Guests
Alain Findeli
Alain Findeli is now Honorary Professor of the School of Industrial Design at the University of Montreal. Trained as an engineer in physics and materials science, he reoriented his career toward the human and social aspects neglected by engineering and technology, i.e. to design. He concluded his inquiry into the history and philosophy of design education in his Doctorate in Aesthetics (University of Paris VIII) and his book Bauhaus de Chicago : l’œuvre pédagogique de Làszlò Moholy-Nagy (1995). His current research interests and recent publications address the pedagogical issues raised by design research education. He is the founder of the research master’s program in ‘Design & Complexity’ (U. of Montreal, 2001) of which he has been scientific and pedagogical advisor until 2006. As a visiting professor in Europe, he co-founded Les Ateliers de la recherche en design, a French and Francophone design research community, and currently acts as a consultant for the development of design research.
Mike Press
Mike Press is Professor of Design Policy and Head of the School of Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee. He has written three books, including “The Design Agenda: a guide to successful design management” and “The Design Experience”, both co-authored with Rachel Cooper. He is also a contributor to BBC television and radio programmes on design.
He was joint director of the Home Office funded Design Against Crime research project and is currently directing a project on design and counter terrorism for the UK government. He was a member of the selection panel for the Design Council’s Millennium Products, and has been shortlisted for the Sir Misha Black Medal for Innovation in Design Education. He is a former Chair of the European Academy of Design, and a member of the editorial board of The Design Journal.
When not fighting crime, he writes on craft and has the pleasure of supervising some brilliant PhD students.
Keith Russell
Born in a small country town, in Northern New South Wales, Casino, I am a country kid. This then is an ode of a child. This is the land of the Bundjalung Nation and the Gundy tribe. My own tribe is other. I have a PhD in Literary Aesthetics, specifically the ways identities are formed in the traditional genres of the Epic, the Dramatic and the Lyric. I am a Design and Communication philosopher as well as a poet. I have been involved in the international post graduate design field since the magic Ohio conference of 1998 – ten years ago. I love stuff.
Susann Vihma
Susann Vihma is professor of design semiotics and design history at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. She graduated from the Institute of Industrial Design in Helsinki and is a Doctor of Arts (1995). Her main area of research is representational qualities and signification of design. An anthology on the topic will appear in 2008. She is head of the research group Semiotic Product Functions (SeFun) and head of the steering committee of the Nordic research network Nordcode.
www.nordcode.tkk.fi
Khaldoun Zreik
Khaldoun Zreik is professor of information and communication design at the department Hypermedia of the University Paris 8. He got his PhD in computer aided design from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris, France) i n 1987 and got his Research Direction Degree from the Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lilles (France) in 1993. His main research area is focusing human centred design for ICT. He is head of the research group CITU-Paragraphe (Cybermedia, Interactions, Transdisciplinary and Ubiquitous).
http://paragraphe.univ-paris8.fr/fr/equipes/