St-Petersburg – Design: Vertical & Horizontal Growth

On Oct. 30th, 2020, Alok Nandi is giving a keynote in the plenary at ‘Design: Vertical & Horizontal Growth’. It is an online conference organized by three Russian schools – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University, St Petersburg University, and HSE Art and Design School (National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’) in collaboration with Cumulus. ‘Design: Vertical and Horizontal Growth’ aims to encourage the design community to express their opinions on the role of design as a humanizing practice in the context of multidirectional development. Our discussion focuses on design as a practice of searching for areas of growth, support and balance, which make it possible to reconcile the traditional way of life and cultural values with the innovative approach to solving problems arising in society. The conference brings together relevant research in the field of design within the following reference frames: Future Human | Creative Industry | Inter-action.

The day hosted by St Petersburg University brings to the topic the special focus ‘Inter-Action’. Within our conference day, we would like to explore the communication mediated by digital technologies.

During the last several months, a particular combination of circumstances has largely transformed communication processes, reducing the share of direct interpersonal communication. Although most of us have already accustomed to the online mode of communication, the recent events opened up a whole new set of questions. What role can design play in the humanization of virtual communication? How can trust be established within the digital environment? How to better coordinate actions within professional communities? To what extent can we achieve the scene of proximity in the virtual interactive environment compared to offline communication? How do digital and material interaction mix? We invite participants to unfold a discussion of the issues related but not limited to the questions above.

The plenary session will cover various aspects of the in-between of human and digital. We are intended to build a conversation on the crossroads of cutting-edge technologies, artificial intelligence, digital art, user experience, and Interaction design. We believe that the diversity of themes and conjunction of interdisciplinary speakers will provide us with meaningful insights. 

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