How can IA engage a global network of social innovators to design a more just, equitable, and sustainable world?

Source(s) of funding: University of Michigan

DESIS, which stands for ​“Design for Social Inno­va­tion and Sus­tain­abil­ity,” is a network of Desis labs from schools and col­leges across the globe whose fac­ulty and stu­dents engage in innovating mean­ing­ful social change in col­lab­o­ra­tion with community stakeholders.

The University of Michigan’s Desis Lab at Stamps, directed by University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor Audrey Bennett, uses creative research and practice to engage expert and non-expert communities in addressing societal inequities towards social and environmental justice. Research questions it seeks to answer include: How can we “create justice” together? How can we use creative inquiry to address wicked problems like poverty and food insecurity to catalyze social justice sustainably, both locally and globally, into the future? “Create justice” is a clarion call with two meanings. First, how can the process of creating (fabricating, making, innovating, designing, producing, visualizing) integrate concepts of justice (inclusion, equity, diversity, anti-racism, access, and decolonization) sustainably? Second, how can the social process of justice (in institutions, civic spaces, and legal systems) benefit from creative inquiry? In turn, ‘create justice’ aims to democratize the value generated from its creative approaches to flow back to all who participated in its production—including non-expert and expert stakeholders. ‘Create justice’ as a concept centers around the power of art and design and its evolving approaches to creative inquiry to facilitate access to equity by communities systemically affected by inequality in its varied social, environmental, political, and socioeconomic forms.

OUR UPCOMING EVENTS ARE BELOW.

Stamps Desis Lab’s Annual Integrated Conversation

Please join us for the annual Stamps Desis Lab Integrated Conversation, moderated by University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor Audrey Bennett, that engages professional artists and designers in dialogue on the state of creative practice and research in design within the context of social innovation and sustainability.

The 2024 line-up includes:

2:30-3:30 PM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

This year’s events will be held in room 2420 of the Art and Architecture Building, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., in Ann Arbor.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Janelle Dunlap is a visionary social practice artist, curator, and certified beekeeper.

Janelle Dunlap breathes life into her work by connecting history, ecosystems, and the dynamic interplay between the past and future. Her creative practice is a testament to the inspiration she draws from direct engagement with disadvantaged communities. Central to her creative philosophy is the power of collaboration and community, as her work delves into the intricacies of cultural preservation and environmental consciousness.

Dunlap's creative work has earned support from institutions such as the Knight Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and, most recently, Georgia Tech. Her academic pursuits have been equally notable, earning the 2020 New Artist Society Scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an additional MFA in Social and Environmental Arts from Prescott College. Dunlap holds a Dual B.A. in mass communication and political science from Winthrop University.

Dunlap will speak about the lessons she’s learned from the hive and how they have informed her creative practice, translating beekeeping into creative expressions in the context of disaster capitalism and climate change.

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM & 2:30-3:30 PM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

This year’s events will be held in room 2420 of the Art and Architecture Building, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., in Ann Arbor.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Clinton Carlson is a designer, educator, and researcher.

Clinton Carlson is Robert P. Sedlack, Jr., Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and the College of Arts and Letters’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design, where he is the Design Area Head of Visual Communication Design. Prof. Carlson has an M.DES. from the University of Alberta, Canada, and a BFA from the University of Nebraska, Kearney. Clinton Carlson's talk is sponsored by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. 

Prof. Carlson will speak about his Foundry Field project that is working to activate community histories that are underrepresented through an urban baseball field/living museum. This project partners with local schools, Boys & Girls Club, Civil Rights Heritage Center, Center for Social Concerns, and Parks Department. This project extends Ezio Manzini's Non Catastrophic Transition to Sustainability, exploring how we as designers can and should design, for, with, and through communities.

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

This year’s events will be held in room 2420 of the Art and Architecture Building, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., in Ann Arbor.

Tuesday, February 13

Radha Pandey is a papermaker and letterpress printer.

Radha Pandey earned her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She specializes in Indo-Islamic Papermaking and teaches book arts classes in India, Europe, and the US. Her book Anatomia Botanica won the MICA Book Award in 2014 and received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. In 2018, her book Deep Time won the Joshua Heller Memorial Award. Her books are held in over 80 collections internationally, including the Library of Congress and Yale University.

Radha will speak about Jaali and a recent project, Flora of Mughal India. Her talk will encompass the process and the concept behind both projects. Both are about Mughal art in India and how that changed with the arrival of the British and colonial interests.

Radha Pandey's talk is sponsored by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design. 

Thursday, February 8

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM + 2:30 - 3:30 PM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

This year’s events will be held in room 2420 of the Art and Architecture Building, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., in Ann Arbor. You may attend this event from 9:30-10:30 am or 2:30-3:30 pm. 

Rick Griffith, co-partner of Matter in Denver, Colorado

In an interview with Rick Griffith, The Great Discontent describes him as "a British-West-Indian designer, collagist, writer, educator, letterpress printer, and optimist futurist who works at the intersection of programming, policy, and production." On Thursday, February 8, Rick will speak about how much change he has navigated in the field as a designer, the beauty of not knowing, and how much one can ask of design now and speculatively in the future. Rick Griffith's talk is sponsored by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design and AIGA Detroit. 

January 18, 2023

2:00 - 2:50 PM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

Eric Benson, a Stamps Desis Lab Integrated Conversation

Please join the Stamps DESIS Lab for an integrated conversation with Eric Benson, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois and Director of the Fresh Press Agri-Fiber Paper Lab (Fresh Press). Fresh Press is an interdisciplinary research and making lab at the University of Illinois that explores the potential of regional sustainable agricultural fiber waste as art, paper, and objects. Fresh Press develops entrepreneurial and artistic markets for paper products originating from locally produced sustainable agricultural fiber waste (corn stalks, rye, hemp, and prairie grasses). It also engineers a conservation-grade sustainable case paper for use in mending books and the creation of agri-fiber building materials (bricks and insulation) for architecture. Fresh Press seeks to shape and educate through papermaking workshops and lectures, steward the land used in its craft, and investigate Indigenous plant and agricultural fibers for the arts to help solve global environmental and social issues.

