A new cross-faculty, international centre has been formulated to capture the considerable interest generated by a radical new pragmatic definition of perception, which is the outcome of a decade of research undertaken at BCU. This research has startling consequences for our conceptions of language, intelligence, meaning, the senses, emotions and subjectivity, setting a fresh agenda for research and practice. Currently set within landscape architecture/architecture, philosophical nature of this holistic approach towards consciousness and the design process is relevant to all arts and design disciplines, philosophy, aesthetics, cognition, epistemology and education more generally. Bound by a common interest in physical materiality, the critical, visual realm and the forward thinking, anticipatory and predictive nature of design practice, proposals are welcome from those who wish to extend the theoretical understanding of design, or design education within a pragmatic perspective - topics might include the nature of intelligence, language, observation, visual skill, drawing and approaches to learning, theory based on the interrelationship between form, technology and the expression of ideas - as well as those wishing to explore the consequences for design practice, particularly, though not exclusively, relating to the design of the landscape, the regeneration of urban environments and for connecting spatial strategies and policies to real places to achieve a transformation in the quality of life. Proposals are also welcomed from those interested in developing alternative philosophical models as the basis of critical art and design discourse, pedagogy and practice, moving debate away from the arcane and unknowable realm of metaphysics into the real world informed by knowledge and ideas. Contact:
Prof. Kathryn Moore (kathryn.moore@bcu.ac.uk)
Research: BIADResearch@bcu.ac.uk
BIAD, Birmingham City University, Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7DX