Creative Futures

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• theoretical concepts and practices relevant to creative futures;
• the role of interpersonal skills and approaching issues from multiple perspectives and disciplines.
• practices that demonstrate an understanding of creative solutions to the social and environmental challenges faced by society;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• connect and apply key themes and research resources with your programme or professional discipline.
• manage your time and meet deadlines;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• identify central themes and problematics in social and cultural issues in creative arts and design contexts;
• locate yourself within the debate around environmental design and sustainability, in consideration with wider local and global communities.

This module presents you to some of the current debates that are central to an ethical understanding of creative practices and their impact on the future world. It will bring you new points of view from which to confront your future projects, tentative actions of design or art setting out potentially new scenarios.

Indicative content for the module will normally include:

• Local solutions - small projects pushing other changes that must take place at every scale
• Connected - small projects in the hyper connected and global world
• Open – unfinished, open-ended projects, multiple activities generator
• Collaborative – with people, institutions and associations, working with experts in social innovation
• Creative – creative communities committed to create value
• Bottom up –active involvement of people directly concerned
• Into context – developed into and with the social context
• Small projects, large changes - transferring knowledge directly to society
• Environmental sustainability – for a sustainable society

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• lectures;
• workshops;
• tutorials.

Learning Activities

• peer group seminar;
• self-directed research and reading;
• group tutorial on feedback.

Relationship between the teaching, learning and assessment methods and the planned learning outcomes

You will be introduced to a range of subject material through lectures and seminars. You will have the opportunity to discuss and debate these subjects in seminar groups. You will be encouraged to research and study particular aspects of social responsibility and ethical practices in design, design communication and related practices, with regards to your own subject discipline. You will have the opportunity to critically reflect on your study discipline or your creative practice, and to debate your awareness of ethical issues in the creative arts and design contexts.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Design Other 90.

AIGA Design for Good.

Sustainable Lifestyles 2050.

Textile Toolbox Facebook group (Earley, R).

Textiles Environment Design (TED).

Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Circular Economy.

Sustainability Design Fashion (Fletcher, K).

RSA.

Scenario Magazine.

Journal Articles

Design Studies. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Design Research.

Design Issues.

CoDesign. International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts.

Fashion Theory.

Textbooks

Weibel, P. (2015). Global activism: art and conflict in the 21st century. Karlsruhe: ZKM.

Pelle, E. [et al.] (2014). Making Futures. Marginal Notes on Innovation, Design, and Democracy. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Black, S. (2011). Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. London: Black Dog Publishing Ltd.

Telier, A. [et al.] (2011). Design Things. Cambridge: MIT Press.

De Laure, M. (2017). Culture Jamming. Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. New York: NYU Press.

Siegle, L. (2011). To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World?. London: Fourth Estate.

Black, S. (2012). The Sustainable Fashion Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.

Spampinato, F. (2015). Come together: the rise of cooperative art and design. New York: Princeton Architectural.

Greer, B. (2014). The Art of Craft and Activism. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.

Thackara, J. (2005). In the Bubble Designing in a Complex World. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Fletcher, K. and Grosse, L. (2012). Fashion & Sustainability, Design for Change. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Flood, C., Grindon, G. (2014). Disobedient objects. London: V&A.

McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (2013). The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance. New York: North Point Press.

Fuad-Luke, A. (2009). Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World. London: Earthscan.

Antonelli, P. (2006). Safe. Design Takes On Risk. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Seabrook, J. (2015). The High Price of Cheap Garments, from Blackburn to Bangladesh. London: C. Hurst & Co.

Fletcher, K. (2016). Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion. Abingdon: Routledge.

McGuirk, J. Herrero Delicado, G. (2017). Fear and Love. Reactions to a Complex World. London: Phaidon.

Manzini, E. (2015). Design, When Everybody Designs. An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.