Abstract
Make a Maker is an approach under the umbrella Keep it Slow, Make it Complex. This is to understand design as a process of critical thinking and resulting in action. At its core, it’s a guided mental walk, exploring how design can be more than just creating objects or solving immediate problems, but a way of understanding and potentially transforming complex social systems. And in the process, yourself. The approach draws inspiration from educational philosophers like Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Dewey and Rorty, who believed that true learning involves acting, not just accepting things as they are. Design, in this context, becomes a form of inquiry, a way of asking questions about existing structures, relationships, and possibilities. Make a Maker explores design through different conceptual zones. These aren’t physical spaces, but mental frameworks for understanding design. Uncertain Terrains, invites people to sit with complexity rather than immediately trying to simplify or resolve it. The Collaboration Furnace focuses on how different perspectives can create more nuanced understanding. Practically, Make a Maker exercises participants to map out complex systems, challenge their own position, perspective, assumptions, or imagine alternative ways of approaching a challenge. It’s less about arriving at a perfect solution and more about developing a more flexible, critically aware approach to own self. Design, is viewed as a form of dialogue, internal, embodied, as well as external, in the world we share, and a way of understanding and potentially reshaping how we live and work together.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
DESIGN EDUCATION, CREATIVITY, DESIGN THINKING, GAMIFICATION, DESIGNER, EDUCATOR
