https://interdesigning.com Interdesigning Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:25:02 +0000 https://interdesigning.com en https://interdesigning.com/Landing-Page-HOME Mon, 25 Sep 2023 09:26:52 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Landing-Page-HOME We are a collective of design educators from across the Asia Pacific region engaged with a range of separate yet related questions on how to co-create decolonial, pluriversal, and intersectional voices, materials, themes, and approaches within our teaching. We encourage more diverse ways of teaching and designing within tertiary institutions. This is our platform for co-creating and sharing this knowledge. The InterDesigning Network strives to be a home for histories, perspectives, and practices of design that have been—and still often remain—underrepresented within dominant design dialogues and university curricula across the Asia Pacific region. The InterDesigning network seeks to create connections between educators who want to share experiences of trying, failing and succeeding to implement approaches to positionality, locality, and plurality in the classroom. <img width="1080" height="608" width_o="1080" height_o="608" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f4547cdf338b4a9a49ef6b8b82528a6f569b3c7e6e19ed523e985e97d2608dc/Banner-16-9-smaller.gif" data-mid="193824206" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f4547cdf338b4a9a49ef6b8b82528a6f569b3c7e6e19ed523e985e97d2608dc/Banner-16-9-smaller.gif" /> Past Happenings 18 March 2025 InterDesigning Report Through gatherings, workshops and publications the InterDesigning team promote the formation of a network of like-minded educators and practitioners to encourage more diverse ways of designing and the inclusion of varied voices in design. The network’s strength lies in the relationships fostered among design practitioners and academics across the Asia Pacific region and Global South geographies. Read more 28–29 November2023 InterDesigningSymposium Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories. You are warmly invited to join the InterDesigning symposium that will bring together design scholars, educators, and practitioners across Oceania to explore and co-create more diverse ways of teaching and designing within tertiary institutions. Read more 2 November 2023 ACUADS Conference The InterDesigning network will be presenting at the Thriving Futures 2023 ACUADS conference. Our presentation ‘Wellbeing in dialogue: How to innovate design teaching through positionality, intersectionality and pluriversal approaches’ centres key praxes in design education that have the potential to increase students’ sense of belonging while improving staff confidence and ability to teach from and including diverse perspectives. Through these praxes, we aim to contribute to Design staff and student wellbeing and support the discipline in fulfilling its societal role of foregrounding culture, care, and community. Read more https://interdesigning.com/About-1 Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:34:37 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/About-1 About the Network Across Australasia, design courses within the tertiary education sector continue to remain entrenched in euro-centric narratives and pedagogical approaches, which in turn omit place-specific contexts, cultural histories, knowledges, and diverse ways of designing. In response, we are a collective of design educators working across the Asia-Pacific region, who have come together to de-link from the dominance of Western design education, to unpack the intersections between pluriversality, decoloniality and intersectionality within our own teaching practices. From our own efforts, we understand radical change within institutions is difficult. We created this network to share resources and support educators wanting to break through the repetitive cycle of western-centric design curriculum to incorporate local and pluriversal design knowledges.&nbsp;Facilitating an exchange between different institutes, practices, and teaching experiences collectively enables conversation around how we might radically reconfigure design education specific to our localities and positionalities. By creating this space for educators to uncover, connect, and develop confidence in their own practices and identities, it is hoped our conversation will provide value to design tertiary education by contributing to a future with more equitable documented narratives of design history than we’ve had in the past. Education is central to societal impact and radical change; however, this activity is not always valued as such. We as educators are in the classroom day in day out discussing what is design, for whom we design and why we design with the next generation of designers.&nbsp;It is in the classroom that ideas of positionality and the acknowledgment of one’s power, politics, privilege, and access, can be developed and elaborated upon. This is why we are excited to join and build conversations and networks through InterDesigning, precisely because this work of acknowledging and elaborating on intersectionality, pluriversality and decoloniality can and should happen in the classroom, led by educators who are actively researching and exchanging in this area.&nbsp; Importantly, this network comprises academics, sessional teachers and practitioners who are all at different stages in our professional development and experience with education. This diversity allows for the sharing of different approaches, it makes this network more robust and its potential for outreach stronger. The InterDesigning network aknowledges and thanks&nbsp;The Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) for supporting the development of this network and website. Our Team <img width="1438" height="1950" width_o="1438" height_o="1950" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e59d08dd95974ce01eef31e51e51b29fbe07658338d897e89015e11684710f08/Nicola.jpg" data-mid="193932601" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e59d08dd95974ce01eef31e51e51b29fbe07658338d897e89015e11684710f08/Nicola.jpg" /> <img width="1438" height="1950" width_o="1438" height_o="1950" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1eb3efe5bc626af92b2e59480f1ec33e48309a1379a0cc64ea3ef7ab69fe8719/Livia.jpg" data-mid="193932599" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1eb3efe5bc626af92b2e59480f1ec33e48309a1379a0cc64ea3ef7ab69fe8719/Livia.jpg" /> <img width="1438" height="1950" width_o="1438" height_o="1950" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6bcf1d879bff63db674389fc91bd742f91a135dafe724f3c4160ae2039732b8d/Diana.jpg" data-mid="193932597" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6bcf1d879bff63db674389fc91bd742f91a135dafe724f3c4160ae2039732b8d/Diana.jpg" /> Dr Nicola St John Dr Nicola St John is a design researcher from RMIT