International Symposium Friday & Saturday, May 12-13, 2017 Philadelphia / Organized by The Penn State Stuckeman School

Thanks to parametric design and digital fabrication it is now possible to mass-produce non-standard, highly differentiated products, from shoes and tableware to furniture and now even houses. Variety no longer compromises the efficiency and economy of production. Furthermore, parametric definitions of products’ geometry are made accessible via interactive websites to anyone, who could then design their own, unique versions of the product. Such “democratization” of design – through mass-customization – raises many interesting questions such as the authorship of design and the functional and esthetic quality of products (shoes, tableware, furniture, houses…) designed by non-designers. This symposium explores social, cultural and design implications of this emerging “design democracy”, including its technological origins.

SPEAKERS

Philippe Starck / Starck, Paris, France Chris Sharples / SHoP, New York, USA Fabio Gramazio / ETH, Zurich, Switzerland Joseph Tanney / Resolution: 4 Architecture, New York, USA Frank Piller / RTWH Aachen, Germany John Brown / Housebrand, Calgary, Canada Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, New York, USA Elena Manferdini / Atelier Manferdini, Venice, USA Karl Daubmann / University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Joseph Pine / Strategic Horizons, Aurora, OH, USA Thomas Fisher / University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA Greg Lynn / GLForm, Los Angeles, USA Kent Larson / MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, USA Tim Simpson / Penn State, State College, USA Tom Verebes / OCEAN CN, Hong Kong, China Assa Ashuach / Assa Ashuach Studio, London, UK Virginia San Fratello / Emerging Objects, San Francisco, USA

CHAIRS

Jose Duarte / Penn State University, State College, PA, USA Branko Kolarevic / University of Calgary, Canada