Global Futures

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), with the support of the Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI), is hosting a symposium entitled Global Futures at MAXXI in Rome, Italy on March 2, 2018.

The symposium brings to life RISD’s Global Futures Lab, a series of international workshops aimed at moving beyond stereotypical western visions of the future to invite partners and students at specific locations around the world to imagine the future in their own geo-cultural region. Project partners will come together to discuss the themes explored through the Global Futures Lab, which was created in 2017 by RISD Associate Professor of Industrial Design Paolo Cardini as part of the college’s newly created Global Faculty Fellowship.

The public is invited to join RISD and MAXXI for the full-day symposium, which features speakers such as: Saeid Aliari (Art University of Isfahan, Iran), Meskerem Asseguad (Zoma Art Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Dawit Benti (Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Planning at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Tegan Bristow (University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa), Paolo Cardini (RISD), Paula Gaetano Adi (RISD), Pippo Ciorra (MAXXI), Gwen Farrelly (RISD), Felipe Ferrer (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Peru in Lima, Peru), Sohail Inayatullah (Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan), Praveen Naher (National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India), Milvia Perez (Instituto Superior de Diseño in Havana, Cuba), and Bruce and Stephanie Tharp (University of Michigan).

To register, please visit the RISD Global website.

Through a series of international, on-site workshops led by Cardini, more than 60 students from selected institutions in Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, India and Peru were invited to reflect on their own environment, traditions and beliefs, and to envision futures respectful of their culture and in line with their own idea of progress. To counteract a diffuse technological determinism in which society seems shaped by new technologies, the Global Futures Lab endorses a sort of “cultural determinism” in which ideas about the future should be envisioned locally, with the primary goal of fostering discussion that incorporates pluralistic perspectives.

The public is also invited to the exhibition Souvenirs from the Futures on March 1 at 5:30pm at 1/9unosunove gallery (via degli Specchi, 20 in Rome), featuring objects created by students who participated in the Lab at six different art, design and architecture universities around the world. The exhibition is presented by RISD in partnership with PostmastersROMA and 1/9unosunove. For details, please visit the RISD Global website.

In addition to Rhode Island School of Design and RISD in Rome: European Honors Program (EHP), and with the support of MAXXI, project partners include 1/9unosunove, the Art University of Isfahan, Institute of Architecture (Ethiopia Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Planning at Addis Ababa University), Instituto Superior de Diseño (ISDI), National Institute of Design (NID), School of Fine Arts and Design, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Peru (PUCP), Postmasters Roma and Zoma Art Center.