FUTUREGROUND KEYNOTE SPEAKERS PRINTER VERSION

PROFESSOR RICHARD BUCHANAN President, Design Research Society
Professor Dr. Richard Buchanan is Professor of Design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a Director of Doctoral Studies in the School, and served as its Head from 1992 to 2002. He currently teaches in the areas of Interaction and Design, Communication Planning and Organisation Design and Behaviour, but his interests are wide ranging. He has published over 30 articles including "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking", "Children of the Moving Present: The Ecology of Culture and the Search for Causes in Design", and edited three books, including Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (University of Chicago Press) and The Idea of Design (M.I.T. Press). Professor Buchanan is Co-Editor of Design Issues (M.I.T. Press) and was in 2001 elected as the President of the Design Research Society. Among other activities he currently serves on the Design Task Force for Hong Kong, and on design juries such as the Primo INTEL Design Award Jury in Milan, Italy.
PROFESSOR MARK BURRY Director, Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Professor Burry's Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory uses high level software to explore the built environment, and to synthesise new possibilities in fields as diverse as the acoustics of a city, through to enabling the completion of Gaudí's Sagrada Família. Much of his research is practice-based, and is of direct application in design and architecture. He has published widely on design, construction, and the use of computers in design theory and practice, and has challenged architecture through both theory and practice. He is particularly well known for his publications on the life and work of architect Antoni Gaudí.
DR JOHN ARMSTRONG Department of Philosophy, Melbourne University
The unifying theme of Dr John Armstrong's work is 'the quality of experience'. Across three books, The Secret Power of Beauty (2004), Conditions of Love (2002) and The Intimate Philosophy of Art (2000), he examines some of the deepest and most satisfying - as well as most elusive - kinds of experience, but ones which are central to a vision of design as a cultural activity. In his keynote speech, The Eloquence of Silent Objects - research projects for Design Philosophy, Dr Armstrong will speak on the potent but intangible concepts of function, symbol and expression as they relate to design. He will draw attention to the very different attitudes and resources people bring to their encounter with objects, and helps to re-position the object as a focus of design research.
CLIVE DILNOT Parsons School of Design, New York
Design historian and theorist Clive Dilnot will speak on Mapping the Discipline of Design Research. Clive has taught design theory and critical studies at institutions including Harvard University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as universities in Australia, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. He has published widely on topics in design history, theory, and pedagogy.