As a farewell activity from the Department of Design at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile, I organized two colloquia to discuss relevant topics which, in my understanding, play a key role when one is willing to move design, insofar as a University field, closer to contemporary thought. One of those themes was very local, and the other one, more, so to speak, global.
On the one hand, the first colloquium wanted to critically discuss, from the ethos of the University of Chile —a public research University—, the character of the current Chile’s Design Biennale and the eventual necessity of organizing a counter-biennale, as a response to the former’s organization and curatorial biases. This activity took place at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism’s auditorium on May 2017, and the discussion panel was formed by professor Dr. José Allard from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and professors Dr. Rodrigo Vera and Dr. Cristián Gómez-Moya, both from the University of Chile.
On the other hand, the second colloquium was devoted to sketch potential links between experimental practices from the design fields, and two paths of contemporary thinking which can be seen as particularly relevant to better understand material and media cultures; these are Science and Technology Studies (STS), and Media Theories. This activity took place at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism’s auditorium, on September 2017, and the discussion panel was formed by the designer and alumni from the University of Chile Adolfo Álvarez, the independent researcher and docent Joaquin Zerene, and professor Dr. Martin Tironi from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.