University, Australia. Her research is largely collaborative and community based; partnering with First Nations creatives, community schools, and design organisations in participatory research projects to foster social wellbeing, knowledge transfer, and design entrepreneurship. She is the co-founder of Solid Lines, Australia's first First Nations led illustration agency. Nicola has received accolades from the Good Design Awards as well as the prestigious RMIT Vice Chancellor’s award for research impact. Her teaching practice encourages the incorporation of intersectional, pluriversal, and co-design methodologies within communication design practice and her contributions to student learning have been awarded through national and international teaching awards.Read Positionality Statement here Dr Livia Rezende Dr Livia Rezende is a design historian living on Gadigal land and working as a Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Coordinator at the School of Art &amp; Design, UNSW, Sydney. Her current research project investigates the expansion of the industrial design activity in Latin America under the aegis of military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s as a neo-colonial endeavour. Dr Rezende’s previous projects and publications discuss nation-building efforts through designed pavilions, visual communication, exhibits and displays in 19th-century International Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, with emphasis on the commodification of raw materials and the gendering of nature. As one of the co-founders of the international research collective OPEN, Dr Rezende works on decolonial methods and praxis through public engagement, educational impact, and scholarly outputs.Read Positionality Statement here Dr Diana Albarrán González Dr Diana Albarrán González is a Native Latin American design researcher and craftivist from Mexico. She is a Lecturer in the Design programmes at Te Waka Tūhura | Elam School of Fine Arts &amp; Design at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. In collaboration with Mayan weavers, her PhD research proposes Buen Vivir-Centric Design principles towards a fair-dignified life, based on collective well-being, textiles, crafts-design-arts, embodiment and creativity. With more than 18 years of international experience, she seeks to address challenges in a variety of contexts through a meaningful sense of culture, diversity awareness and sensitivity, and the exploration of connections between Oceania and Latin America.Read Positionality Statement here <img width="1438" height="1950" width_o="1438" height_o="1950" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c127bbad8f35cb5a7d1212686e595c2de924fd7cf03151e3f591d3faaccfe315/Fanny.jpg" data-mid="193932598" border="0" data-scale="74" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c127bbad8f35cb5a7d1212686e595c2de924fd7cf03151e3f591d3faaccfe315/Fanny.jpg" /> Dr Fanny Suhendra Dr Fanny Suhendra is a design researcher and educator in Indonesia and Australia. Her primary research focuses on the relationship between graphic design and its role as a behavioural change agent in social and political campaigns. As a Chinese-Indonesian designer educated in the West, she notices that hegemonic Western view remained the primary source for design education and practice, which present the current issue for lack of communication design identity and ownership in non-Western communities. The effort to break the exclusivity and niche perspective around communication design informed her teaching, research and practice, ensuring that empathetic practice and user/student-centred approach is used to develop methodology and pedagogy. Fanny graduated from Swinburne University of Technology in 2021, her thesis focusing on communication design’s role through comparative case studies on Indonesian political and social marketing campaigns and is currently working in Swinburne University of Technology as a communication design lecturer and researcher. Read Positionality Statement here https://interdesigning.com/Happenings Sun, 05 May 2024 06:25:14 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Happenings Upcoming Events Co-creating and sharing knowledge May 2025 Following our symposium, we are looking for ways to continue our network’s aim of co-creating and sharing knowledge amongst design educators, researchers and practitioners. With this in mind, we ask you to take time to reflect on your experiences and learnings, and any powerful moments you would like to share amongst participants of the InterDesinging network. What is one small experience of trying, failing, or succeeding to implement approaches to positionality, locality, and plurality in your teaching, research, or practice you would like to reflect on and share with others. Feel free to write, draw, play with materials, embroidery, or collage your response as an embodied way of reflecting. We have included some examples as inspiration - see below Once complete, scan or photograph your reflection and email to: interdesigning@gmail.com If you would like to send via post, please mail to: FAO Dr Livia Rezende UNSW Art &amp; Design Oxford St &amp; Greens Rd, Paddington NSW 2021 Room F218A Let us know if you are happy for us to share your experiences within our network only, or are happy for us to share publicly on our website. Inspiration Cecelia Faumuina <img width="800" height="601" width_o="800" height_o="601" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2c07edb204b41ef52b1084078fadeacc39a1112b4ab831035dbad8c8e5fa91e0/IMG_02.jpg" data-mid="228457654" border="0" data-scale="48" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/2c07edb204b41ef52b1084078fadeacc39a1112b4ab831035dbad8c8e5fa91e0/IMG_02.jpg" /><img width="5712" height="4284" width_o="5712" height_o="4284" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8b74cdd9df55fd53ee659e49bb444b047262a6eaddbada61dac8e2eae11d8d7e/IMG_01.jpg" data-mid="229248162" border="0" data-scale="48" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8b74cdd9df55fd53ee659e49bb444b047262a6eaddbada61dac8e2eae11d8d7e/IMG_01.jpg" /><img width="5712" height="4284" width_o="5712" height_o="4284" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d4ba79967d8dcad4e9235c169cc837af23ece2f931613a1b5e29bd712dc503f6/IMG_03.jpg" data-mid="229248164" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d4ba79967d8dcad4e9235c169cc837af23ece2f931613a1b5e29bd712dc503f6/IMG_03.jpg" /> One experience I had last year when trying to implement approaches to positionality, locality, and plurality in my teaching was during my teaching of a Minor Paper at our School called "Contemporary Pacific Pattern Systems." We drew from an Indigenous Oceanic Practice of Tapa Cloth Making to inform how we would collate our works together to exhibit as a collective, however, in the end although all students were familiar with Tapa Cloth, they