EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Bruce Brown

The Royal College of Art, London,
Goldsmiths University of London, UK

Design is both a young profession and a part of the human psyche. Only human beings can reshape the natural world and enhance their own biology through design. Now we design systems of artificial intelligence and mass communication that allow others to condition how we experience the world and make decisions. If we are to defend free will in a democratic society then a new approach is needed that sheds the 20th century model of design in which people are just one of design’s objects — a new approach in which design no longer works on human behavior but with human experience. This will stimulate new forms of production and consumption in which artifacts and images remain indispensible to the human experience.

 
About the Speaker

Bruce Brown was educated at the Royal College of Art in London. Until, 2016 he was Professor of Design at the University of Brighton and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research. For twenty years previously he was Dean of the university’s Faculty of Arts & Architecture. He was appointed by the UK Funding Councils to chair a Main Panel in the last national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) — overseeing the quality assessment of all arts and humanities research in UK universities. Currently he is chair of the Creative Arts panel for the Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise 2020. Previously he chaired the Portuguese Government’s Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Research Grants Panel [Arts] and was one of four people invited by the Portuguese Government to conduct an international review entitled Reforming Arts and Culture Higher Education in Portugal. Recently he chaired the accreditation and validation of University PhD programmes in Estonia and Israel and is a Board member of EQ-Arts which supports arts institutions throughout Europe. He has served as Trustee and Governor of organizations such as the Crafts Council and the Art’s Council for England’s South East Arts Board. He is an Editor of Design Issues Research Journal (MIT) and a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art, London, and at Goldsmiths University of London. He lectures regularly on design at international venues.