Prof. Beany Monteiro
LE STUDIUM Guest Research Fellow
From
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - BR
In residence at
ESAD/ECOLAB (Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design) - FR
Host scientist
Dr Ludovic Duhem
PROJECT
Design and Social Innovation : research on the interactions between social actors and objects designed in emancipator process to generate autonomous knowledge in Design
Traditionally Design research begins with a double movement: in one movement, there is the theoretical knowledge to enlarge and consolidate our professional working practice, and in the other movement, there is the research through design from a practical intervention, which is, in turn, reinterpreted in the Design theoretical knowledge field. These two movements, reciprocal and asymmetric, lead us to reflect about our vocation and talents, concerning ourselves as designers and our activities in contemporary Design. In this way, a new research quality through design should be considered: one that predicts the construction of autonomous knowledge in relation to the traditional aforementioned movements. On the other hand, dealing with Design practice brings us to face the question of the planet’s sustainability. Considering most products nowadays are not ecologically sustainable, we need to understand how product design may contribute to this issue. Since knowledge is materialized in products, we can magnify and value the qualities of such products towards the results we expect with our projects. Designers must create a bridge between the external and internal conditions that enable change through local experiences, presenting innovative knowledge and possibilities. That process has important implications for Design. In this logic, Design must create “networks” with meaning in people’s relations, aiming at increasing these relations quality, and change the focus from product to the results in which this product is inserted. Then designers’ role is changed and enlarged environmental, social and intellectually. This research has as its main objective to understand how Design can produce social and ecological knowledge by means of local projects.
Publications in relation with the research project
Publications
This article presents the report of a research carried out during the postdoctoral program, which focused on the peda-gogical practices used for teaching Design for Social Innovation, with the objective of structuring the course of Ecosocial Design, a class to be taught to undergraduate college students majoring in Design in Brazil. To develop the search in this period, it was initiated a reflection on the creation and application of the Postgraduate Program in Design at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The research method was based on the combination of the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of the intermediate objects that are need to the creation of this Program with the ped-agogical instruments developed during its organization, and the potential of these instruments to participate associ-atively in the creation of new Graduate Programs in Brazil. It was determined that the preservation of the autonomy of the knowledge accrued in different contexts, according to the principle of individuation of the Intermediate Objects of Conception, is potentially capable of reducing territorial inequalities by strengthening their associations, and thus performing a coordinating role of associative forms.
Final reports
This article presents a report of the postdoctoral research entitled “Teach-ing, research and university extension from a perspective of Design for social innovation”, conducted at the ÉCOLAB/ÉSAD, Le Studium Loire Valley, Institute for Advanced Studies, in Orléans, France, between April and September 2018. The report considers the experiences shared throughout the program, the updated literature review and an account of my experience as a professor and researcher at the Graduate Program in Design of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, School of Fine Arts, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil