Social research has identified potential scenarios for the future labour market. The employee’s attitude will become more important that expertise; team work will prevail over individual efforts; freelancers will replace many permanent positions. This overlaps with changes in the environment: driverless cars, self-service hotels, sprawling cities, ageing populations, migration crises, remote-controlled surgical procedures, democratised space travel… How will design graduates find their bearings in this world?
Looking at education curricula, projects and student works which address them, it seems that a paradigm change is looming in the petrified educational system. What we need today is less scholasticism and more experimentation and intuition, more ability to combine abstract motions with properties of materials, and more team work.
The exhibition Stand By! Polish Design Education on Display asks universal questions about the status quo and the future of education both in Poland and globally. The objective is to take part in a global debate on design education, and to open up a space for discussion. The exhibition should also foster reflection on how the educational process should change in order to adapt to the changing world. This is why the exhibition opens with a review of the leading trends expected in the labour market in the nearest future with a special emphasis on the roles of designers.
To understand the Polish educational system, it is important to introduce the specific context of Polish design. Selected designs will be arranged in a random order, in contrast with academic logics. However, the exhibition method is disciplined, reflecting the educational process and its stages (including errors, mistakes, and accidental discoveries). In addition, the designs will be accompanied by comments from the authors and the curator, assisting the visitors in understanding the objects.
In addition to objects, the exhibition will showcase educational methods. Selected student project ideas will be described by educators and outlined in simple step-by-step instructions. Instead of a heavy catalogue, visitors can collect project sheets by picking the content which sparks their interest. They will also be encouraged to share their experience, using provided blank sheets. The exhibition will close with a contact hub – a space furnished with furniture pieces from Polish designers, offering a small library of selected publications and magazines related to the exhibition.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of events: workshops in designing new educational models, meetings with selected designers participating in the exhibition, curator talks and guided tours.
Stand by! Polish design education on display
Dutch Design Week
Temporary Art Centre Eindhoven
22nd-30th October 2016
Curator: Agata Nowotny
Organised by: Culture.pl
Graphic design: Rafał Benedek / Type2
Exhibition design: Wojciech Cichecki
Exhibition production: Marta Piechocka-Nowakowska & Michał Nowakowski