Moderator: Audrey G. Bennett, University and Social Transformation Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

April 12, 2022

9:00 - 10:30 AM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

Please join the Stamps DESIS Lab and the Methods of Inquiry class for an integrated design charrette titled “Making a Local Food Future Visible through Interactive Aesthetics” on Thursday, April 12, 2022 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. with guests Jennifer Vokoun, Director of the Food Design Institute at Walsh University and Takunia Collins, President of Willow Run Acres in Ypsilanti.

Moderator: Audrey G. Bennett, University and Social Transformation Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

May 19, 2021

9:30 AM-11:00 AM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

DesisCafé is a virtual place where DesisLabs can meet and talk about their activities, expectations, thoughts, research, projects, etc. It’s a place to reinforce connections within the community and exchange knowledge about good practices and difficulties of projects, and actions.

Moderator: Dr. Deepa Butoyila, Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

Contributing Faculty: Audrey G. Bennett, University, Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, University of Michigan; Dr. Ron Eglash, Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan; Dr. Roland Graf, Associate Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

March 18, 2021

4:00 - 6:00 PM

Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design 2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (map)

Please join the Stamps DESIS Lab's Integrated Conversation on Radical Synergy. The purpose of this event is to galvanize critical design thinking within our community around implementing radical synergy toward making justice.

Moderator: Audrey G. Bennett, University and Social Transformation Professor, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan

Interlocutors: Ezio Manzini

Directed by Audrey G. Bennett

  • BAO is a game played in Africa. Here it is used metaphorically to describe collaborative designing remotely. While other researchers have used the virtual design studio concept to represent computer-supported, cooperative work, these human-computer interactions are typically for professional projects (e.g., architects talking to architects). With Baohouse (pronounced Bauhaus), I aim to engage lay communities locally and remotely. It is an immaterial and motile space where I conduct theoretical and applied investigations on how “interactive aesthetics” can engage lay people with socially and environmentally transformative images that can yield cognitive and behavioral changes toward attaining equity and justice.

  • Marguerite Botha, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Children’s Health in SA)

    Fatima Cassim, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Children’s Health in SA)

    Chris Corneal (I Profess)

    Mukkai Krishnamoorthy Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer (Diversifying STEM)

    Alison Eardley, University of Westminster (W-iCAD)

    Ron Eglash, School of Information + Stamps, University of Michigan (Diversifying STEM; Artisanal Robots; HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention; Humanoid Robots; and Life)

    Michael Lachney, Michigan State University (Diversifying STEM)

    Lionel Roberts, School of Information, University of Michigan (Artisanal Robots)

    Jennifer A. Vokoun, Walsh University (Food Security)

  • William Babbitt, Research Associate, Rensselaer (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

  • Adream Blair (GLIDE’10-’12)
    Gloria Gomez (GLIDE’10-’12)
    Muthoni Kimani (GLIDE’12)
    Michele Washington (GLIDE’08-’12)

  • University of Michigan Doctoral Students:

    Kwame Robinson, SI (Artisanal Robots)

    Caitlin Dyche, C&M, LSA (The Just Museum Experience)

    University of Michigan Masters Students:

    Megan Freund, Stamps (Diversifying STEM)

    Kayla Guillory, Stamps (WSDOM)

    Shelbi Lisecki, Stamps (Interactive Aesthetics)

    Stephanie Szemetylo, Stamps (WSDOM)

    Nicholas Lamarca, Stamps (The Just Museum Experience)

    Rensselaer Doctoral Students:

    David Banks (Red Card)

    Brian Callahan (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Michael Lachney (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    John Licato (Red Card)

    Ray Lutzky (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Marie Rarieya (Act Now)

    Dylan Rees (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Rensselaer Masters Students:

    Sarah Diodato (Act Now)

    Angelo Gaetano (Act Now)

    Mark Oppenneer (GLIDE)

  • University of Michigan

    Rohan Agrawal (WSDOM)

    Katie Bailey (WSDOM)

    Tawsif Habib (WSDOM)

    Chloe Hooker (Diversifying STEM)

    Gautham Jayaraj (WSDOM)

    Zahra Makim (WSDOM)

    Michael McCallig(WSDOM)

    Amirul Miah (Diversifying STEM)

    Lara Niemchick (Heritage Algorithms)

    Angela Ponce Solano (WSDOM)

    Aaron VonBargen (WSDOM)

    Daniel Williams (DESIS Lab)

    Rensselaer Laura Antoniello (Social Media Marketing)

    Zac Autio (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Melissa Batalin (GLIDE)Joe Brust (Act Now)

    Jesse Cline (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Mackenzie Clippard (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Joyce Edwards (Act Now)

    Kim Gomboz (GLIDE)

    Andy Lao (Social Media Marketing)

    Ashlee Lindo (GLIDE)

    Rajas Nagpurkar (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Natalie Semczuk (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Laura Sherman (Act Now)

    Kelly Singco (GLIDE)

    Donna Tytko (Act Now)

    Carla Voorhees (Act Now)

  • Marcel Bennett (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Moriah Harling (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Jamie Park (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

    Jonathan Ward (Diversifying STEM, DYF)

    Kimi Wenzel (Diversifying STEM, CS4HS)

Previous

Artisanal Futures Research funded by the National Science Foundation
Next

Children's Health Research funded by Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship