October 9-17, 2020
RSD9 created a place for pause and reflection, but also bold ideas and forward-thinking discussion. The outcome is a collection of over 50 presentations on design outcomes and programs informed by research, real applications, and practices to address problems in the unbounded complexity of social and ecological systems.
Photos: The National Institute of Design campus and Vandana Shiva's keynote with Peter Jones and Praveen Nahar.
RSD9 took place six-months into the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. Recognizing the human need to reach out, care for others, and find joy at such a serious time, the organizing team gathered all their creativity and enterprise to produce a fully virtual event.
To reduce the stress of long periods sitting in front of a screen, the established 2-3 day RSD program became RSD9 Week – offering a short day of proceedings together with a full offering of online events over a seven-day period. The program ranged from academics to mindfulness and brought together over 500 delegates.
RSD9 Proceedings List
RSD9 Week was hosted by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. It was held October 9-17, 2020, representing a full week of online paper presentations, workshops, complex visualizations (Gigamaps), panels and conversations.
RSD9 Keynote. Vandana Shiva: Design, like every other discipline over the last few centuries, has been limited by colonialism and anthropocentrism – the assumption that colonising cultures are superior to the colonised, and humans are superior to other species.
RSD9 Keynote. Giulio Quaggiotto: Accepting that wellbeing and sustainable development are complex challenges means acknowledging the limitations of linear planning and moving away from the allure of designing single-point solutions.
RSD9 Keynote. Harold G. Nelson: The COVID-19 virus has been the catalyst for disruptive pandemic changes around the world. Our norms are being forever changed. Our sense of well-being has been lost. New norms are needed now because a new normal is desired and necessary. It is a perilous game to play if the process of forming new norms is left to unfold by chance rather than intension.