were from a mix of ethnic Oceanic / Pacific backgrounds - being Māori or Pacific Students of mixed heritage whom had been born and raised in Aotearoa. After in class discussions, we decided that the concept of Su'ifeifiloi might be more appropriate for us as they are young people growing up in such a multi-dimensional world where we not only draw from our cultural upbringing but also the wide world around us. Lopesi (2021), describes it as "the Samoan practice of sewing different parts together which offers a culturally grounded research methodology for transdisciplinary theorising. In the end we exhibited the work using the concept of Ula Lole (Garlands made of Various Lollies/Sweets). In many Oceanic cultures Garlands are offered as gifts to others and they are traditionally made using fragrant flowers but in diaspora, many Oceanic people use lollies instead as they are more accessible. The final collective exhibition was called: Su'ifeifiloi - Polyvocality in Moana Nui A Kiwa. The students were to portray a concept or narrative using contemporary pattern designs." Diana Albarran Gonzalez <img width="1000" height="750" width_o="1000" height_o="750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ee32af8dff1ef0ddebdb88ce134b5d421d33f22ed9c846c057bf142b32d45ac/Prompt1.jpg" data-mid="228457655" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ee32af8dff1ef0ddebdb88ce134b5d421d33f22ed9c846c057bf142b32d45ac/Prompt1.jpg" /> Working on this report helped me to reflect back on our shared lived experiences during our first InterDesigning symposium. Looking at the pictures filled me with a deep sense of gratitude for everyone involved, co-founders, speakers, workshop facilitators, attendees, conversations, moments, safe spaces and creative work. This inspired me to pause and honour our time together connecting our hands, minds, bodies and hearts; weaving the threads of gratitude… <img width="1753" height="2480" width_o="1753" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74e7384daa0cb0f01d0ca844e2597fa1839223020a9900714650902995ce6e64/RISO-Printed_-Prompts_Page_1.jpg" data-mid="228457609" border="0" data-scale="67" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74e7384daa0cb0f01d0ca844e2597fa1839223020a9900714650902995ce6e64/RISO-Printed_-Prompts_Page_1.jpg" /> Past Events 28–29 November2023 InterDesigningSymposium Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories. You are warmly invited to join the InterDesigning symposium that will bring together design scholars, educators, and practitioners across Oceania to explore and co-create more diverse ways of teaching and designing within tertiary institutions. Read more Watch the Symposium recording: 2 November 2023 ACUADS Conference The InterDesigning network will be presenting at the Thriving Futures 2023 ACUADS conference. Our presentation ‘Wellbeing in dialogue: How to innovate design teaching through positionality, intersectionality and pluriversal approaches’ centres key praxes in design education that have the potential to increase students’ sense of belonging while improving staff confidence and ability to teach from and including diverse perspectives. Through these praxes, we aim to contribute to Design staff and student wellbeing and support the discipline in fulfilling its societal role of foregrounding culture, care, and community. Read more 24-28 June 2024 DRS Conference The workshop aims to serve as a collective embodiment of interactions and identification of common patterns and to co-create woven connections of experiences, past and present reflections, and future aspirations towards pluriversal design education. Through a live-embodied experience, this workshop has different intentions. We want participants to experience: a) how our hands and bodies, through craft-making and spatial exploration can contribute to an embodied sense-making of concepts, b) how craft-making can be used as a ‘soft’ entry point to discuss ‘sensitive’ topics such as power and privilege and as an outlet to express related emotions, and c) as a symbolic and embodied move from emotions to action, using our agency as individuals and as a collective to contribute to change. Read more https://interdesigning.com/InterDesigning-Symposium Sun, 05 May 2024 06:24:37 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/InterDesigning-Symposium Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 28–29 November 2023 You are warmly invited to join the InterDesigning network’s symposium that will bring together design scholars, educators, and practitioners across Oceania to explore and co-create more diverse ways of teaching and designing within tertiary institutions. The symposium aims to establish an ongoing network of design educators and postgraduate students at all career stages, where mutual, inclusive, and caring support is fundamental. Guest speakers and participants will be invited to&nbsp;collaboratively produce practical recommendations, ranging from curriculum development and classroom teaching strategies, that can be used in advancing the praxis of teaching and learning decolonial, intersectional, and pluriversal design and histories, where First Nations voices are prioritised. About the Symposium The InterDesigning symposium brings together design scholars, educators, and practitioners across Oceania to facilitate an exchange between different institutes, practices, and experiences to encourage greater engagement with pluriversal and intersectional approaches to teaching and learning. In doing so, this symposium seeks to deconstruct and contest design education as a western-dominated field of representation. Across Australiasia, design courses remain entrenched within euro-centric narratives, while omitting place-specific contexts, cultural knowledge, and diverse ways of designing. Subsequently, the respectful inclusion of cultural and intersectional identities has often been overlooked. This symposium hopes to reposition the necessity and complexity of pluriversal and decolonial approaches to design education. The symposium seeks to support and champion those creating more inclusive design courses and curriculum across the Oceania region. To offer spaces to share our experiences within our own institutions, discuss struggles to continually learn and develop. Unlike conventional symposia where participants provide 15/20-minute papers while others listen, the InterDesigning symposium is a co-participatory event where invited speakers and participants engage in conversations and making workshops to share experiences and reflections. We would like to acknowledge ACUADS in supporting the creation of this network, and to the Design History Society, RMIT University, University of Auckland, and UNSW Sydney for their support for this symposium. Format This is an in-person event and many sessions will be audio and video recorded. Sessions will feature panel presentations