Stephan Weiss Lecture Series Celebrates Launch of MFA Transdisciplinary Design
On February 23, The School of Design Strategies at Parsons will celebrate the launch of a new MFA in Transdisciplinary Design through the Stephan Weiss Lecture Series, whose theme this spring is design for a complex world.
Parsons presents Yochai Benkler, the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, in conversation with Anna Valtonen, rector of the Umea Institute of Design in Sweden and former head of Nokia Design Foresight. Benkler and Valtonen will discuss how networks, global, immediate, and decentralized are changing the way we live, work and design, and what are the possibilities and challenges of working and living in an always on, always connected global marketplace. This event will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Theresa Lang Student & Community Center at 55 West 13th Street, and is free and open to the public.
The Master of Fine Arts in Transdisciplinary Design will serve as a laboratory to empower designers to face the complex challenges of today’s 24/7 global culture through new forms of collaborative, cross-disciplinary practice. The program is focused on studio-based projects that bring together experts from a variety of backgrounds and points of view to tackle real-world challenges. The program will leverage relationships that Parsons has established with leading corporations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to embark upon the kinds of local and global collaborations that are necessary to make meaningful change.
The Stephan Weiss Lecture Series will continue on March 25, with Andrew Blauvelt, design director and curator of the Walker Art Center, in conversation with Marjie Vogelzang, an eating designer and principal or Proef and Studio Marije Vogelzang in Amsterdam; and April 6, with Natalie Jeremijenko, director of the xdesign Environmental Health Clinic at New York University, in conversation with Nigel Snoad, lead researcher with Microsoft Humanitarian Systems and a senior advisor at ICT4Peace Foundation.
For more information, visit the TransBlog. To learn the word on the street about Transdisciplinary Design, check out a short video on The New School’s You Tube channel