Inherent in every act of design is a vision—however modest, however inarticulate—of a better world: We design because we believe that travel might be made more comfortable, work more efficient, information more accessible, experiences more fulfilling, spaces more convivial, and people’s lives more meaningful. By addressing the needs of the present, designers are, inescapably, envisioning the future.

By definition, a vision of a better future is grounded in a critique of the present, insofar as the prevailing organization of social resources obstructs the full realization of our potential to lead productive, enjoyable, and fulfilling lives. William Morris was the first to link a critique of “How we live” to a vision of “How we might live” through the medium of design, and this impulse continues to inspire design practice today.

California College of the Arts, which is at once the westernmost outpost of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the gateway to Silicon Valley, is pleased to host the 2015 conference of the Design History Society. Inspired by the spirit of critical utopianism that connects the 19th visionaries, this multidisciplinary conference will explore the diverse ways in which designers have sought to balance critical realism with utopian idealism. In addition to keynote lectures, seminars, and immersion in the rich design culture of the San Francisco Bay Area, the format of the conference will include moderated panels consisting of three 20-minute papers, followed by discussion and debate. We invite proposals from historians, theorists, and design practitioners from every part of the world that address topics that include, but are not limited to: 

• Building on the themes of the 2014 Oxford conference: war, peace, and visions of alternative futures (Futurism, Constructivism, De Stijl). 
• Building on the themes of the 2013 Ahmenabad conference: constructions of the post-colonial future (and the pre-colonial past).
• Environmental and sustainable utopias: from Garden Cities to Arcosanti, designers have enlisted nature in their quest for a sustainable future. 
• Film and fiction: from H.G. Wells to Ridley Scott, design and the literary imaginary. Design fiction. Speculative design.
• Utopia/Dystopia: projects conceived around sexual, racial, or religious exclusivity.
• Urban communities: Designers have imagined (Corbusier’s Ville radieuse, Wright’s Broadacre City), and sometimes created (Niemeyer’s Brasilia, Burning Man) ideal cities; examples informed by the global history of architecture, urbanism, and design. 
• Technology and utopia: from Francis Bacon (“the relief of man’s estate”) to Douglas Engelbart (“augmenting the human intellect”), projects that harness the supposed power of technology to perfect the human condition.
• Idealism, ideology, and education: beyond Vkhutemas and Bauhaus, visionary programs for the design of future designers.
• Design as resistance: consequences for designers, their projects, and their clients of transcending the boundaries of the prevailing social order.
• Interdisciplinarity/Multidisciplinarity: visionary projects involving tactical or strategic alliances between designers and practitioners from other disciplines (music, astronomy, poetry, physiology...).
• Prospects and precedents: Critical Design, Participatory Design, the Maker’s Movement, and Design Thinking all project a radically different view of the relation between designer, client, and the public.
• Globalism/Tribalism: the International Style as design imperialism; expressions of critical regionalism.
• Design and the human condition: forces still active that nourish the spirit of utopian optimism.