NEWS Ice sculptures in Jukkasjärvi, Storytelling in Shanghai and Strategic design at home: these are some of the workshops that staff and students at UID explored during a whole week. The work process and results will form the basis for developing the curriculum, something that has caught the attention of the European Commission.
Image: Anna Valtonen, Rector of Umeå Institute of Design
Photograph: Michael Nordvall
– We use a design approach to develop own our curriculum, says Anna Valtonen – Rector of Umeå Institute of Design at Umeå University, Sweden – who herself participated in the workshop discussing Agonistic Democracy, Design and the Environment.
In itself, the use of workshops is nothing new, but using the processes and results as a basis for actually developing a new education is probably unique.
– At best, our exploring method can lead to a kind of prototype for educational development in particular, Anna Valtonen envisions.
Preparations have been going on for one year before the "Prototyping the Future" project, and many have shown interest in the process. Anna Valtonen has visited the European Commission to talk about the project, and many other universities have been curious to know more about the project. – We have continuously been supported by the university management, who also has had a representative in one of the workshops. All workshops are led by world leading experts and professionals within different areas, coming from Austria, Finland, USA, China and other places around the world.
– We have used all our networks to find the best tutors and facilitators possible, and amazingly enough every person that we asked accepted, Anna Valtonen says.
With this project the Institute wants to provide its students with the opportunity to explore new areas of interest that they can use in their future roles as professionals. But it is also essential to give UID staff a way to develop in their work.
– This is a quite unique way to use design thinking when developing the future university. Instead of only reacting to a changing world, we are now in the forefront, and influencing the direction for the future industrial design profession and design education, Anna Valtonen summarizes.
Wednesday 2 February, between 13 and 17, the 20 groups will present results and processes from their workshops at Umeå Insitute of Design (Designhögskolan).
Read more www.dh.umu.se/default.asp?P=2399&naar=2011
Editor: Anette Olofsson / Michael Nordvall