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Radical Craft: 2006 Art Center Design Conference – By Janet Abrams

Conference swag bag

As I lugged my Timbuk2 swag bag of conference sponsor goodies back to my hotel room–an advert for unsustainability, heavy enough to dislocate your shoulder–and wrenched its ultimately useful contents (a pen, a notebook, a discount voucher and some breath mints) free from their surfeit of packaging, I found myself pondering what Maurice Cox had said, in his talk, about using design to stir unrest, dissatisfaction with the way things are, and of making access to design one of every citizen’s “inalienable rights.” Could a design conference truly galvanize, challenge its audience, provoke us into action, spurred rather than dazed by the stunning variety of its speakers’ agendas and accomplishments?

Now, that would be radical.