Actuar en la emergencia

This is an open and public research program on the possibilities of design (and the creative thinking that supports and accompanies it) in relation to the emergencies posed by the effects of the present crisis. It is also a longer-term vision with the intention of offering different routes to those that have led us to where we are.

Un programa de investigación para la Real Academia de España de Roma 2021-23

The COVID-19 pandemic is a phenomenon with an extraordinary scale. Not only is it the first truly global and collective crisis in an interconnected world, which leaves no loopholes unaffected; but it is, above all, the first crisis that permeates directly into each individual, beyond borders or geopolitical, cultural or economic spaces. COVID-19 has tragically reminded us of human brotherhood.

The COVID-19 crisis is a hyper-phenomenon, as it reflects and magnifies a whole series of processes that are inherent to the current productive system and to the prevailing models of governance. Its effects will undoubtedly have an unprecedented reach on the collective ways of thought and governance.

Design and creative practices focused on functioning as feasible proposals for the improvement of many of the processes and dynamics of social life have today a singular opportunity to achieve full public agency and competence; not only because the creative instruments that have been developed have served and continue to serve to solve material, health, spatial, psychosocial, communicational or cultural emergencies, but also because these practices and sensibilities have brought up the need to do so in a different way from that which is usually promoted by the market society and surplus value. These are the practices and approaches that for years have been advocating a different treatment of the guiding principles of design and creation, by focusing on sustainability, transmissibility, integration or transversality.

The present pandemic not only allows us to experience firsthand the benefits of the application of these principles, but it is also an opportunity, perhaps a unique one, to have a live impact on future politics aimed at a healthy governance of the human community and its environment.

ACTUAR EN LA EMERGENCIA is, therefore, an open and public research program on the possibilities of design (and the creative thinking that nurtures and accompanies it) in relation to the emergencies posed by the effects of the present crisis, but it is also a longer-term vision with the intention of offering different routes to those that have led us to where we are.

ACTUAR EN LA EMERGENCIA was created from a proposal by GREDITS (Design and Social Transformation Research Group), affiliated to BAU, one of the most dynamic creative schools in Spain, whose main motto since its foundation has been design that transforms. Under the coordination of GREDITS, and the strategic support of the RAER/AECID, the program has acquired a transnational dimension through partnerships with other research groups, both university and professional. The program seeks, therefore, to foster the creation of stable research and dialogue networks, both national and international, in the field of art, design and thought, as well as to establish channels of transfer between similar programs linked to the analysis of the effects of the present crisis.

To this day, the program counts with the participation of:

  • GREDITS/BAU – Design and Social Transformation Research Group (Barcelona).
  • HANGAR – Center for Production and Research in Visual Arts (Barcelona).
  • ISIA – Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (Urbino).
  • Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the Kore University (Enna, Sicily).
  • DiARC (Department of Architecture) of the University of Naples Federico II (Naples).
  • Art, Architecture and Digital Society. Research Group of the Department of Art History of the University of Barcelona (Barcelona).
  • Inmaterial Magazine (Barcelona).
  • PhD Kore Review Magazine (Enna, Sicily).
  • Progetto Grafico Magazine (Urbino).
  • Materia Magazine (Barcelona).

This program contemplates the development of 15 research projects, developed by 56 mostly Spanish and Italian specialists from the academic, professional and community fields, adhering to the standards for an inclusive, active and critical Education for Development, established, among other organisations, by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development.

The projects are grouped into 4 main areas of research:

  • Phenomenology of an emergency
  • Spaces and bodies
  • Pedagogies
  • Iconographies

The program activities are distributed annually between the RAER headquarters in Rome and the headquarters of the various Spanish and Italian partners, under the premise of always proposing shared and transversal dynamics that enable maximum public participation and an open transfer of results. It should be noted that, as long as the pandemic requires it, some of the activities will be carried out in telematic format.

The outputs of the program will have the following formats:

  • Website
  • Publications
  • Conferences
  • Workshops
  • Seminars

The act of public presentation of the program took place on March 16, 2021 telematically, but with its base in the RAER. Those responsible for the program presented the general lines of action, and the participants briefly presented their objects and objectives of study, so that the audience could have a first mapping of the whole program to be carried out.

 

Entities involved

Organizers: Real Academia de España en Roma, GREDITS (BAU)
Scientific direction: GREDITS (BAU)
Academic partners: Università Kore di Enna (Sicily), DiARC (Università Federico II, Napoli), Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche (Urbino), Hangar, Group “Art, Arquitectura i Societat Digital” (Universitat de Barcelona)
Collaborating magazines: Inmaterial – Diseño, Arte y Sociedad, PhD Kore Review, Progetto grafico, Matèria – Revista internacional d’Art.

Project details

Project images