PROGRAM

The CWG Design for Placemaking aims at investigating on a possible specific design perspective about the activities and interventions included in its renewed definition. Indeed, the initial characterization of placemaking mainly based on territorial marketing and the attraction of tourists, has been lately intended as a citizen collaborative process by which shaping the public realm (the commons) to maximize public value. It is an opportunity to study possible reconfigurations and re-signification of public and private spaces acting both on the “light” infrastructural and intangible (cultural, relational, etc.) levels, through the engagement and inclusion of a variety of stakeholder and bottom-up groups. The approach guiding the CWG is responding to the New European Bauhaus principles of beauty, sustainability and togetherness.

Women in Design is a CWG that presents a platform for exchange, inspiration, and mentorship. The aim of this CWG largely composed of women, for women, is to discuss challenges, share experiences and start building a global network of women in design to support and promote each other. The group posits that this is an opportune time to create an arena for women in design across the world and that there is a potential for supporting and empowering women in design to have the courage to take on visible, leadership positions that can help design fulfill its potential and make a real difference in society. In terms of mentorship, a key goal is to identify mentors across the world that will support the Cumulus community via the association’s channels. The work of this CWG is aligned with SDG 5 and is positioned to contribute to a more inclusive and democratic society and aspires to be a resource for women’s career paths. 

With more than twenty years’ history, X‐files is the oldest CWG in the history of the association. It is a forum for international networking, a vehicle for the cultivation of existing collaborations and the discovery of new opportunities, as well as a platform for global engagement and interaction. Participants of the X‐files working group include all types of university personnel: faculty members, administrative staff, deans, directors, and researchers. Cumulus conference attendees are welcome to take part if they share the group’s main objectives:

1. To facilitate collaborations during the Cumulus conference and to provide members with tools to sustain conversations;
2. To help members find prospective partners and lay the groundwork for new collaborations;
3. To provide space and time to all Cumulus conference attendees to connect with an active network of international academic programs;
4. To establish networking opportunities in the creative context of the conference.

In this workshop, the participants will be introduced to the Cumulus working group on ‘Design Education for Social Change’ (DESC). They will engage in hands-on collaborative activities to develop a glossary of terms relevant to design education for social change. The participants will review an initial list of words and advance the definitions of key concepts, supported by projects to exemplify them as case studies. A ‘hands-on arts-based activity’ will be facilitated to create imagery to enrich the glossary and illustrate the growing field of design education for social change. Come and join this collective reflection, discussion, and networking opportunity within a community of practice committed to social change, in and through design education.

Workshop Facilitators: Cecilia Casas Romero (Teacher and Researcher at ESDA), Dr Francesco Mazzarella (Reader in Design for Social Change at London College of Fashion, UAL) and Prof. Jonathan Ventura (Co-founder of the Social Design Network and Professor at Shenkar University).

The Cumulus+IxDA partnership – with institutions and organizations from different parts of the world – creates diversified and constructed spaces for conversations building on the synergy of education and research expertise, brought by Cumulusians, along with the practitioners’ perspectives brought by IxDA and its local partners.

Design schools, media schools, and art schools have the unique chance to assert themselves as leading educational institutions on par with schools for the natural and social sciences.

Primarily because the world lacks solutions to crucial challenges and because in a context of mounting complexity, it is clear that our society’s progress and wellbeing as human beings cannot be left exclusively to economic discourse and/or scientific discourse.

How do we make full use of the art and design disciplines’ role to make a positive impact in favor of more sustainable and humane development frameworks?

With more than twenty years’ history, X‐files is the oldest CWG in the history of the association. It is a forum for international networking, a vehicle for the cultivation of existing collaborations and the discovery of new opportunities, as well as a platform for global engagement and interaction. Participants of the X‐files working group include all types of university personnel: faculty members, administrative staff, deans, directors, and researchers. Cumulus conference attendees are welcome to take part if they share the group’s main objectives:

1. To facilitate collaborations during the Cumulus conference and to provide members with tools to sustain conversations;
2. To help members find prospective partners and lay the groundwork for new collaborations;
3. To provide space and time to all Cumulus conference attendees to connect with an active network of international academic programs;
4. To establish networking opportunities in the creative context of the conference.

We identify and publish new creative competencies that designers and art students need to adapt to prepare them for their future. We organize hands-on workshops at the end of the conference to peer review what this year’s conference has yielded. We then publish these newly minted creative competencies and how they can be taught by means of case studies on the Creative Competencies Resource. To date, the working group has identified and published 50+ creative competencies.

A creative competency is defined as the knowledge (as it relates to thinking, cognition); the skills (doing, making); and the behaviors (feelings, attitudes, motivations) students need to acquire. Understanding the different creative competencies that students need to develop is useful for educators in creating, managing and facilitating learning experiences. This working group is a platform to share the rich diversity in designing learning experiences to educators and practitioners from all over the world.

The CCR supports Cumulus in delivering on its mission and vision as it provides an effective platform for knowledge exchange and fosters year-round community.

Food Think Tank investigates a number of critical questions for designers: how can design influence our new eating habits and protect the planet’s natural resources and work, especially with the rising global concern on how to feed the planet now and into 2050? Similar to design, food is a common language that brings people and cultures together, each with a different relationship to food preferences and taboos.

