Conference call for papers

The deadline for the call for contributions to Nordes 2023, THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK, is coming up on the 12th of December. Find more information on how to submit below!

The 10th Nordic Design Research Society (Nordes) conference
Hosted by Linköping University, Sweden
11-14 June 2023

A blank space – a silence, pause, interstice, gap, in-between, opening, punctuation, negative space – can be deliberately or incidentally devoid of content. A space left blank is as much an invitation to notice the void and the structure that surrounds it, as it is a question as to why and how they are perceived. Such absence can remind us to seek out conscious or unconscious intentions hidden in plain sight. Philosophies and worldviews that acknowledge the importance of ‘absence’, ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’ consider everything to be relational, fluid, dynamic and ‘in-between’, rather than the binary dualism that linger from Cartesian constructs.
Do we pay these blank spaces enough attention, as integrated parts of design practice and design research?

A blank opening can be an invitation for exploration, or pointing out areas in need of alternative interpretations, knowledge, and ways of being. What resistance is there to clearer sensemaking, obscuring the messy co-existence of multiple views? What are omitted or unnoticed dimensions that are invisible, ambiguous, tacit, or formless, or dismissed as passive, paradoxical, incoherent? How ready and receptive can design be to reconsider values and patterns we follow in our everyday living?

The NORDES 2023 conference explores design practice and design research from the perspective of what is deliberately left blank. In what ways does design research recognise empty spaces? How can these spaces be understood and how to respond to them? How does design research make meaning of that which is blank?
We invite you to explore and share your interpretation of what it means to leave a space intentionally blank. We want you, and our community, to collectively shape what the blank space of NORDES 2023 could be.

Here are topics and approaches that may provide inspiration and framing for your contributions:
-       ABSENCE: Gaps in research – filling a void? Innovative methods, processes, and designs. The use of different forms of blanks in practices.
-       TACIT KNOWLEDGE: Visualising or bringing forth the currently non-outspoken, including realms and practices that escape language.
-       CONNECTING THE DOTS: Articulating a shape from seemingly unrelated thoughts, interpreting loosely distributed intentions.
-       INCLUSION: Designs that invite, involve, gather. Openness for other worldviews and practices besides the traditional, or otherwise exploring the blanks in relation to plurality.
-       REFLECTIONS: Perspectives on design research and practices, contributing to the messy coexistence of multiple interpretations.
-       BEYOND APPEARANCES: Research and practices that surprise or change perspectives.
-       QUESTIONING EMPTY SPACES: How and why should we do things differently? How does populating an empty space challenge or improve things?
-       CLEARING OUT: To be able to engage in new realms, there needs to be space for it. What are the issues that need to be cleared out?

Submission formats:
-       Full papers
-       Exploratory papers
-       Workshops
-       Doctoral Consortium
Submissions to all categories receive peer review. Full and exploratory papers are subject to a double-blind, peer review process, and accepted full and exploratory papers will be published through the online DRS Digital Library. Publications will be available as open access during and after the conference.

The event is being organised and hosted by Linköping University. 

Key dates and deadlines
Deadline papers: 12 Dec 2022
Deadline workshops: 30 Jan 2023
Deadline Doctoral Consortium contributions: 30 Jan 2023
Notification to authors: 31 Mar 2023
Final contribution submissions: 21 April 2023
Conference date: 11-14 June 2023

The call for papers was recently launched for the inaugural Designing Retail and Service Futures SIG Colloquium, taking place in March 2023. We caught up with Katelijn Quartier, Convenor of the Designing Retail and Service Futures SIG to hear more about the SIG's work, her role as convenor and the upcoming colloquium.  

Please introduce yourself! What is your research about and role as convenor of the Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG? 
I am Katelijn Quartier of Hasselt University, Faculty of Architecture and Arts where I am also the academic director of the Retail Design Lab. My research is about the design of the store of today and tomorrow. With the Retail Design Lab we have developed a platform where designers and retailers can find scientific insights offered in a low threshold manner. We have developed design guidelines and tools to aid practise. We serve retailers and designers, big and small, to get to optimale store designs.
Regarding our SIG, I always felt that designing for the commercial sector falls in between chairs every conference, journal, etc. We had already set up a few events with a small group and noticed that there was interest in this after all. In a next step, we then applied for our SIG and with success. As convenor, I see myself as the initiator of the group. I facilitate the meetings and contribute ideas, just as other members do. If the group is excited about something then we move forward with it, just like the organization of this colloquium. We didn't have to think twice about this, everyone was on board from the beginning. We obviously want to have a bigger impact than organizing a colloquium. We want to be the network where everyone can go who are involved with retail and services.If we can gather all the knowledge at one point, then we can also share that knowledge and aspire to be a reference for both the academic field and for practice. 

What work is your SIG engaged in? How do you aim for the colloquium further the work of the Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG and retail and service design theory and practices more broadly? 
Our SIG strives to get a better understanding of the value of design in the commercial sector, including closely linked disciplines, such as branding, marketing, and consumer psychology. Design and the value of it has been a subject of study for many years and from many different disciplines (ranging from product design to marketing, business economics, service design, environmental psychology, (interior)architecture, etc), but in a rather fragmented way, and with each their own research methods. The colloquium wants to add to that knowledge in the broad field of design but more importantly, bring such knowledge together and develop a common language. Indeed, there is a need to bring these disciplines and related knowledge and insights together to calibrate terms and meanings, to understand each other and to work together. All to be able to create more holistic and more encompassing stories (for the customer). 

The theme of the colloquium is 'Reimagining the future for retail and service design theory and practices’. How did you settle on this theme and how do you hope it will be explored in the conference?
Recent developments, that have been accelerated by the pandemic, show that in practice services are becoming a part of retail and vice versa. It all starts from the need of the consumer and to be able to better serve him/her. Whether it be online or offline, for a product or a service or an experience, or all together… It is only natural that the research world follows this trend. So to mainstream this we came up with the theme as it is closely related to what the SIG stands for. It is our first colloquium so we felt that we had to keep it broad, yet linked to our work. We organised an online brainstorm session with all members. We started to fill in a Miro board one week in advance of the brainstorm session. All ideas gathered were grouped in themes and are now present in the sub themes of the colloquium. So the colloquium is also very exploratory in nature. We want to bring together as many people as possible so that we can have fine discussions in terms of content. Therefore, time has also been made in the program for these discussions. We also organize a special PhD event so that they too can have discussions with peers as well as seek feedback from professors and senior researchers. Of course, fun and inspiration should not be missing either. We are therefore organizing a conference dinner AND a retail safari through London's most inspiring examples.

Finally, everything will also be published so that the knowledge can be further disseminated. In this way, we want to both increase our community and contribute to knowledge. 

Where can people go to learn more about the activities of the Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG? Do you have any information that you’d like to provide for potential members interested in joining the SIG? 
You can contact me at Katelijn.quartier@uhasselt.be if you're interested in joining the SIG, and visit our webpage to see our organising committee and current members.