Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Radical Imaginaries of Speculative Socially Engaged Design: Mobilizing Creative Practices to Confront Urgent Challenges

The Radical Imaginaries of Speculative Socially Engaged Design: Mobilizing Creative Practices to Confront Urgent Challenges

Moline, Katherine

Hardcover

PhilosophyGeneral Design

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 29, 2026

ISBN10: 1350365572
ISBN13: 9781350365575
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: Oct 29 2026
Pages: 296
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

The Radical Imaginaries of Speculative Socially Engaged Design challenges dominant assumptions about the purpose and meaning of design in the 21st century.

Through an analysis of artistic avantgarde strategies employed by designers to generate impactful social engagement, this book explores the value of design as a collaborative process, rather than an exercise in authority and control. Chapters spotlight designers who respond to urgent technological, environmental and social issues.

Katherine Moline examines a range of socially engaged design practices and their international critical reception, from the early 20th century to the present day. Through a series of case studies, she examines work by designers including Dunne & Raby, whose work stimulates discussions around artificial intelligence and the alternative realities of the more-than-human; Martí Guixé, who questions ideas of industrialization and consumerism; and Ana Mir, whose practice disrupts the bourgeois values and moral agenda shaping the ethos of modernist functionalism in design. Other case studies feature the Interaction Research Studio, Gabriel A. Maher, Formafantasma, Benedikt Gro , Lola Greeno, Carl DiSalvo, Onkar Kular and Brave New Alps.

Moline demonstrates how these designers experiment with materials, technology and processes to produce powerful, thought-provoking works and mobilize what she terms a radical imaginary sensibility in design. In doing so, she puts forward new theoretical and conceptual tools for evaluating design and argues for the enduring importance of aesthetic theory in understanding both design's historical significance and transformative potential.

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