Design in Social Systems

3 units

This multidisciplinary seminar course will cover historical and contemporary contexts of socially engaged work within art and design disciplines. Students will explore various processes that artists and designers use to address, influence, and inspire change around systemic social issues. In addition, through in-class collaborative workshops, students will apply a systems thinking approach to a select number of real-world social issues in order to gain a better understanding of how these issues are shaped by policies and individual experiences. This course will also include a final group project completed in partnership with a local community-based organization in which students will apply creative-problem solving processes, such as human-centered design, equity-centered design, design activism, and social justice to arrive at collective impact. Models of social change from other disciplines -- such as social entrepreneurship and innovation, non-profit models, and public-interest design -- will be featured through guest lectures, field trips to community-based organizations, case studies, readings and written reflections.