Gender Equality and Diversity in Design
Artikel vom 17.08.2022
With the conference, the Institute for Design Research at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Schader Foundation invited to an interdisciplinary discourse on the topic of "Gender Eqaulity and Diversity in Design".
Gender Equality and Diversity in Design
Design describes a discipline and competence that has an impact on all levels of our public and private life and in which, precisely for this reason, the debate about a fair distribution and an equitable design of resources and their access becomes central for social coexistence. With the New European Bauhaus Initiative as part of the Green Deal agreement, the European Union has officially underscored the relevance of design and art for the humane shaping of a new better future based on the triad: sustainability, inclusivity and aesthetics. With our conference we - the research cluster "Design & Gender" at the Institute for Design Research, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Schader Foundation- want to specifically stimulate an interdisciplinary and cross-university discourse on the topic of "Design and Gender Equality" and thereby explicitly address "Design & Diversity" themes as well as "Inclusivity" as part of our engagement towards a sustainable future.
The focus was on questions, research projects and innovative approaches that deal with the reappraisal of gender-relevant facts that have been underrepresented or hardly registered so far. In particular, the implementation of gender equity and gender diversity in the context of the discipline of design as well as various fields affected by design will be discussed. These include computer science, engineering, architecture, psychology, philosophy, medicine as well as pedagogy, AI research and robotics...
- How can gender equity and diversity be designed?
- Where has gender diversity remained implicitly or explicitly under-thematized and under-represented until today?
- Where and how do pioneers concerning the integration of gender equity into design practice work?
- What are possible measures for the sustainable implementation of gender equity and diversity?
- How and where can and should structures be changed or consolidated in order to sustainably implement gender equality in and through design?
- How does design relate to intersectionality today?
- Do we perhaps even need some kind of ethical code in design for equity and inclusivity?
Sections in which we want to ask the gender and diversity question:
- Passive object worlds as sites of socio-cultural gender ascriptions.
- Interactive object worlds as sites of socio-cultural gender ascriptions.
- Use of AI
- Robotics
- Design for Health
- Design in current sustainability initiatives (e-mobility / (public) space design)
- Design education
- Design practice
From 22th October to 12th November the Schader Gallery presented the accompanying exhibition Just - Design for Transformation.