and interactive workshops. Day 1 will focus on sharing experiences of teaching design in decolonial, pluriversal and intersectional ways, focusing on connections to place, self, and communities. A range of short presentations and workshops from teachers, sessional/casualised tutors, and students will address core questions and concerns for design education. Day 2 will focus on reflecting on the key themes that have emerged through panel discussions and explore ways we can respond through making, connecting, writing, and sharing. This will largely be in the form of open sessions where we can gather and make space to think and respond through a variety of creative mediums. How to Register This event is free of charge. Registration is essential for building safety requirements and catering purposes. Through a eventbrite page, you will be able to book tickets/register for: Symposium day 1: November 28Symposium day 2: November 29 This event will be catered, which means if you register, please do come! We don't want to waste food.︎︎︎ interdesigning.eventbrite.com LocationRMIT University, City Campus November 28: The Oxford Scholar, Level 1 function space, 427 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 November 29: RMIT Garden Building, Level 5, Building 10, RMIT University 376-392 Swanston Street, Melbourne Entry access from Bowen Street (between Swanston and Russell streets) Programming The full symposium program and speakers will be shared here shortly. An overview of the agenda is included below. Day 1: Tuesday 28 Nov 2023 9.00–9.30&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Delegate registration, RMIT University, Melbourne 9.30–10.00 &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Welcome to Country from Traditional Owners &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Opening statement from the InterDesigning network10.00–12.30&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Circle One: Connecting to PlaceFollowing First Nation peoples’ conversational praxes for ideas exchange (e.g., yarning, korero, talanoa or círculo de la palabra) the first circle seeks to deepen our understanding on the impacts, challenges, and responsibilities of integrating First Nations knowledges respectfully and ethically in histories of design and design education. The main circle, comprised of First Nation speakers, will lead the discussion, and seek to challenge understandings of design as an industry-driven knowledge. The circle will explore the possibility of a design “being of/with the land” and connecting design to lands’ First Nations occupiers. Symposium participants will sit in the outer circle and be invited to share insights. 12:30–13:30 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Lunch break 13:30–15:30 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Circle Two: Connecting as a Teaching Community This circle, led by design educators at varying points in their careers, explores how we might enact an intersectional and diverse praxis within our teaching. Facilitators and panellists will discuss their experiences and struggles in developing and implementing innovative teaching materials, including the complexities experienced by sessional/casualised staff, who are often tasked with delivering content created from academics in other positions. Symposium participants will be invited to contribute with further discussion and reflection to inform how the InterDesigning network can support a teaching community, offer space to continuously discuss and share approaches in co-creating more inclusive design and design history courses.15:30–16:00&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Coffee Break 16:00–17:00&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Closing Remarks Day 2: Wednesday 29 Nov 2023This second day brings participants who wish to co-create and workshop actionable points based on the first-day discussions. 9:00–9:30 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Delegate registration, RMIT University, Melbourne9:30–12:00 &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Reflective WorkshopThis reflective workshop will invite conversations around pluriversal approaches to teaching, learning, and designing. In this session, led by PhD candidates, participants will engage in activities that promote reflection, creativity, listening, and discussions about intersectional identities as well as the making of a collective space for the design education community. Insights and outcomes will be shared on the InterDesigning online platform. 12:30–13:30 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Lunch break 13:30–15:30 &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Network DiscussionWe will take this time to reflect and discuss the symposium. Participants of the symposiums are welcome to join this session. Prompts will be provided and participants are welcome to reflect verbally, in writing or in other creative forms. 15:30–16:00 &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Closing remarks&nbsp;Speakers CIRCLE ONE Cecelia Faumuina: Cecelia's current practice positions faiva – (the Tongan idea of creative skill especially in performance) and fai vā (the Samoan idea of nurturing relational spaces) as a way for young people in particular to create and express themselves for better wellbeing. Cecelia has worked across audio visual design production, and secondary school teaching, facilitating art, design and technology lessons while being of service to others in the community. Cecelia is conscious of the many challenges we face in today’s world and is constantly looking for better ways to inform, empower, uplift and prepare people for complex situations using creativity. Ayla Hoeta: Ayla was born and raised in South Auckland, Waikato Tainui and mana whenua to the region. She is currently a Maramataka practitioner and Lecturer in Design at the University of Auckland. Her mahi is to support rangatahi / students to explore indigeneity in design thinking and practises through maatauranga Maaori and Maramataka. Ayla has been attuning orangatanga to maramataka ki Tamaki through practises of kai tirotiro, connection to taiao, design, fitness, mahi maara and continuously learning how maramataka weaves into ako, teaching, parenting and whanau led innovation. Emrhan Tjapanangka Sultan: Emrhan is the co-founder of Solid Lines, a First Nations-led illustration agency. He has previously worked as a First Nations engagement advisor for a variety of organisations, including Orygen, Relationships Australia, The Salvation Army, Oxfam Australia, and CAAMA. He is also a dynamic artist. Emrhan belongs to the Luritja and Western Arrernte Nations in Central Australia as well as Kokatha Nation in South Australia. Jesse Wright: JESWRI (pronounced Jess-Rye) is a multifaceted Gadigal artist of the Eora Nation. Born and raised in Sydney, he now lives in