitters are hereby advised to peruse the contents of the entire Dialectic website to ensure that their submissions meet ALL of Dialectic’s criteria for publication BEFORE they submit work for consideration. Reading the rest of this communiqué CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY is also STRONGLY encouraged.

Dialectic’s past issues are FREELY available to anyone with electricity and an internet connection (and a functional computing device and a web browser) at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/past-issues

All submissions to Dialectic MUST be made through the “Janeway” website hosted by Michigan Publishing listed above. Please DO NOT attempt to send any type of submission as an e-mail attachment to any of Dialectic’s Editorial Board members, its Producer, its AIGA DEC liaisons, or members of its Advisory Committee (doing this will cause your submission to be rejected). Instructions for formatting ALL types of submissions are embedded (per category) in this Janeway website. Submissions that are NOT formatted according to these instructions will be rejected. All submissions must be created in keeping with the editorial policy of Dialectic, which is articulated here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/policies-guidelines.

Categorical descriptions of the type of content Dialectic publishes

Dialectic will publish visual essays/narratives and papers that satisfy the following categorical descriptions:

Original visual essays/visually based narratives/visual storytelling: Dialectic invites submissions from designers or teams of designers that are comprised primarily or solely of imagery (photography and/or illustrations), typographic structures, “type-as-image,” or some combination of these that visually communicate one or more types of narrative/storytelling. The logistical criteria specified in the “Submission Instructions” section of the Dialectic website (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/submit) must be met (re: image resolutions, physical sizes, bleeds, etc.), and submissions that are assessed by the Editorial Board and/or external reviewers to be visually compelling and conceptually provocative will be considered for publication, pending the availability of page space in a given issue.

Research papers (3,000 to 6,500 words): These articles will recount how designers and design teams 1) identified a situation that was problematic, 2) formulated and operated research to understand the various factors, conditions and people involved that were affecting the situation, and then 3) used their analysis of the data gathered from this research to guide design decision-making toward improving this situation. This type of writing should be grounded in evidentiary processes and a viable theoretical approach, and should clearly explicate a hypothesis, as well as posit and support a methodology and some form of a measurable data set. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 6,500 words will be rejected.

Long-form case study reports or case series reports (3,000 to 6,500 words): These articles will describe how a particular person, group, project, event, experience or situation has been studied and analyzed, using one or more methods, during a specific span of time. These contributions should posit insights that exist as logical subsets of a larger category, and that are at least tangentially generalizable to this category. A case series report collectively describes how a group of individuals have responded to a particular type of treatment, experience or interaction. They can be used (for example) to help analyze and assess the responses of a cross-section of individual users to one or more iterations of an interface design, or an environmental graphics or wayfinding system, or a series of data visualizations. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 6,500 words will be rejected.

Position papers (2,000 to 4,500 words): These essays will present the readership of Dialectic with an opinion—of the author, or of a specified group of people or organization—about an issue or set of issues in a way or ways that make particular values and the belief systems that guide them known. Poorly structured and extended argumentative prose will be rejected; submissions in this category that exceed 4,500 words will be rejected.

Design criticism (as long-form essays of between 2,000 and 3,000 words): The goal of these pieces is to critically analyze design decision-making, and the affects that making and using what has been designed have on the operation and evolution of social, technological, economic, environmental and political systems. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 3,000 words will be rejected.

Reviews of books, exhibitions, conferences, etc. (750 to 1,500 words): These shorter articles are written to critically analyze the efficacy of the structure, content, style, and relative merit of their particular subjects in ways that combine the author’s personal reactions and arguments to it with his/her assessment of how effectively it fulfilled or failed in its purpose. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 1,500 words will be rejected.

Survey papers (2,000 to 3,000 words): These pieces are written to clearly summarize, organize, and analyze a select, topical grouping of scholarly articles, research papers, or case studies in a way that integrates and adds to the understanding of the work in a given discipline or field of study. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 3,000 words will be rejected.

Theoretical speculations (3,000 to 6,500 words): These contributions will consist of attempts by their authors to explain a particular phenomenon, set of circumstances, or situational construct based on their ability to utilize observations rather than hard evidence to fuel speculative thoughts and suppositions. These contributions should be grounded in a viable paradigm, or use theory as a viable justification for what has been observed, and should be internally coherent and advance logical conclusions. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 6,500 words will be rejected.

Editorial responses from Dialectic readers (750 to 1,200 words): Dialectic encourages its readers to submit critical responses to specific articles, editorials, or visual pieces that have been published in previous issues. Authors are also welcome to write within this category to bring any issues that they believe are pertinent to the attention of Dialectic’s readership. Editorial commentary relative to specific published articles and pieces will be sent to their author(s) so they can respond. Please note: submissions in this category that exceed 6,500 words will be rejected.

