Good Design Izmir_8: Call for Theme

Good Design Izmir, organised by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mediterranean Academy since 2016, is a public program that brings together design studies on Mediterranean and world issues in Izmir and carries them out in dialogue and cooperation with all stakeholders.

Every year under a specific theme, it brings together all groups engaged in design-related activities on a local, national and international scale with an egalitarian, collaborative and participatory approach and paves the way for sharing professional, educational, intellectual works on design through activities such as talks/panels, exhibitions, workshops, film screenings, performances, competitions, and projects.

Good Design Izmir will be held for the eighth time this year and we invite you to contribute to determining the theme of Good Design Izmir_8 together. We expect you to submit your theme proposals with its title, keywords and conceptual framework. Please find below the theme selection criteria and detailed information about Good Design Izmir.

The deadline for theme proposal application is 17 May 2023. Theme proposals will be evaluated by the Academy Board in line with the selection criteria.

You can contact us at iyitasarim@izmeda.org for your questions.

Sincerely,
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mediterranean Academy

Theme application form: http://bit.ly/42qNZZ5
Application deadline: 17 May 2023

Theme Selection Criteria

1. Identity of the programme: It should continue the Good Design Izmir line suggested by past themes [‘Output’, ‘Making Space’, ‘Together’, ‘Loop’, ‘Common Futures’, ‘Common Futures Again’, ‘Vital’].
2. Internationalisation: It should address Mediterranean and world issues on a local, national and international scale with a focus on design.
3. Interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary approach: It should embrace all design fields and all disciplines with a focus on design.
4. Relationship with the city: It should consider the qualities and capacities of the city and its region; promote social, cultural, economic and environmental revitalisation; and propose visible outputs/improvements in the city.
5. Engagement with designers, institutions, city dwellers: It should arouse interest, invite and involve; make them think, encourage them to establish dialogue; inspire them to share, partner and co-produce; and pursue an egalitarian, collaborative and participatory approach.
6. Timeliness: It should be present- and future-orientated.
7. Expression: It should be expressed in a clear, simple, original, and universal language.

CYCLIC WHEELS-VERTICAL HIERARCHIES

Life on earth, which was embraced by a linear timeline with no return, provides a stage of struggle consisting of cycles that human has complied with but still in search of a state of domination. Having experienced of existing only for thousands of years compared to billions of years of age of the Earth, humans tend to corrupt the natural cycle by digressing the balanced relation established with the nature, in a way inserting the hierarchy of needs just like a knife into the wheel of natural cycle.

Even this hopeless fight of humans against omnipotent Nature brings short lived, relative gains along, which can be called nothing but only a Pyrrhic victory. Yet, humans chose a dominating role through increasing population and developing technology against nature but they must convert their breeding practice of gene transferring into an intellect-based practice of existing compatible with nature’s cycle.

The task of protecting the delicate balance between meeting the needs of the humans and the continuation of the cycle is at the hands of the designers who, by their creativity, touch the lives of ordinary people by creating spaces and objects that become part of their daily lives. Having accepted the necessity of creating an equalitarian living on earth rather than treating the other stakeholders (no matter organic or inorganic) to maintain the sustainability of life, it becomes the duty of the designer to ensure such equality.

This exhibition brings a light into the worldview of the young brains educated in the departments of design of various fields in the institutions in Izmir. It is worth bearing in mind while visiting the exhibition that we still have a long way to go to establish an understanding that we (humans) are not superior but only equal to the other beings on Earth.  Yet, it gives hope to observe the awareness also reflected in designs.

Sections

Starting form the End…

From the hands of men, the Apocalypse will come…

Not my, but my physiology wants…

Everything starts with fulfillment of the basic needs…

Let the World turn around, let the cycle continue and me be safe…

A search for multi-layered safety within the spookiness of the World.

I have social needs…

The human wants to be a part of, to get socialize or to draw away sometimes…

Find me at Place M’as-tu vu!*

Human wants to get recognized by taste…

“Have you seen me?” Square, Knokke (Belgium).

I’ve done it…

This exhibition hosts only limited number of designers due to limited space and they can be regarded as they have “accomplished themselves”. But the designers who are here in this exhibition or not will continue to work in order to sustain this “self-accomplishment” in their finite lifetime within the cyclic process on earth. Even the criteria seem to be quite relative, the final decision will be given by the earth itself together with all stakeholders of the life on it.