Naarm. He is known for his large-scale street art and exciting brand collaborations with Converse, Adidas, and VividSydney. Through his work, JESWRI opens a dialogue about mental health and aims to have meaningful conversations about taboo topics through his many creative practices. CIRCLE TWO Nicole Crouch: Nicole is a textile print designer in the commercial fashion industry, a casual academic teaching into textile design at UNSW, the creative industries and academic research lead at the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) and a PhD candidate creating Cultural Ethical Design Frameworks for commercial textile print designers. Bridie Moran: Bridie works as a curator, editor, sessional academic and cultural development and policy consultant. Bride is currently Co-Editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics; tutors and convenes at UNSW across exhibition design and design history and theory; and is undertaking a PhD analysing the history of policy for craft in Australia between 1971-2011. Bridie lives and works between unceded Awabakal lands (Newcastle, NSW) and Gadigal and Bedegal lands (Sydney, NSW). Fanny Suhendra: Fanny is a design researcher and educator from Swinburne University. As a Chinese-Indonesian designer educated in the West, she notices that hegemonic Western worldviews remain the primary source for design education and practice, which creates a lack of communication design identity and ownership in non-Western communities. This informes her teaching, research and practice, ensuring that empathetic practice and user/student-centred approaches are used to develop methodology and pedagogy. Shivani Tyagi: Shivani is a lecturer and researcher at Swinburne's School of Design and Architecture. Her research is interested in how design, particularly visual communication can influence people’s perceptions, behaviour, and experiences. She has collaborated on a range of funded industry research projects, particularly in health communications and road safety. Peter West: Peter is a senior lecturer in RMIT's School of Design. Peter's research and teaching practice explores the ways in which Western design is practiced lawfully, in response to Indigenous sovereignty. Peter West is a non-Indigenous cis-gendered white man and a visitor on unceded Indigenous lands. West research and its application is focused on supporting non-Indigenous designers into understanding their obligation to practice design in relation to Indigenous sovereignties. https://interdesigning.com/Towards-Co-creating-the-Praxis-of-Teaching-Design-from-Decolonial-1 Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:26:08 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Towards-Co-creating-the-Praxis-of-Teaching-Design-from-Decolonial-1 Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Paper: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Journal PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report Towards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Approaches Rezende, L., St John, N., Suhendra, F., &amp; Albarran Gonzalez, D. (2024). Towards co-creating the praxis of teaching design from decolonial, intersectional and pluriversal approaches1. art, design &amp; communication in higher education, 23&nbsp;(2), 149-169. Abstract Across Oceania, design courses within the tertiary education sector remain entrenched in Eurocentric narratives and pedagogical approaches, which omit place-specific contexts, cultural histories, knowledges and diverse ways of designing, including those of First Nations. This concern drove the four authors to create the InterDesigning Network, a supra-institutional network that aims at connecting like-minded educators, practitioners and students. This article reflects on the results of the InterDesigning Network’s first symposium, titled Co-Creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories. As the core team behind the network, we listened and learned from a panel formed by First Nations people that discussed Indigenous design practice, local protocols, connection to place and land, common struggles and ways of integrating Indigenous knowledges into contemporary design education. We also listened and were inspired by the insights shared by another panel made of diverse design educators who discussed how their positionalities and experiences inform their teaching practices. By reflecting on these insights as well as on the rationale behind the formation of a design educators’ network, this article offers actionable suggestions on how to disrupt the status quo for a more diverse and inclusive design education future. Read the full paper here. <img width="800" height="533" width_o="800" height_o="533" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eeaf3eca841c9208a4df765f8c22a06070fa3dd17aeaecc914a4ff15e0e14ec9/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-2.png" data-mid="212998880" border="0" alt="Figure 1: Ben Thompson, Connecting to Place, Connecting to Yourself, 2023. Photograph. 3500 &times; 2333 px. Melbourne/Naarm.[&copy; Ben Thompson]." data-caption="Figure 1: Ben Thompson, Connecting to Place, Connecting to Yourself, 2023. Photograph. 3500 × 2333 px. Melbourne/Naarm.[© Ben Thompson]." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/800/i/eeaf3eca841c9208a4df765f8c22a06070fa3dd17aeaecc914a4ff15e0e14ec9/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-2.png" /> <img width="460" height="559" width_o="460" height_o="559" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71bfbc4ee66f2d1df6846382772eb17eea3e84be7c54e2ac1eb0c4926f0fa1c2/Drawing.png" data-mid="212998882" border="0" alt="Figure 2: Symposium Participant, Feedback on Teaching Impact, 2023. Scanned Document. 460x559px Melbourne/Naarm.[&copy;InterDesigning Network]." data-caption="Figure 2: Symposium Participant, Feedback on Teaching Impact, 2023. Scanned Document. 460x559px Melbourne/Naarm.[©InterDesigning Network]." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/460/i/71bfbc4ee66f2d1df6846382772eb17eea3e84be7c54e2ac1eb0c4926f0fa1c2/Drawing.png" /> <img width="960" height="640" width_o="960" height_o="640" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fa7571892598be18ecc2b66b41239dc49d6271a663dca74bce913a7353ea0bc/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-3.png" data-mid="212998904" border="0" alt="Figure 3: Ben Thompson, Imprinting and Bridging Connections, 2023. Photograph. 3500 &times; 2333px. Melbourne/Naarm.[&copy; Ben Thompson]." data-caption="Figure 3: Ben Thompson, Imprinting and Bridging Connections, 2023. Photograph. 3500 × 2333px. Melbourne/Naarm.[© Ben Thompson]." