International Design Week HIT - Holon Institute of Technology, Israel

October 15-19, 2023

“The Elephant in the Room”

Call for Workshop Proposal Submissions
by Guest Lecturers


“The Elephant in the Room” focuses on design issues which tend to be left by the wayside, bypassed both intellectually and practically.
In 1814, Ivan Krylov (1769–1844), a poet and fabulist, wrote a fable entitled "The Curious Man", about a man who goes to a museum and notices all sorts of tiny things, but fails to notice an elephant.
The phrase has become an apt metaphorical expression for an obvious controversial question or potentially embarrassing or inflammatory issue never mentioned or discussed by anyone no matter how conspicuous, even though it is known by all.


The "Elephant in the Room" motif of the International Workshop Week organized by the Faculty of Design uses this is metaphor to give center stage to design treatments about subjects which are either ignored due to political or social embarrassment or do not have the same luster or appeal of other products.

The ability of design to address topics from the “forgotten” or ‘neglected’ status and place them in the forefront is especially relevant, particularly in the cases of more complex or controversial issues. The end-process of design, which impacts directly on the user or consumer, sheds a new light and offers a different validity to issues that are often abandoned as part of the endless race to innovate and create new markets.

Academic design studies must be the entity which seeks out and explores that "elephant in the room". While professional design is by necessity dictated by commercial efficiency and the "bottom line", the academy can unburden itself from these shackles and use the power that this freedom provides to influence the future generation of designers. The role of the design academe is to open itself to the "hidden" issues which may be outside the consensus or go against the flow, and to use this advantage to expose a whole new world ripe for artistic exploration.

Proposals for workshops may refer to any design challenge which best expresses the literal and symbolic meaning of “elephant in the room”, and which can generate a fruitful dialogue through the design process.


About the Workshops
The workshops are intended for undergraduate students in the 3rd year of their studies in the three departments in the HIT Faculty of Design: Visual Communication, Industrial Design and Interior Design. Please indicate the department for which the workshop is intended in the proposal.

The workshops will take place from Sunday to Thursday, from 09:00 AM to 17:00 PM, at the HIT campus in Holon. Field trips can be arranged if necessary.

Students will have full access to the design workshops and computer rooms during the workshops.

Each workshop will be conducted jointly by a lecturer from abroad and an accompanying HIT lecturer, who will be assigned to deliver the workshop with the overseas lecturer. The nature of this collaboration will be coordinated in advance between the lecturers.

During the week, all the guest lecturers will be asked to deliver a 15-minute lecture on their work before the students and faculty participating in all the workshops. These lectures will be open to the public.
The workshops will be conducted in English.

Submission and Conditions

Lecturers interested in applying for the program are requested to submit a proposal for a workshop (up to 300 words + short CV) by 15/06/2023, using the online form in the following link:
https://www.hit.ac.il/events/International_Design_Week_2023.


The selected lecturers will be invited to attend the workshop week in Israel, and the costs of their flights and stay will be covered by HIT - Holon Institute of Technology.


Guest lecturers will be accommodated in Tel Aviv during the workshop days. For lecturers coming from institutions with which HIT has an Erasmus+ agreement - travel and stay will be covered by the ERASMUS Mobility grant.



For any questions, please contact design@hit.ac.il - Dr Yael Eylat Van Essen.


Schedule:

15.06.2023 - Proposal submission deadline
30.06.2023 – Notification of acceptance
15-19.10.2023 - Workshop week