Object Subject - inaugural national design writing conference

10-11 November 2017

Shine Dome, Canberra

Exploring the way design speaks to us, and the way we speak about design, the inaugural national design writing conference will be held at Roy Grounds’ iconic 1959 Shine Dome as a signature DESIGN Canberra event. For the first time, designers, writers, critics, bloggers, researchers, collectors, makers, curators and design lovers will come together to explore the creative and important ways that writing has become essential to the future of design.

The conference will take place during the DESIGN Canberra festival, which celebrates and promotes Canberra as a global city of design, transforming the nation’s capital into a new platform for experimentation and design. 

CALL FOR SPEAKER PROPOSALS

Calling designers, writers, bloggers, publishers, researchers, collectors and design lovers. Object Subject will explore the way design speaks to us, and the way we speak about design.

It begins with a premise that writing is essential to the future of design – promoting understanding, providing reflections, interpreting the past and imagining the future – but extends to a broader consideration of design practice as cultural and artistic language. Object Subject is a new platform to explore and respond to emerging changes, current issues and promised opportunities within the sector, to develop new audiences and bridge scholarly and popular writing in a digital age.

Presentation types

We welcome proposals for presentations in a range of accessible and more formal formats.
The below are suggestions only, if you have other ideas we would love to hear from you.

Panel discussion

This involves each speaker introducing themselves and their views on a topic for 3 minutes followed by 25 minutes of discussion amongst the panel.

Proposed panel discussion topics:

• The rise of digital – the changing role of the design critic and design writing in a digital age
• Radical design communication – exploring alternatives to the written word and letting design speak for itself
• Design storytelling and object narratives – sharing personal, local, cultural and community stories
• Branding identity – narratives of the subject and how the written word shapes the identity of a designer
• Other: please suggest a panel discussion topic

Paper

This is a 12 minute speaker presentation followed by 3 minutes of questions and answers.

We recommend against reading entire papers, and suggest you use visual supports such as Powerpoint. Multiple-authored presentations are welcome.

Visual presentation/show and tell

Participants are given the opportunity to demonstrate their most recent work, and interact with the conference attendees in an informal way, such as a demonstration or any adapted format of their own choice. Maximum duration of presentations is 5-6 minutes.

For any further information, contact us at designcanberra@craftact.org.au

Deadline for speaker proposals (including papers, panels and presentations): 3 August

More information at the Object Subject website.