EDITORS’ NOTE

Welcome to Current 04 and the theme of
“Sustainable & Generative Societies; Social Learning & Social Innovation”

In this issue we feature articles written by internationally recognized
design researchers and educators, Liz Sanders of MakeTools and Ohio
State University, Ezio Manzini from the Politecnico di Milano, and Ron
Burnett of Emily Carr.

Liz Sanders illustrates how design is social now. She states: “the conver-
sation is about design for experience, for service, and design for trans-
formation.” Through identifying and mapping the creative potential of
collective agency we transform and in so doing lay the groundwork for
sustainable actions.

Manzini helps us as design thinkers and makers to see how slow, local,
open and connected (SLOC) can become a scenario that lifts off the
page to become wisdom about sustainable and generative societies.

Ron Burnett asks us to look at design through the lens of the anthro-
pologist in a paper that addresses the concept of audiences in art and
design. He observes “designers are now crossing the boundaries into
the ways in which people organize their lives (design thinking, design
process), and the many ways in which design thinking is applied to
businesses and to innovation.”

Louise St. Pierre of Emily Carr and Mari Nurminen of Powertech Labs
reflect on a 3-year collaboration between the university's ecoTANK
studio series and Powertech, a subsidiary of BC Hydro, wherein the out-
comes are as much about social innovation as they are about technical
and economic aims.

In “Eat St. Case Study: Designing Interactive Cookbooks”, Celeste Martin,
also of Emily Carr, describes the evolution of an interactive ebook for a
broadcast television show that airs on the Food Network. Social learning
features prominently in the human-centred design approach.

We are also including interviews with the new Emily Carr research direc-
tors Kate Armstrong and Jonathan Aitken. Armstrong is the Director of
the Social and Interactive Media Centre and Aitken is the Director of
the Health Design Lab. Armstrong introduces us to “Disruptive Technol-
ogies in Business and Design Culture” as applied research that is reflexive
in nature while Aitken describes social innovation and social learning in
the intersections between the design and healthcare sectors.

Student praxis papers offer a range of project opportunities and
challenges that are SLOC relevant. The article by Beayue Louie examines
how participatory design strategies can serve as effective tools when
working with multiple design constraints. Louie articulates how Emily
Carr students were asked to collaborate with children with special
learning needs to create a textile-based product from reclaimed fabric
that endorsed sustainability among both the users and the designers; an
example of cosmopolitan localism.

Jean Chisholm’s article focuses on the importance of co-creation in the
developmental and end stages of project development for Bulletin, an
interactive digital space on Vancouver’s local music scene. The resulting
project is a user-centred web space that enables interaction between
event planners, artists, and audience members.

As part of the Design for Democracy movement, Sarah Wilson writes
about collaboration between Emily Carr faculty and students, and Elec
tions BC. The focus of the paper is the process of creating an advertising
campaign to increase youth voter participation in the upcoming 2013
British Columbia provincial election

“Sustainer: Designing Sustainable Systems” is the embodiment of a
design partnership between Andreas Eiken and Kieran Wallace. Another
local to global initiative in sustainability, the design team examines the
feasibility of a “to-go” reusable food container much like the systems at
play for carrying a bottle for water.

Current 04 is a tour of praxis-based, applied research as voiced by the
practitioners featured in the issue. The publication is an exposition on
the current state of design research and in particular, those thoughts
and ideas around newly emerging spaces of design practice that are
resilient and which promote generativity.

Deborah Shackleton, Celeste Martin & Glen Lowry

ADDENDUM Our past issue, Current 03, received several international
design awards for both the print and iPad app publication from the
University and College Designers Association (UCDA), Creativity Inter-
national Awards, and Adobe Design Achievement Awards.