As the first of this series, the 2015 Symposium will address a pertinent issue “Outsourcing in the Design Industry” and its multidimensional impact on Design and Identity(ies). Outsourcing is progressively becoming a necessity in the field of Design with increased strategic flexibility while simplifying multiple functions. From operation cost reduction to re-engineering, the numerous benefits of outsourcing have made it an inevitable interdisciplinary operation within the design industry.

MiSD 2015 has been conceptualized as an annual international forum on Design aimed at bringing together like-minded scholars, professionals and students from allied Design fields such as (but not limited to) Architecture, Interior Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, Media and Communications, Engineering and Technology.

Dubai, the most prolific and conspicuous site of large-scale manifestations of globally outsourced productions – and resultant design identity(ies) – is also the site of discourse in the 2015 Symposium. Design production in Dubai, like in any other place, has its own set of specific determinants such as political will, cost of labor, finances, materials, global market fluctuations etc. The potential of the digital media and data – that can be easily generated, standardized, compressed and transferred through several layers and different sets of realities to (re)produce newer and more complex identities needs to be addressed. While electronic media and the virtual space has already created spatial anonymity and associated impersonal social relations, the impact of globally transferable digital data – production and application – in a place (and its culture/s), must be addressed before these are erased with the click of a mouse.

Outsourcing has become a core component in the field of Design with increased strategic flexibility while simplifying multiple functions. From operation cost reduction to re-engineering, the benefits of outsourcing have made it an inevitable process in the interdisciplinary operation of the design industry, for improved overall performance and to stay competitive.

MiSD 2015 welcomes original, high quality, published / non published full-length papers for oral presentation from prospective authors on the topic “Outsourcing in the Design Industry” (tracks and sub tracks are mentioned below). All the papers will be published as symposium proceedings.

SYMPOSIUM TRACKS AND SUB TRACKS:

Trans cultural Alliances:

  1. Maintaining originality and creativity from the design board to the workshop
  2. Adaptation
  3. Shifting Realities
  4. Cultural Infusions

Regional Interventions:

  1. Interpretation
  2. Criticizing
  3. Challenging conventions and accepting post modernity
  4. Sustainability
  5. Guidelines / By-laws

Socially Responsible Design:

  1. Analogy between thinking design and managing assembly
  2. Rejecting the past- good or bad (The Necessary Evil)
  3. Implications
  4. Homogenizing

Perceiving Scales:

  1. Outsourcing product and services
  2. Problems
  3. Ergonomics
  4. Design-standardization on universal design

Technological Milestones:

  1. Delineating common practices within the outsourcing trade
  2. Influx
  3. Flexibility
  4. Standardization
  5. Alternative ways of design and construction

Contact for Registration, Hotel Accommodation and Visa: Bhakti More (bhakti.more[at]manipaldubai.com)