The publication «Not at Your Service: Manifestos for Design» consolidates the wide variety of beliefs, subjects and practices of contemporary designers at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). It offers different approaches and insights regarding the present-day role and nature of design, and the impact it can have. It is not conceived as a finished project, but as a free-thinking testimony of its time.
Collaborative design, interaction within complex systems, attention economics, the ecological shift, visual literacy, gender-neutral design, environmentally detrimental design, «quick and dirty» design ethnography, presence and trust, social responsibility, the value of ugliness, death futures, immersive technologies, identity and crises, design as a transformative discipline, Design Your Future – all of these topics are presented in this reader in random order but with passion, personal conviction and professional expertise, and offered up for debate.
