Master In Design For Emergent Futures MDEF

by Marco Sanalitro     Posted on January 30, 2018

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, in collaboration with the Fab Academy and Ideas for Change, are creating the next generation design education program: the Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF).

Taught in Barcelona, one of the European capitals of innovation, the innovative program focuses in looking at the big challenges faced by humanity today in relation to climate change, sustainability, disenfranchisement and social exclusion through the lens of critical design and social innovation.

The course will inspire, inform and critique design interventions harnessing the potential of advanced technologies such digital fabrication, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and blockchain aimed to address and dissolve wicked problems, while contributing learning outcomes, innovative designs and positive social impact.

The first edition of the master, co-directed by Tomas Diez, Mara Balestrini and Òscar Tomico, will incorporate advisors and guest faculty such as: Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT and Fab Academy Program / Indy Johar, Founder of Dark Matter Labs / James Tooze, Royal College of Arts and Design / Liz Corbin, Institute of Making, UCL / Usman Haque, Umbrellium / Denis Dollens (PhD), Studio Exodesic.

The programme focuses on the design of interventions in the form of products, platforms and deployments that aim to produce new emergent futures, by previously analysing the current challenges in society and industry. Students will be encouraged to work on multiple scales in order to design and test interventions in the real world.

The MDEF programme is recommended for designers, sociologists, computer scientists, economists, anthropologists, technology entrepreneurs and changemakers who are looking to develop an interdisciplinary and hybrid career path to conceive and produce impactful ideas to transform the established order.

For more information click HERE