ISD Seminar: Design against Reverse Salients: Strategic design for sustainability transitions

Division of Integrative Systems and Design

Presents

Seminar:  Design against Reverse Salients: Strategic design for sustainability transitions

 Zoom link: https://hkust.zoom.us/j/601761120 (Meeting ID: 601 761 120)
 

Speaker: Dr Luisa Mok 

Lecturer
Division of Integrative Systems and Design
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
 

Abstract


Achieving the common goal of sustainability futures evidently requires innovations that harness appropriate, wide-ranging technologies. In addition, the arduous challenge necessitates collaboration from across disciplines and amongst multiple levels. Yet, realising sustainability futures does not only concern “what” the technological innovations are but also “how” to develop them that would transform the way we live today and in the future.
Given this backdrop, the major ideas of achieving sustainability futures in socio-technical systems implicating technology, societies, people and even critically, their interacting dynamics have well introduced my research topic of Design against Reverse Salients: Strategic Design for Sustainability Transitions. The phrase reverse salients is a concept taken from the field of Social Studies of Technology, which describes problems that are not at present but arising in the short-term future in systems. My research explored how to anticipate reverse salients – the complex, unforeseen problems to sustainability transitions arising in the near future – and progressively mitigate them to further transitions process before they lead to critical situations that hamper overall systems transitions.
My research integrating design and systems thinking has important societal significance to the ongoing sustainability transitions and, academic relevance to the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). I will share more in the seminar about how I am bringing my research to ISD aligning with its vision.

About the Speaker

Having achieved her first career in industrial design, Luisa began her second career in design education in 2011 beginning from teaching in the Division of Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, and later Aalto Design Factory at Aalto University, Finland. In 2017, she returned to Hong Kong to join the new division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). The hybrid background of design practice and academic design has formed a solid foundation for her to continuously develop Design. Also, her another academic background of anthropology enables her to probe into real-life phenomena to understand people and societal problems. While at present, residing in a science and technology university, she is attempting to push the frontier of new knowledge at the intersection of design and technology.
All are welcome