Background

An expanding global trend is represented in the fact that today 86% of everything produced in the United States are so-called “intangibles.” So what are intangibles? Intangibles are generally defined as assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured, which are experienced over time. This touchstone definition is a useful way to begin to think about experience, and in turn, its design – as an intangible.  Experience Design is a response to the urgent question: How might design find relevance within what many are calling the I-Cubed (Information, Innovation, Intangible) Economy? A ride on a roller coaster at Disneyland is an intangible that takes place over time, is entertainment and valuable – it was no doubt designed by an interdisciplinary team before we knew to call them “experience designers.” So too health care; it’s also an intangible that takes place over time, gives care and is valuable – but by now health care professionals know to call on experience designers to apply their methodologies such as design thinking, future forecasting, systems thinking and experience prototyping to improve patient recovery time. Experience Design, in other words, does not end at the limits of art and design, but overflows those borders to include human capital, leadership, research and development, goodwill, innovation, social media, collaboration, organizational ability, intellectual property, systems design, interdisciplinarity, effectiveness, soft power, productivity and new knowledge which have become the real determinants of performance and value in the I-Cubed Economy. Furthermore, in the current transition from Pine and Gilmore’s experience economy to the emerging transformative economy Experience Design continues to have a significant relevance. (www.designingtime.se)

The Experience Design Group is devoted to innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice-led research to create new knowledge in the service of society, culture and the experience economy. Experience Design, a discipline relevant to artists, designers, and critical thinkers, explores and investigates the interplay between meaning and sensation within immersive experiences. To this end, our work is the creation of hybrid practices and methodologies, synthesizing emerging paradigms of experiential and practical knowledge, history, theory and the experience economy with art and design. (www.designingtime.se)

Faculty: Hlin Helga Gudlaugsdottir and Ronald Jones from The Experience Design Group, MFA Program at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm

met steun van STROOM, de cultuursubsidie voor beloftevol talent van de provincie Limburg.