Decoding: Zoom in Design

The School of Design and Engineering ELISAVA, founded in 1961, was the first design school in Spain. Affiliated to Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), it is still a reference school open to innovation, creativity and technology, always combined with academic excellence and rigour.  

With this innovation spirit, ELISAVA has created a multidisciplinary research unit, ELISAVA Research, which represents the school’s proposal for the generation of knowledge, for the university-company collaboration and for the recruitment of talent. ELISAVA Research was born with the Decoding project, a way of observing and analysing the world of design, innovation and creativity.

Zoom in Design hereby presents the first results of the Decoding project, which involve the structure of the language used in the design process through a proprietary ontology, the optimization of the designer’s creativity through an exclusive self-evaluating tool, and the formulation of good practices in design processes; as well as the application of design as a tool to capture non-perceived information and to foster the future of disruptive technologies.

The exhibition is lined up through the ontology of the design process and its fractal quality, and seeks to display, experiment and reflect on design research to date. Ultimately, it is a zoom in the Decoding research universe, and a design measuring and projection tool.   

ELISAVA Research, a reference point

ELISAVA Research opens a new period for the school ELISAVA as a space for the generation of knowledge and debate.

A space from where solutions to important and future design, society and business challenges -essential in an increasingly complex world- are investigated, ideated, prototyped and communicated.

A diversified pioneering research that is the result of the combination of five main concepts that are worked on at an inter- and transdisciplinary level: human, data, matter, interaction and society.

A vibrant community of researchers, students, designers and companies, whose goal is giving value to society through innovation and talent, by creating sustainable, ethical and welfare opportunities of development. It is a network of knowledge at an international level that involves different strategic agents.

An applied and distinct university research that resolves the new paradigms of the current industry, and that considers research as an intrinsic part of the learning experience. This research is integrated into the training system of new designers and engineers profiles.

In conclusion, it is the starting point to understand what the role of the designer will be in the future, and that you will finally have the chance to explore in the next ELISAVA Research exhibition at Museu del Disseny de Barcelona at the beginning of 2018.

Curators: ELISAVA Research Group

Organizes & produces: Arts Santa Mònica – Departament de Cultura & Elisava