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/4fa7571892598be18ecc2b66b41239dc49d6271a663dca74bce913a7353ea0bc/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-3.png" /> <img width="960" height="595" width_o="960" height_o="595" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1c430b8f962bfa7bba63c13cf312cd9b36bbae52c1628f8a13ff8bb16a1c3c7/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-1.png" data-mid="212998907" border="0" alt="Figure 4: Ben Thompson, Connecting to The Teaching Community through Acts/ Cosmovision, 2023. Photograph. 3500 &times; 2333px. Melbourne/Naarm.[&copy; Ben Thompson]." data-caption="Figure 4: Ben Thompson, Connecting to The Teaching Community through Acts/ Cosmovision, 2023. Photograph. 3500 × 2333px. Melbourne/Naarm.[© Ben Thompson]." src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/f1c430b8f962bfa7bba63c13cf312cd9b36bbae52c1628f8a13ff8bb16a1c3c7/Toward-a-praxis-of-teaching-1.png" /> https://interdesigning.com/Co-creating-the-Praxis-of-Teaching Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:06:14 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Co-creating-the-Praxis-of-Teaching Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Paper: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Research PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium28/11/2023The InterDesigning Network TeamSymposium Higher Education Institutions in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have a high number of culturally diverse students from the neighbouring regions who learn alongside local settler-migrant and Indigenous students. All learning and teaching, however, happens on Indigenous lands. Additionally, design and design history courses taught in the region remain entrenched in Anglo- and euro-centric narratives that omit place-specific contexts, local histories and knowledges, and diverse ways of designing, including those by the various Indigenous peoples in Oceania. To address these gaps in design education and counter the alienation and disengagement experienced by a student body who seldomly see their cultures represented in design courses, the InterDesigning Network was formed in 2022. The research collective behind the network is Dr Livia Rezende (UNSW), Dr Nicola St John (RMIT), Dr Fanny Suhendra (Swinburne University) and Dr Diana Albarrán González (University of Auckland).In November 2023 the InterDesigning Network organized its first free-to-attend, in-person symposium held over two day at the RMIT University in Naarm/Melbourne. Titled ‘Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories’, the symposium gathered over 40 design educators from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, postgraduate students, and design practitioners in a frank dialogue to facilitate the sharing of experiences and challenges in the classroom, and the development of strategies to advance the decolonization of design education. The upholding of Indigenous sovereignty—a premise of the network—was reflected in privileging Indigenous voices and following appropriate cultural and local Indigenous protocols. The symposium included circles of conversation led by guest speakers and two co-creating workshops facilitated by Dr Dion Tuckwell (Monash University) and Andrés Ortega, a PhD candidate at RMIT. These workshops, resulted in a series of material outcomes, including meaningful reflections and feedback from participants, which are displayed here: The first circle of conversation, ‘Connecting to Place’, brought together Ayla Hoeta, a design lecturer from Waikato Tainui iwi (tribe) from Aotearoa New Zealand, Dr. Cecelia Faumuina, an Auckland-born design lecturer from Samoa and Tonga, Emrhan Tjapanangka Sultan, an artist who belongs to the Luritja and Western Arrernte Nations in Central Australia and Kokatha Nation in South Australia, and Jesse Wright (JESWRI) a Gadigal artist. They discussed Indigenous design history and practice, the implementation of local cultural protocols, and emphasised how their struggles and achievements in integrating Indigenous knowledges in design practice, teaching and learning are underpinned by an ongoing and ever-evolving connection to place and land. The second circle of conversation, ‘Connecting as a Teaching Community’, included speakers with diverse experiences in design education: Nicole Crouch, a textile print designer for commercial fashion and industry, a sessional educator and a PhD candidate at UNSW; Bridie Moran, a sessional educator curator, editor, cultural development and policy consultant, and a PhD candidate at UNSW; Shivani Tyagi, a lecturer and researcher at Swinburne's School of Design and Architecture, and Peter West, a senior lecturer in RMIT's School of Design. As Crouch summarises, this circle proposed that “the role of design education goes beyond that of developing technical design skills. We are committed to supporting students formulate worldviews, establish design practices that are an expression of such worldviews, values, and ethical approaches. We are expected to challenge the systems around us to contribute to a more equitable society through creativity.” As noted by Bridie Moran, “as a sessional educator and PhD candidate working casually in academia, it can be rare to connect with a community of teaching peers and feel valued as a contributor to sector discussion.” Based on reflections from her PhD research that analyses the history of policy for craft in Australia, Moran notes the significance of historical knowledge when addressing contemporary issues like the decolonization of design education and history:“In looking to history, we can see that the power of networks is evident. When craftspeople organised and connected with others, their abilities to influence change increased as a craft policy network was formed in the early 1970s. Through the formation of new networks like the InterDesigning Network, there is positive potential to navigate and advocate as a community toward a better-designed and more inclusive future.”— The InterDesigning Network team https://interdesigning.com/Thriving-Futures-ACUADS-Conference-2023 Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:23:32 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Thriving-Futures-ACUADS-Conference-2023 Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Paper: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Research PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report Thriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 2023InterDesiging Network (IDN) team Passed Event Across Australasia, design courses within the tertiary education sector continue to remain entrenched in euro-centric narratives and pedagogical approaches, which omit place-specific contexts, cultural histories, knowledges, and diverse ways of designing, including First Nations’. Euro- and Anglo-centrism in design curriculum and teaching practices contribute to students (local and international) feeling alienated and disengaged when their lived experiences, backgrounds and aspirations are not reflected in the classroom. Likewise, educators teaching canonical design narratives from traditional pedagogical