Doors of Perception is a design conference in Europe and India which brought together grassroots innovators to work with

designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

to imagine sustainable futures – and take practical steps to meet

basic needs The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty in developing countries globally. It works to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of c ...

in new and sustainable ways. Its founder and first director is

John Thackara John Thackara (born 6 August 1951, Newcastle upon Tyne) is a British-born writer, advisor and public speaker. He is known as curator of the celebrated Doors of Perception conference for 20 years, which started in Amsterdam. He is a senior fellow ...

. This hybrid

community of practice A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educat ...

was inspired by two related questions: "we know what new technology can do, but what is it for?" and, "how do we want to live?". The results are published on the Doors of Perception website, and discussed at the Doors of Perception conference. Numerous people and organizations contributed over the years to the conferences and its organisation. The first editions were supported by the

Netherlands Design Institute The Netherlands Design Institute ( nl, Nederlands Vormgevingsinstituut) is a former institute for the promotion of design in the Netherlands. It was located in the premises of the former Museum Fodor at Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Its mission was t ...

and MediamaticIneke Schwartz,
Digitaal en milieu vinden elkaar
" ''de Volkskrant,'' 's-Hertogenbosch, 1995/11/04, p. 17. and people such as

Jules Marshall Zippie was briefly the name of the breakaway Yippie faction that demonstrated at the 1972 Republican and Democratic Conventions in Miami Beach, Florida. The origin of the word is an evolution of the term Yippie, which was coined by the Youth Inter ...

and Gert Staal. In the new millennium the Center for Knowledge Societies organized three of the later conferences in India.

History

Key Doors of Perception events

The first Doors of Perception from 1993 to 2000 took place in Amsterdam. After the first edition they all had a theme of their own. The first conference and theme were: * Doors 1 (Amsterdam, 1993) * Doors 2 "Home" (Amsterdam, 1994) * Doors 3 "Info-Eco" (Amsterdam, 1994)Mark van Driel,
Eco-dictator zal wereld redden
. ''Het Parool''. Amsterdam, 1995/11/08, p. 27. * Doors 4 "Speed" (Amsterdam, 1996) * Doors 5 "Play" (Amsterdam, 1998) * Doors 6 "Lightness" (Amsterdam, 2000) In the year 2000 a dual conference was held in India, called 'Doors East,' and in the year 2002 there were two conferences as well. The tradition to focus on one central theme continued. *Doors East (Ahmedabad, India, 2000) *Doors 7 "Flow" (Amsterdam, 2002) *Doors East 2 "Tomorrow's Services" (Bangalore, 2002) *Doors 8 "Infra" (Bangalore, 2005) *Doors 9 "Food" (Delhi 2007)

The separate editions

In every edition multiple subjects were under debate, such as: ;1993 * ''Tomorrow's Literacies'' - lectures and exhibition at

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

* ''Eternally Yours'' - conference and book on product endurance * ''The New Old'' report and conference (with UK DesignAge Network) * ''Materials of Invention'': seminar series and book * ''The Cultural Economy Of The

Applied Arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univers ...

'' - report * ''Design And The Culture Industries'' - international professional meeting * ''Doors of Perception 1'': plus DoP

CDRom A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

;1994 * European Community Design Prize (with EU) * European Design Industry Summit (with EU) * ''Design Across Europe'' - report on the European design industry * ''Toshio Iwai: Media Artist'' - exhibition for opening of Institute's building * ''Action-Reaction'' - exhibition in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

* ''Doors of Perception 2 "Home"'' * ''Smart Matter'' - smart materials seminar, with

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

;1995 * ''Doors of Perception 3- "Info-Eco"'' * ''The Flat Space'' - exhibition and

of design for electronic screens * ''The Prototype''- workshop series * ''From Dada To Data'', conference, with Virtual Platform &

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

;1996 * ''World Internet Expo'': Dutch Pavilion * ''Doors of Perception 4 - "Speed"'' * ''Legible City'' - conference on cities and information * ''Things That Think'' : design/business workshops on

smart materials Smart materials, also called intelligent or responsive materials, are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, moisture, electric or magnetic ...

* ''Doors of Perception 4 - 'Speed ;1997 * ''Design In The Knowledge Economy'' - seminar series * ''The Flat Space 2'' - screen design futures * European Design Industry Summit * European Design Prize * ''Winners!'' - book published * ''Wisseltroom'' - design scenarios for the future of mobility * ''Eternally Yours'' – conference and book on long-life products ;1998 * ''Doors of Perception 5 - "play"'' * ''O2 Website'' - for eco-designers worldwide * ''Lightness'' – book + lectures * ''Young Designers and Industry'' 18 European companies + scenarios * From Practice To Policy - new media conference with Virtual Platform ;1999 *''Presence'' – European project on elderly and internet *''Maypole'' - European project on

social computing Social computing is an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It is based on creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of software and tech ...

*''Trespassers'' - publication on design scenarios for

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...

*''Wisselstroom'' - design scenarios for transport intersections *''Kust op de Kaart'' - website and knowledge map of coastal projects *''If/Then'' - Europe/USA publication of "yearbook of the near future"

Hong Kong Design Task Force. 2000

Thackara was the expert advisor to the Hong Kong Design Task Force (chair: Victor Lo) which developed a new innovation and research policy for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The task force plotted the best way for Hong Kong and China to move up the value chain from a product-based to a service-and-flow based economy. Following the report, Hong Kong launched a "DesignSmart" initiative with the creation of a HK$250million (25 million euros) fund.

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, 2001–04

Thackara was an advisor and then served on the start-up Steering Committee (chaired by Franco Debenedetti) of this start-up postgraduate institute founded by

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixe ...

. Its founding director was Gillian Crampton Smith. Thackara's specific tasks were to help develop and articulate the institute's basic concept and organisational form; define and articulate the roles of, and benefits to, industry sponsors; organize an international workshop of experts to refine the research programme; and produce an inaugural event

Designs of The Time (Dott 07) North East England 2005–08

During 2005–2007 Thackara was programme director of Designs of the Time (Dott 2007) in

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

. Dott 07 was a two-year programme of sustainability projects commissioned by the

Design Council The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the prom ...

and the region's economic Regional development agency,

One NorthEast One North East was the regional development agency for the North East England region. History It was established in April 1999. The North East received government aid for regeneration. In June 2010, it was announced that One North East was t ...

. Dott 07 culminated in a two-week festival on the banks of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

in North East England and was visited by 30,000 people. Dott was inspired by two questions: "what might life in a sustainable region be like? (and) what design steps might get us there?".

City Eco Lab (St Etienne, France) 2007–08

As Commissioner of France's main design biennial, Thackara curated an event called City Eco Lab. Conceived as a 'nomadic market of projects’, City Eco Lab made projects visible to the wider populace and started people talking about ways they might be improved or about doing similar projects themselves. 46 live projects from the St Etienne region were shown side-by-side with

best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...

projects from other parts of the world. The event was hosted by the Cite du Design; its designers were Exyzt and Gaelle Gabillet.

References

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External links

Doors of Perception

DOTT
Design institutions