Important dates:

The deadline for full versions of papers and visual narratives written and/or designed that meet Dialectic Issue 05’s categorical descriptions is: 5:00 pm CDT, Friday, April 9, 2021.

Initial/Desk reviews of submissions to Dialectic Issue 05 complete: April 30, 2021

External reviews of submission to Dialectic Issue 05 complete: June 4, 2018

Authors responses/revisions to external reviewers’ suggestions re: their manuscripts due: July 9, 2021

Dialectic Issue 05 published: August 13–September 10, 2021

The Cumulus member and hosting university, Aalto University is inviting the community to the seventh Art of Research conference, that will be held on 3-4 December 2020 in online mode.

The theme of the conference “Authorship and Responsibility” addresses the varied collaborative and individual working situations of researcher artists, designers and architects. The theme connects to questions of singular authorship, shared authorship, lost authorship, invisible or uncredited authorship, participatory conditions, co-creation, inclusion and exclusion.

The Conference Catalogue, with all presentations’ abstracts, is now ready for download!

Registration is still open! You can register yourself to the conference by following this link.

Cumulus also wants to congratulate Aija Freimane on her first post-doctoral research at Art Academy of Latvia!

Dear Cumulus colleagues and friends,

Art Academy of Latvia is proud to share knowledge, developed as the first postdoctoral research in design in Latvia, financed by European regional Development Fund. Our associate professor, fellow postdoctoral researcher in design, Aija Freimane, PhD, was curious how to witness design added value. Ideas such as “good design always creates good value” and “design adds value” support the proposition that design impacts society and contributes to the economy but do not provide reliable and evidence-based tools to demonstrate that fact.

The postdoctoral study ‘Identification system of design’s socio-economic impact towards transformation to a knowledge-intensive economy in Latvia’ was a global–local case study that aimed to discuss added value of design by recommending indicators of perceived value that measures cultural and personal satisfaction, happiness and wellbeing as a result of design’s socio-economic impact from the user’s perspective across five generations and four socioeconomic class groups. Triple design process and design maturity matrix are proposed to witness design’s added value in a framework of redefined design definition.

We are happy to share developed knowledge in design theory as case-study results ‘Perceived design value. The socio-economic of Design’.

Find the summary as a PDF below.
Perceived Design Value Book_AIJA_FREIMANE
ISBN PDF 978-9934-541-52-0, ISBM 978-9934-541-51-3

The Vienna Declaration is intended as a policy document addressing political decision makers, funding bodies, higher education and research institutions as well as other organisations and individuals catering for and undertaking Artistic Research. The Vienna Declaration, co-written by AEC, Cilect / GEECT, Culture Action Europe, Cumulus, EAAE, ELIA EPARM, EQ-ARTS, MusiQuE and SAR, is the first outcome of this important collaboration.

See the declaration here.

Thank you to our partners for the beautiful cooperation!

The initiative is open for the involvement of other international organisations proving legitimate interest. Any inquiries? Please contact: Eija Salmi, eija.salmi(at)aalto.fi

We estimate that designers and creators represent 5% of the global workforce, and they will play a crucial role in designing the world we live in by 2025.
Our ambition is to empower this 5%, and make designing for the circular economy the new normal by 2025.

Designing for a circular economy is one of the biggest creative challenges of our time. We need a new approach and an orchestrated global programme to support designers and creators. Along with our partners and extended network of brands, startups, governments, academics, and thought-leaders, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation aims to:
1. Reach 80 million designers and creators
2. Engage 20 million designers and creators
3. Demonstrate thousands of circular solutions

Find out more at www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

and check the attached pdf. About the Circular Design programme

In times characterized by complexity, disruption and an unprecedented speed of change, uncertainty about the future is staring us in the face. Throughout history, artists have deciphered prospective futures in their work; from Neolithic shrines and cave paintings, to modern film interpretations of utopian and dystopian futures. But can these creative outputs be used effectively to help minimize the shock of the new, and allow for a positive unified vision of our shared future?

This was the main question facing a diverse group of artists, futurists, cultural theorists and activists, museum professionals, technologists, educators and policymakers when they met in Salzburg, Austria earlier this year.

Salzburg Global Seminar gathered the 50 future thinkers from 25 countries to re-imagine the nexus between the arts and technology, questioning what it means to be human in the Anthropocene and beyond.

Their discussions, learnings and insights have now been gathered in a new report, The Shock of the New: Arts, Technology and Making Sense of the Future.
(Source of text and photo: Salzburg Global Seminar newsletter)

The Seminar was attended by Associate Professor Mariana Amatullo (Parsons, USA) who is a Executive Board Member of Cumulus.

