Crompton, E., Boelen, J., Zuljevic, M., 2018.

The Politics of Design: Act 1

The Politics of Design: Act 1 is about participation and political engagement in current design practices. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the 15th edition of the international Participatory Design Conference, which is being organised this August in Hasselt and Genk. UHasselt - Faculty of Architecture, LUCA School of Arts, Z33 - House for Contemporary Art, the City of Hasselt and the City of Genk will present these 20 works in order to enter into the debate on public space and on the politics of design. This 'first act' is the first exhibition in a longer trajectory that aims to start new collaborations in a local, regional and international context, and will result in a 'final act' in 2020: The Politics of Design Festival.

The exhibition presents three thematic events that make tangible the politics of ways in which participation is given form. These 'ways to participate' are: BODY (participating as an individual and as a physical body through the practices of care and work), COMMUNITY (participating through and towards creating a collective through the practices of commonality and representation) and CITY (participating as a stranger in larger scale networks, through practices of data production and collection, and contributions to complex challenges, such as sustainability).

The Politics of Design: Act 1 encompasses Participatory Design-inspired interventions, participatory walks, public debates, performances and other interactive formats. How does participation in the political sphere take shape today at different levels such as body, community and the city? How does design give form to these different ways of participating? What values are sustained and what kinds of futures are imagined in the current political agendas of designers? The Politics of Design: Act 1 starts the conversation on the complexities of our engagement by activating different design and research practices in the space of Z33's beguinage houses.