approaches have been found it increasingly challenging to relate to their course material and engage students in meaningful learning. Addressing the conference’s prompt that asks ‘What are the key issues affecting the wellbeing of Art &amp; Design staff and students? What role can Art &amp; Design play in relation to societal wellbeing?’, our paper and presentation will centre positionality, intersectionality and pluriversal approaches as key praxes in design education that have the potential to increase students’ sense of belonging while improving staff confidence and ability to teach from and including diverse perspectives. Through these praxes, we propose to contribute to Design staff and student wellbeing as well as to support the discipline fulfill its societal role through the centring of culture, care, and community. Our paper and presentation will take the form of a conversation among the authors, design educators working across the Asia-Pacific region who have come together to de-link from the dominance of Western design education, to unpack the intersections between pluriversality, decoloniality and intersectionality within our own teaching practices. Through a dialogical method, we draw out how our positionalities, intersectionality and pluriversal approaches have helped shape how we see and interpret the world around us, with direct impact on how we teach design. Our conversation enables an acknowledgement of our individual lived experiences, insights, and knowledges, while collectively grappling with shared concerns. Practising and sharing positionality as design educators in this paper, we will also facilitate discussion around common experiences and challenges in the classroom. Through discussing our own efforts, we hope to encourage other educators to join us in creating more diverse design education and thriving futures. https://interdesigning.com/DRS-Learn-x-Design-Paper Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:24:37 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/DRS-Learn-x-Design-Paper Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Conversation: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Research PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report DRS Learn x Design Conference: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures St John, N., Rezende, L. L., Suhendra, F., Albarran Gonzalez, D., &amp; Ahmed, Z. (2024). Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures. LearnXDesign 2023. Across Australasia, design courses within the tertiary education sector continue to remain entrenched in euro-centric narratives and pedagogical approaches, which in turn omit place-specific contexts, cultural histories, knowledges, and diverse ways of designing. In response, we are a collective of design educators working across the Asia-Pacific region, who have come together to de-link from the dominance of Western design education, to unpack the intersections between pluriversality, decoloniality and intersectionality within our own teaching practices. We each have our own relations to these alities, and our conversation begins from drawing out our individual positionalities, shaping how we see and interpret the world around us. Practising positionality as design educators is a meaningful way to reflect on our own inter spaces, and how they inform our teaching approaches, while also acting to facilitate discussion around common experiences and challenges. Our conversation enables an acknowledgement of our individual lived experiences, insights, and knowledges, while collectively grappling with shared concerns. We hope through discussing our own efforts, we can encourage other educators to join us in creating more diverse design education futures. here. https://interdesigning.com/Crafting-Interalities-Workshop Sun, 16 Jun 2024 09:42:14 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/Crafting-Interalities-Workshop Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Paper: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Research PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education&nbsp; 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report Crafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2024Design Research Society WorkshopDiana Albarrán González, Nicola St John, Fanny Suhendra and Livia Rezende as the InterDesigning Network Design education is dominated by Western discourses reinforcing modern-colonial views of design as ‘universal’. This is infused with the idea of the designer as ‘neutral’ without acknowledging the influence of the designer’s background based on their disciplinary training, worldviews, and identities. To challenge these, design educators and students must be aware of the influence of power, politics, privilege, and access (3P-A) imbalances we carry in our different roles based on our distinct positions and identities. It is important to move away from dominant design and embrace diverse ways of knowing, doing, teaching, and learning design in tertiary education. For this purpose, the founding members of the InterDesigning Network suggest craftmaking as a decolonial embodied practice to visualise and materialise concepts to support awareness, in this case, using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) dimensions through an intersectional lens. This approach aims to be an introductory exploration of our positionalities based on our different locations and reflect how our identities, positions, power, and agency can contribute to weaving collective aspirations contributing to pluriversal design education.About the WorkshopDesign education is dominated by Western discourses and Euro-Anglocentric narratives, even in geographical locations that are distant from Europe or North America. This reinforces modern-colonial views of design as universal (Schultz et al., 2018), commercially driven (Noel, 2020), with a European aesthetic canon (Angelon and Van Amstel, 2021) or an “aesthetics of whiteness” (Sánchez and Sánchez, 2022, p. 3). Nevertheless, this dominant design approach is infused with the idea of the designer as ‘neutral’ without acknowledging that their background, based on their disciplinary training, worldviews, and identities, influences the process, methods and outputs of the design projects. This neutrality is also pervasive within design education, and inturn impacts the type of projects proposed by design students, and their adherence to dominant aesthetics and processes, often disconnected from their identities, knowledges, and worldviews. Consequently, ‘other’ cultures, places and knowledges outside of Western discourses of design end up being marginalised or not considered ‘proper’ design, such as in the case of craft, artisan, or maker-related work (Tunstall, 2013).The embodied practice of craft-making serves to visualize concepts in the unseen, making them tangible in the physical