The series (ISSN (Print) 2490-0478, ISSN (Electronic) 2490-0486) consists of the following publications:

1. Changing Paradigms: Designing for a Sustainable Future
Editors: Peter Stebbing, Ursula Tischner
Published by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
Printed by Vedanta Arts, Mumbai, India
ISBN (print): 978-952-60-0070-1
ISBN (pdf): 978-952-60-0071-8

2. Bearers of Internationalisation
Editors: Aparajita Dutta (chief editor), Maria Aasma, Yolande Kolstee
Published by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
Printed by Libertas Pascal, Utrecht, the Netherlands 2016
ISBN (print): 978-952-60-0074-9
ISBN (pdf): 978-952-60-0075-66

3. Soft Landing
Editors: Nithikul Nimkulrat, Ulla Ræbild, Anna Piper
Published by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
Printed by AS Pakett, Tallinn, Estonia
978-952-60-0083-1 (print)
978-952-60-0084-8 (pdf)
978-952-60-0085-5 (app)
978-952-60-0086-2 (ePub)

In addition, please check on this publication, which proceeded the series

DESIGNER: Careers and Professionalization
Authors: Christian Guellerin, Nicolas Minvielle, Marie deJacquelot
ISBN: 978-2-8041-6015-9
ISSN: 2032-6572
Publisher: De Boeck www.deboeck.com

With 62 interviews and portraits of international designers and professional analyses of the skills and profiles of designers trained in design schools within the Cumulus network, this book presents the opportunities open to designers.

The third Cumulus Think Tank publication was released during the Cumulus conference To get there: designing together Paris, France. It is the first ever publication from the Fashion and Textile Cumulus Working Group.

The Cumulus Think Tank series is designed to facilitate gathering and sharing of know-how and experiences of academics, students and staff in collaboration with partners and other professionals in art, design and media.

Soft Landing
Editors: Nithikul Nimkulrat, Ulla Ræbild, Anna Piper
Published by Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland
Printed by AS Pakett, Tallinn, Estonia
978-952-60-0083-1 (print)
978-952-60-0084-8 (pdf)
978-952-60-0085-5 (app)
978-952-60-0086-2 (ePub)

Soft Landing

Soft Landing is a collection of essays that pinpoints where fashion and textile education is today and where it may shift in the future. Initiated by Cumulus’s Fashion and Textile WG, the essays in this volume address critical questions for fashion and textiles. They shed light on different ideas, approaches, problems, and solutions from teaching and research, as well as contemplating the future trajectory and evolution of fashion and textile education. Will the landing be soft or with turbulence?

The full version of the book is now available for a free-download.
PDF version PDF_SINGLE_cumulus_soft_landing

Please check also the free Cumulus Publications app.
Download instructions at http://sites.aalto.fi/cumulus/download-our-cumulus-publications-app/

Call for Papers/ Special Issue
Borderless: Global Narratives in Art Education

Who are we in relationship to other cultures and countries? What issues in art, design and their education are potent across the world? How can artists, designers, curators and art educators address and teach with a narrative of “being global”? This issue’s theme, Borderless: Global Narratives in Art Education, challenges us to look outward as we reflect inward. When facing global issues and divisions on top of contestation about worldviews and ontological discourses, we are challenged to reflect on our established views about and beyond local or regional history and knowledge. Therefore, seeking new and open-ended approaches to globalization, this call for papers seeks art educators’ critical and theoretical explorations and responses as global educators. We invite authors to share global narratives that address globalizing educational issues, concerns, and problems, both reflecting on their art educational approaches on globalization and reiterating the transforming and/or communicative opportunities of art and visual culture (Delacruz, 2009; Meskimmon, 2010).

Narrative (inquiry) is an interpretation of history or stories created by a person, groups of people, or popular media. Said’s (1978) criticism from decades ago, for example, on the development of Western historical, political, and cultural views on the East informs that Orientalism as a narrative serves and justifies the West’s dominance. Curriculum as a narrative might also reflect the idea and viewpoint of selected groups, views, and ideologies. However, narratives are flexible. They can be changed or rewritten. Therefore, we invite revision and counter-interpretation against particular cultures, people, and viewpoints. As artists, designers, curators, educators, what are your constructed narratives, and how might they develop or critically challenge dominant stories? When forming new narratives on a global context, we encourage authors to share their critical and/or successful narratives towards the traces, emerging issues, or future vision of globalizing art education.

For this theme, some of the following questions might be addressed:

What are global narratives for art education? How can artists, curators and art educators address global narratives or stories in our work, teaching and research?
What are emerging narratives that demand global focus and attention? How can we communicate and teach with, about, and for emerging global narratives?
Can narratives compete and conflict with each other on global teaching and learning? In what ways are dominant narratives contributing to damaging single stories?
How do you interpret, communicate, and work with others’ global narratives or stories?
What is the role of art educators in the age of globalizing conflicts and issues based upon highly contrasting and contesting social, political, cultural, and religious ideologies and practices?
How can global visual culture and social networking be explored to address global narratives?
How can we address or create equitable global narratives toward global inclusion, diversity, and justice?
How can theories or critical approaches from other disciplines inform and address global narratives in art education?