The working group aims to challenge traditional ideas about food products and consumption to look into and examine what are the new protein transitions, and how we can minimize food waste. We are calling food design labs and designers, in general, to contribute to this working group to work towards a unified global vision and to explore how we can design the present to ensure a better future.

Food Think Tank focuses on the following topics:

• The role of designers to protect food ecosystems and natural resources
• Designing new food systems, healthy living, ecological products, and brands
• The role of technology in food production and consumption
• Quality food with health benefits to developed and under-developed countries
• Food security and consumption
• The link between designers, education, and the food industry (disciplinary and cultural perspective) 
• Any other related topic proposed by working group members

« Design Cultures for Peace » is a roundtable at the Cumulus Conference in Nantes Atlantiques examining the important role of international design organizations in times of conflict. This session brings together design leaders to discuss how our global networks can respond ethically and effectively when faced with geopolitical tensions and humanitarian crises.
The discussion will explore how design organizations can maintain open dialogue across divides, support affected communities, and advocate for peaceful solutions while respecting cultural sensitivities. Participants will share perspectives on balancing institutional neutrality with moral responsibility, and developing collaborative frameworks for design’s contribution to peace-building efforts.
Join us for this timely conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing international design networks as they navigate complex global conflicts while upholding their educational and humanitarian missions.

Contemporary Art is a CWG that aims to be a forum for international networking, a vehicle for the cultivation of existing collaborations and the discovery of new opportunities, as well as a platform for global engagement and interaction. The main objectives of the group are:

1. To facilitate collaborations during the Cumulus conferences and to provide members with tools to sustain conversations;
2. To help members find prospective partners and lay the groundwork for new collaborations;
3. To provide space and time to all Cumulus conference attendees to connect with an active network of international academic programs;
4. To establish networking opportunities in the creative context of the conferences.

Participants of the Contemporary Art working group include all types of university personnel: faculty members, administrative staff, deans, directors, researchers, and students.

Contemporary approaches to methods and cultural scenarios for learning and didactic experiences

The intention is to create within the framework of Cumulus an interior design community and to explore themes of interest within education, research and practice.

Knowing that the theme is wide and the actors present in Cumulus are coming from different cultural, historical and academic backgrounds, this working group intends to create moments to meet and exchange without borders. For instance, the wg could share information and best practices on how teaching ‘space’ design since after the second half of the 1970s, has been increasingly influential in delineating new types of space. How space can be flexible, hybrid, temporarily set up and reversible, dense with cultural, anthropological, emotional meanings, a space contaminated (but enriched) by art, communication, fashion,… and also profoundly technological, sustainable and last frontier, inclusive.

We believe that the CWG could be the right place to develop through the different Cumulus conferences a thread to keep alive the conversation and a constant update on the evolution of the discipline of Space and Interior Design.

Design With All Beings: Expanded Communities of Social Innovation

The brand new DESIS Network cluster “Design With All Beings: Expanded Communities of Social Innovation” will gather for its second event at Cumulus Nantes. The cluster is a collaborative effort to explore social innovation initiatives worldwide that consider more-than-human agents, while reflecting on the necessity and implications of this expanded perspective. Bringing together diverse sensitivities and points of view from across the network, the cluster seeks to foster dialogue around inclusive communities, more-than-human representation, and multispecies cohabitation. During the 90-minute session, we will present the ongoing mapping of network projects and engage in a collective discussion on the challenges and opportunities of broadening the scope of social innovation to include more-than-human actors.

Healthcare represents one of the most critical sectors for the development of the well-being of society. It involves not only the development of new treatments and new drugs, but also the development of products and services innovations for the prevention, the diagnosis, the cure, and the rehabilitation on which Design Discipline – in its various articulations: product, communication, and services- can offer a significant contribution.

DEsign for Health, wellbeing and Aging (DEHA), following the objectives of the 3rd Sustainable Development goal, Good Health and Well-being, aims to provide an open space for discussion and an international showcase that will include presentations, case studies, and discussions close to the theme of Design for Good Health and Wellbeing to create a global network for sharing best practices and experiences. The WG will be organized following the three directions of the knowledge triangle – research, education, and innovation – as key drivers of a knowledge-based society.

Research: through (i) the development of an international observatory on Design for Health, Ageing and Wellbeing ; (ii) the sharing of research outcomes in the form of periodic seminars and publications; (iv) the creation of groups for participation in national, European, and international research projects.

Education: through (i) the sharing of themes for projects and workshops developed simultaneously by different schools at an international level and comparison of the results with online or traveling exhibitions; (ii) the co-tutorship of doctoral theses; (iii) the sharing of masters and postgraduate advanced training courses; (iv) the design and implementation at the international level of master’s degrees on the subject with the attribution of joint degrees.

Innovation: through (i) the involvement of companies for an opening towards the external socio-economic context; (ii) through the dialogue with the National Technology Clusters; (iii) through the sharing of Public Engagement initiatives.

Fashion and Textiles Working Group (FTWG) is a CWG that focuses on education and research within the field of fashion and textiles. FTWG provides its members with an academic forum for knowledge transfer and development in fashion and textile design higher education and with relevant information about the educational, research, and cultural policies of different countries regarding our respective field, with a goal of reaching excellence and innovations in fashion and textiles while promoting cooperation and partnership between member institutions through projects and publications.