Ares Source emerged from the pedagogy of "Design Frameworks: History & Methods" in the Master of Design program at UC Berkeley.
DESINV 200 builds essential skills in critical thinking focused specifically on the process of designing and the role of the designer. It positions the designer at a pivot point between the past and future, devising, as Herbert Simon famously said, “courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.” Those preferred future states are always layered on previous “courses of action,” histories generated by the things we design and the ways they act back on us—shaping our world and the ways we design for it.
The course approaches this topic by exploring interlinked theoretical and practical frameworks that examine:
- historical examples of design as an instrument of future-making,
- how designers determine preferred future states,
- and strategies they use to move toward them, including critical and speculative design methods.
Instructor: Dr. Randy Swearer
GSI: Joanne Ma
Creator: Georgios Grigoriadis
Learn more about the Berkeley Master of Design (MDes)
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