This special issue in Synnyt/Origins journal is part of a multi-journal collaborative project. There are multiple other journals joining the same theme and multiple issues around that world will be published during the year 2018. These are some of the journals:
Art Education Review, Korea
Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, USA
Revista Portuguesa de Educação Artística, Portugal
Synnyt / Origins, Finnish Studies in Art Education, Finland
Tercio Creciente, Spain
Art Education (TBC), Taiwan

Deadline for the submissions is the February 28th, 2018. Please, send your submission to the journal’s email address: synnyt-origins@aalto.fi
Please, mention the name of the special issue in the title of your email: Borderless: Global Narratives in Art Education. The submission should follow the journal guidelines on formats: Synnyt/Origins accepts submissions in English and in Finnish. The format of a submission can be a full article (max 6000 words), a visual essay (max 3000 words), a commentary (max 3000 words), or a media review (max 3000 words).

Each submission goes through a peer review process, and the author will receive feedback from the senior editor, one of the associate editors, and two reviewers. Most manuscripts go through at least one rewrite. Submissions should follow the APA 6th edition writing style.

If you have any questions, please, contact the senior editor of Synnyt/Origins, Dr. Mira Kallio-Tavin: synnyt-origins@aalto.fi

We are pleased to introduce the publication of the SECOND issue of Dialectic, a scholarly journal of thought leadership, education and practice in the discipline of visual communication design.

The entirety of the contents of Volume 1, Issue 02 (V1, I2) of Dialectic, the new, fully open access scholarly journal administrated by the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Design Educators’ Community, can be viewed in full at: http://www.dialectic.aiga.org. A list of the articles and reviews that have been published in Dialectic’s V1, I2 appear below, along with links that will allow readers to download these as PDFs.

+ + + + +
The Call For Papers for possible publication in Dialectic Volume 2, Issue 4 is still open (and will remain open until 5:00 pm CST, January 25). More information about this CFP is available at:
https://educators.aiga.org/announcing-the-call-for-the-fourth-issue-of-dialectic/

+ + + + +
Each of the pieces that has been published in Dialectic V1, I2—their titles and author’s names appear below—may be read or viewed in full online by navigating to the URL listed above and then clicking on the “CONTENTS” box in the upper right corner of Dialectic’s home page. Additionally, each of these pieces may be freely and openly downloaded as PDFs from http://www.dialectic.aiga.org.

The Table of Contents for Dialectic’s second issue is located at:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/

The content of Dialectic is organized in three sections: “Front Matter,” “The Feature Well,” and “Back Matter.”

The Front Matter section contains the following:
Knowledge Designs and Illusions/Delusions of Agency by Johanna Drucker, Ph.D.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.201?view=text;rgn=main

The Feature Well section contains the following:
How to Do Things with Pictures: The Experience of Challenging Imagery in Visual Media<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.202> by Matthew Peterson, Ph.D.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.202?view=text;rgn=main

Designing Philosophy by Tyson Lewis, Ph.D. & Lama Al Harkan https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.203?view=text;rgn=main

This is How You Become Number One: Some Very Helpful Thoughts and Drawings by Alex Egner by Alex Egner https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.204?view=text;rgn=main

A Multiple Intelligences Model for Design: Developing the Ways Designers Think as Design Disciplines Expand<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.205> by Dennis M. Cheatham https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.205?view=text;rgn=main

Discourses on the Methods: Investigating the Narratives of Design Education in France<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.206> by Tiphanie Kazi-Tani & Frédéric Valentin https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.206?view=text;rgn=main

Dezombies and the Coming Design Apocalypse: Confronting the Urgent Need to Increase Racial Diversity and Environmental Awareness in University-Level American Communication Design Programs<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.207> by Eric Benson, Michael R. Gibson, & John Jennings https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.207?view=text;rgn=main

Managing the Creative Process within Graphic Design Firms: A Literature Review<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.208> by Jessica Jacobs https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.208?view=text;rgn=main

The Back Matter section contains the following critical book reviews:
Practice-based Design Research<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.209>
Edited by Laurene Vaughan; review by Holly Willis, Ph.D.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.209?view=text;rgn=main

Design and the Creation of Value<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.210>
by John Heskett (edited by Clive Dilnot and Suzan Boztepe); review by Kenneth Fitzgerald https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.210?view=text;rgn=main

Digital Design Theory: Readings from the Field<https://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.14932326.0001.211>
by Helen Armstrong; review by Kelly Murdoch-Kitt & Marty Maxwell Lane https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.211?view=text;rgn=main

***
AIGA is a partner of Cumulus.