realm through our hands (Albarran and Wilson, 2022). Echoing Perez-Bustos and Botero (2023) ideas of embodied and material design practices, it is intended this craft-making approach becomes “a way of understanding that the knot or stitch made as a record was a material memory of what had been lived, experienced” (p. 9). In this case, we draw together Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) dimensions with an intersectional lens to create an entry point for self-reflection and positionality in educational contexts and encourage dialogue amongst design educators. Positionality establishes the disclosure of our position and the understanding of how we might benefit or be disadvantaged due to historical legacies, used as a decolonial and pluriversal design approach (Noel et al, 2023; St John et al., 2023; Schiffer, 2020). Nevertheless, it is crucial to recognise that our positionality’s oppressions and privileges might change by shifting localities. This served as the catalyst to critically reflect on power, politics, privilege and access (3P-A) imbalances (Albarran Gonzalez, 2020) in our different roles based on our positions and identities, rather than being conceived as a fixed trait. To support the embodiment and visualisation of localities, craft-making is complemented with spatial explorations to experience the relational shifts of our 3P-A through our bodies. In this sense, our distinct ‘alities’ as design educators become a pathway for self-reflection on our own inter spaces as an embodied practice (St John et al., 2024). This embodied reflection and collective awareness aims to become a ‘call-to-action’ and use our agency to contribute to weaving collective aspirations towards pluriversal design education.ProgrammingThis workshop is part of InterDesigning Network1 work done in the Asia-Pacific region as design educators and researchers. Building from our previous research and symposium, one of the members will host a face-to-face / half-day workshop in Boston for an embodied craft-making session to visualise and materialise our positionality and localities using DEI and intersectional dimensions for self-reflection and awareness of 3P-A.Through a live-embodied experience, this workshop has different intentions. We want participants to experience: a) how our hands and bodies, through craft-making and spatial exploration can contribute to an embodied sense-making of concepts, b) how craft-making can be used as a ‘soft’ entry point to discuss ‘sensitive’ topics such as power and privilege and as an outlet to express related emotions, and c) as a symbolic and embodied move from emotions to action, using our agency as individuals and as a collective to contribute to change.The workshop aims to serve as a collective embodiment of interactions and identification of common patterns and to co-create woven connections of experiences, past and present reflections, and future aspirations towards pluriversal design education.1 We are a collective of design educators from across the Asia Pacific region engaged with a range of separate yet related questions on how to co-create decolonial, pluriversal, and intersection voices, materials, themes, and approaches within our teaching. We encourage more diverse ways of teaching and designing within tertiary institutions. This is our platform for co-creating and sharing this knowledge. https://interdesigning.com/ https://interdesigning.com/InterDesigning-2023-2025-Report Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:25:02 +0000 Interdesigning https://interdesigning.com/InterDesigning-2023-2025-Report Resources 2023 SymposiumCo-creating the Praxis of Teaching Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluriversal Design and Histories: an InterDesigning Symposium 2023 ConferenceThriving Futures ACUADS Conference 2023 Conversation DRS Learn x Design Paper: Interalities: a conversation on positionalities, localities, pluralities within design education futures 2024 Research PaperTowards Co-creating the Praxis of Teaching Design from Decolonial, Intersectional and Pluralversal Approaches 2024 WorkshopCrafting Interalities: Positionalities and localities through intersectional DEI in design education 2025 InterDesigning ReportInterDesigning 2023-2025 Report InterDesigning Report 2023- 2025Report Livia Rezende, Nicola St John, Fanny Suhendra and Diana Albarrán González, as the InterDesigning Network Introduction Through gatherings, workshops and publications the InterDesigning team promote the formation of a network of like-minded educators and practitioners to encourage more diverse ways of designing and the inclusion of varied voices in design. The network’s strength lies in the relationships fostered among design practitioners and academics across the Asia Pacific region and Global South geographies. Higher Education Institutions in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have a high number of culturally diverse students from the neighbouring regions who learn alongside local settler-migrant and Indigenous students. All learning and teaching happens on Indigenous lands. However, design and design history courses taught in these institutions remain entrenched in anglo- and euro-centric narratives that omit place-specific contexts, local histories and knowledges, and diverse ways of designing, including those by the various Indigenous peoples across Oceania. To address the persistence of colonisation in design education and counter the alienation and disengagement experienced by a student body who seldomly see their cultures represented in design courses, The InterDesigning team proposed the formation of a InterDesigning network in 2022. As the InterDesigning team, we value collaboration, not top-down leadership and are open to experimentation and trying ideas. Our diverse experience as female and/ or migrant academics and designers support our vision for building international connections between educational institutions and communities in creative ways. These connections increase understanding between diverse cultural and social educational contexts and help us engage with a range of separate yet related questions on how to co-create decolonial, pluriversal, and intersectional voices, materials, themes, and approaches within our disciplines. The InterDesigning team seek to create space for diverse voices in design and connections between educators who want to share experiences of trying, failing and succeeding to implement approaches to positionality, locality, and plurality in the classroom. The InterDesigning network strives to be a home for histories, perspectives, and practices of design that have been—and often remain—underrepresented within dominant design dialogues and university curricula across the region. We are excited by the opportunity to continue developing this important and impactful network.You can read the full report here.