ENSAD, Paris, 8 April, 2015
“The art of living, together. Emerging aesthetics for sustainable and resilient ways of living “

The first part of this title (the art of living) refers to the fact that “living” is not only solving daily problems, but also an art: the art of creating meanings and producing and experiencing qualities. This sentence coudl be obious if it would not have been happened that, in the whole discussion on social innovation, the focus has largely been on its capability to solve difficult, sometime intractable, problems (from the elderly population, to transportation, from social cohesion to job creation). Unfortunately, it happens that this correct attention to concrete practical solutions tends to become a limit, if the cultural dimension of these solutions is not recognized and discussed. Or, even worst, it can become a negative ideology leading us to think that all the problems our societies are facing now can be reduced to individual problems and these problems can find individual practical solutions (an  ideology that could be called solution-ism). To escape these risks a cultural proposal should be developed, observing that social innovation is offering us not only practical solutions but also new systems of meaning and disruptive ideas on the quality of life. And discussing how to transform them in the building blocks for a new narrative on how a good life should be like.
It comes that the use of expression “art of living” aims at to bridging the deep philosophic meanings related to the way we live, with the everyday-life sense of something that everybody can learn and practice (but that everybody can also lost as, unfortunately, for a growing number of people, it is happening today).

The second part of the title (together) refers to the fact that, today, in a globalised densely populated planet, there is a high, dramatic risk: the one of reduce the human search for “community and place” to the creation of antagonistic and invented communities and places (i.e. communities and place opposed to other communities and places). It comes that the art of living today is also, and mandatory, the art of living together: the art of community building and place making in the framework of a cosmopolitan localism .

Emerging practices of design for social innovation are showing the relevance to make more extensive use of videos and narratives. Storytelling as such is becoming increasingly important for a variety of reasons. But what does storytelling mean? How can we make best use of it within the context of design for social innovation? Can storytelling be seen as that which facilitates the possibility for a public space to be opened up, where the commons can be re-destributed and where both dialogue and action can be shared and eventually lead to the construction of a higher quality public domain? Can it lead to the establishment of the pre-conditions for participation, condivision and dialogue to take place and lead to the co-design of a more participative society? How can this eventually happen? How can we exclude a manipulative character in the way we make use of storytelling? 

A first session in which we will start to discuss this topic will take place on the 9th of November 2013 and will be hosted by the Cumulus conference “More for less – design in an age of austerity”, organised by NCAD, in Dublin (Ireland). This starting session entitled “Designers from story-listeners to storytellers” results from the collaboration of Ezio Manzini (DESIS International), Virginia Tassinari (MAD Faculty (Social Spaces CUO – DESIS Lab)) and Francesca Piredda, Elisa Bortolotti, Walter Mattana (Design Dep. (Imagis – POLIMI DESIS Lab)) and Andrea Mendoza (DESIS Colombia)

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The fourth DESIS Philosophy talk in the “Emerging qualities” series is a joint initiative of Linnaeus University’s School of Design (Sweden) and Social Spaces | CUO DESIS Lab (Belgium) which takes place on June 6th 2013, from 09:00 am – 12:00 am, within the context of the Cumulus Conference “Global Thinking – Local action – future life”
, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar (Sweden).

The DESIS Philosophy Talk #1.4: “Disruptive qualities” is the fourth talk in a series which took us from  Parsons, in New York, and Tongji University, in Shanghai, to the Politecnico di Milano, discussing sustainable qualities emerging worldwide in cases of social innovation. During the DESIS Philosophy Talk #1.4: “Disruptive qualities” we will zoom in further on the disruptive character which the aforementioned qualities share. Ezio Manzini, Victor Margolin and Virginia Tassinari will guide the discussion.

The session will take place within the context of a two-day workshop “Design and philosophy. Disruptive qualities. Emerging ideas of times, places, work and relationship. A design challenge”, led  by Ezio Manzini and Virginia Tassinari. It will be a moment of reconnection of the discussion of the DESIS Philosophy Talk with design practice. During the workshop there will be a specific focus on concrete cases of social innovation as seen through the lenses of the disruptive qualities, allowing participants to experience how the philosophical reflection can inspire and reinforce the practice of design for social innovation.

The second Philosophy Talk “Emerging aesthetics” took place on November 3rd, 2012 at Tongji University in Shanghai as part of the Radical Design Week. It was the second talk within the “Emerging qualities” series, after the one at Parsons New School Of Design in New York.

During the Shanghai session, the perspective was shifted to address the emerging sustainable qualities from a Eastern perspective and stimulate a dialogue with the Western philosophical tradition. Ezio Manzini and Virginia Tassinari led the discussion. Amongst the discussants were Ken Friedman, Richard Hsu, Fang Zhong, and Yongqi Lou.