Designing politics – the politics of design

With a commitment to conducting a discourse on the social responsibility of the designer and defining the democratic quality of design, the International Design Forum (IFG) Ulm, Germany announces its public call for project proposals addressing the topic of the relationship design-politics.

According to IFG Ulm (and to my partner Jan-Christoph Zoels, who is an alumni), the work of designers and architects cannot be reduced to aesthetic, technical and commercial factors. Design always rests on a social and political foundation, and acts upon that foundation in return.

With the promotion programme “Designing politics – The politics of design”, IFG Ulm is looking for examples of projects which make the change from an economy of reification to an ecology of transformation. Projects which are dedicated to processes of becoming. Projects which direct their gaze behind the surface of the design process and which reveal that design diffuses transformational action into the space occupied by commercial and political decision-making. IFG Ulm’s promotion programme is intended to encourage projects to develop consequences which leave a lasting mark on our social and physical environment.

Applications for the 50.000 € grant must arrive by 31 May 2005.

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(via Love Difference News)