Silvio Lorusso
The Design and The Plan: On Power

Many theorists, critics and designers agree: "Design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives". But does this statement tell us enough about the power held (or not) by designers? Why do many of them demand a "seat at the table"? In this presentation, Silvio Lorusso will examine several ways in which designers have conceptualized, expressed and exerted their power. Furthermore, he will look at how such power overlaps notions of authority, hierarchy, prestige, responsibility and ethics. The goal is to provide a specific set of categories to realistically map the power relationships in which the field of design operates.

Silvio Lorusso is an Assistant Professor and Vice-director of the Centre for Other Worlds at the Lusófona University in Lisbon, a creative coding tutor at the Royal Academy of Art in Den Haag and a lecturer at the Design Department of the Sandberg Institute. He is a member of Varia, the Centre for Everyday Technology, as well as part of the editorial board of Italian graphic design magazine Progetto Grafico. Lorusso has written for several magazines and publications, including Volume, Real Life Magazine, Not, and Modes of Criticism. In 2018, he published his first book entitled Entreprecariat (Onomatopee).