While the initial idea of the conference was to both look back and reflect on the past 40 years of design theory and practice as well as to look into the future (next 40 years) of our disciplines, it turned out to be a good instance, that the majority of papers and presentations actually dealt with current topics, cases and projects.
The range of topics was broad, which perfectly reflected in Rachel Coopers introductory Keynote (2nd Keynote: Victor Margolin), where she described (from a UK perspective) the growth of the volume of design research, the widening focus as well as the increase in influence of design research during the last couple of years.
The percentage of portuguese and foreign speakers and audience must have been pretty fifty-fifty. Whilst the discussed topics were based in various areas of Design and Design Research as well as in areas or perspectives related with such as Sociology, Cultural Studies, Visual Anthropology, Aesthetics, Communication Sciences, Design History, Media Studies, Fashion or Economics.
Once again, it has been a point of discussion: the position and role of design research in comparison to the world of science. The honour was on Tom McGuirk (“Making: The Paragon of Knowledge”) to underline a first statement in this context, by claiming that science actually “finds out things that it has already assumed, whereas [in his example:] art finds out things that it does not know.
Terence Love later referred to that topic, by saying that most design research is exploratory, instead of hypotheses driven. A statement that triggered an interesting debate amongst the audience on the questions, whether that is actually a) true and b) better or worse.
A refreshing comment on the correlation between science and design research, came from Fernando Carvalho Rodrigues, during the closing session: “The scientists also don’t know what they are talking about. The difference is that they can measure it!
Altogether, it was definitely worth visiting the conference, since it not least held the balance of a nice and comfy atmosphere and a good sense of seriousness in terms of choosing the presented topics.
Hope remains, that we will not have to wait another 40 years until the next come-together.