"Angewandte" Issues an Invitation to a Social Design Competition

The University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Austrian Cultural Forum New York Have Launched the Design for the Real World Redux Competition

VIENNA, Austria, April 4, 2011 - Together with the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (MAD) and the
Austrian Cultural Forum New York, the University of Applied Arts Vienna has
launched the first international competition for social design, Design for
the Real World Redux.

Both established and young, up-and-coming designers and students are
invited to submit

innovative and radical examples of ecologically responsible and/or
socially committed design by June 1, 2011 at the latest. In line with the
philosophy of Victor J. Papanek, the entries should deal with the practical
problems of everyday life or social needs and can relate to every aspect of
product design including furniture, lighting, tools, fixtures and fittings,
transport and other three-dimensional objects. The items in question should
exist in real form, either as an exemplary realization or a finished
prototype.

An international jury composed of leading global experts from relevant
specialist areas and representatives of the sponsor institutions will adjudge
the work. One outstanding submission will be presented with the first Victor
J. Papanek Social Design Award.

The projects of the competition winners will be presented in a catalogue
and an exhibition at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (November 10, 2011
- January 31, 2012) and then at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York
(March 6, 2012 - June 17, 2012).

As a result of his seminal publication Design for the Real World (1971),
the development of the principles of socially responsible design in
organizations such as UNESCO and the WHO, and respect towards the cultural
practices of indigenous peoples, the Austrian-born, American designer Viktor
J. Papanek (1927 - 1999) is seen as an international pioneer of social
design.

Opening of the Victor J. Papanek Foundation and anti-design symposium

November 2011 will see the opening of the newly Victor J. Papanek
Foundation, which is to belong to the collections of the "Angewandte" and be
headed by Alison Clarke.

The Victor J. Papanek Foundation will administer the newly purchased
archive and library derived from Papanek's working life. The Foundation has
been brought to life in order to further the consideration of design from the
perspective of social responsibility. According to Papanek, creativity in
line with social design is an innovative and inventive process that can
generate social change and contribute to the common good. Fully in accordance
with his critical and inter-cultural understanding of design culture, the
Foundation will pursue a holistic design approach, which seeks to counteract
the purely commercial imperatives of product culture. At a time when good
design is rarely found where it is most needed, the Foundation has set itself
the task of upholding the role of designers as significant mediators of
humanitarian ideals. Gerald Bast, the "Angewandte" rector: "When we consider
our world, we must clearly place an utterly resolute focus on the design of
the future through the creation of new realities in both an intellectual and
aesthetic sense."

As part of the opening of the Victor J. Papanek Foundation, on November
10-11, 2011, the "Angewandte" will be holding the international, anti-design
symposium "PRESCRIPTION FOR REBELLION", in which leading personalities from
the international design scene will participate:

    Paola Antonelli (Senior Curator, Design and Architecture, MoMA)

    Gerald Bast (Rector, University of Applied Arts Vienna)

    Alison Clarke (Head of the Theory and History of Design Department,

    Victor J. Papanek Foundation)

    Professor Anthony Dunne (Design Interactions, Royal College of Art
    London)

    Jamer Hunt (Director, Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons The New School
    for Design, NYC) 

    Professor Felicity D. Scott (Architecture Department,
    Columbia University)

    John Thackara (socially responsible and sustainable design pioneer)

    Detailed information for submissions
    vjpsocialdesign.madmuseum.org
    www.dieangewandte.at

    Contact
    University of Applied Arts Vienna
    PR and Event Management
    Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
    T: +43-1-711-33 DW 2161, F: DW 2169
    Anja Seipenbusch-Hufschmied
    Anja.seipenbusch@uni-ak.ac.at; marietta.boening@uni-ak.ac.at
    www.dieangewandte.at

Contact: University of Applied Arts Vienna, PR and Event Management, Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, T: +43-1-711-33 DW 2161, F: DW 2169, Anja Seipenbusch-Hufschmied, Anja.seipenbusch at uni-ak.ac.at; marietta.boening at uni-ak.ac.at