Bibiana Oliveira Serpa from FuturessDrawing from popular activist movements in Latin America, this talk explores the possibilities for the politicization of design.
In her PhD thesis that she recently defended for the Design program of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (ESDI/UERJ) in Brazil, Bibiana delved into her experiences as an active member of different civil society grassroots movements to reveal some of the political, ethical, and practical issues that permeate the transformative action of these collectives.
Through Militant Research Methodology and inspired by her action in the fields of popular education and feminism, she traced paths for a possible politicization of the Design field. In this conversation, Bibiana shares some of the lessons she learned from this journey, articulating four axes she considers crucial for the politicization of Design: ontology, epistemology, practice, and content.
Presented by Bibiana Serpa, a PhD visual designer from Brazil
Design & Opressão (Design and Oppression Network)
Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras
What is militant research?
- aims to educate people politically
- participatory — cannot only research
- acts in the “context of discovery” not “context of justification” — not seeking to support an existing theory, but to learn
- always collective
Process of politicization
social movements are self-educating and self-transforming –> politicization
politicization = political learning — “a relational and experiential process”
