Ethical Design Laboratory
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About
The Ethical Design Laboratory responds to current concerns about the social impact of design locally and globally.
The major project of the EDL is to develop a Code of Practice for Creative Collaborations in partnership with UNESCO, World Craft Council and International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA). This code develops out of the UNESCO publication Designers Meet Artisans and attempts to provide a platform where fairness can produce added value for product development. It concerns the growing practice of outsourcing artisanal processes so that urban designers can have product handmade in villages or workshops, particularly in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and India. From the artisan point of view, such commissions provide the opportunity to give value to craft traditions that are otherwise threatened by globalisation. But given the cultural differences between the parties involved, collaborations have been plagued by misunderstandings and at times exploitation. The Code will be designed as a set of common standards for all parties, including producers, traders, designers and consumers.
The first stage in this development is the Australia India Design Platform, a three-year program of research funded by the Australia Council and Australia India Institute. This program will entail a series of forums and workshops in Australian and Indian cities, each examining a different phase of the product development process.
Aim
EDL aims to conduct research into the development of products and services that have an ethical value. This does not only entail those products that adapt existing designs to more sustainable processes, such as electric cars. It also includes the design of new products that have a specifically ethical value, which have an important role in defining social relationships.
EDL aims to be a leading focus for this emerging interdisciplinary and global field of research. It connects leading researchers from universities in Australia and overseas, from a diversity of design fields, including craft, fashion, media and architecture.
Approach
Ethics enables
Ethics is valued not just for what it prevents, but also for what it enables. The carrot of added value is more effective than the stick of punitive measures. As recent research demonstrates, ethical consumerism is a social phenomenon, important for how it connects people together. A key is to find opportunities for ethical design to facilitate social networks.
Design that facilitates social relations
In the context of Actor Network Theory, EDL explores the role of objects in creating links between people. An initial focus is the role of lucky charms. The Southern Charms project connects jewellery designers in Australasia and Latin American who are adapting traditions to a secular, contemporary age. A particular focus is the challenge of re-building community after disasters. Development of these designs draws on the power of objects to create stories that enable a shared meaning.
A common global language of trust
The extension of global supply chains has seen the emergence of transnational laws in an attempt to maintain ethical consistency across different national legal systems. Fair Trade represents a platform that connects Third World producers with First World consumers. Other less formalised systems have been created such as eBay’s World of Good that markets the social value of goods to the producer. EDL provides a critical forum for assessing the value of these new platforms.
FAQ
This growth of ethical consumerism has prompted a number of critical questions that demand careful research if ethical design is to extend its reach beyond the converted. These are some of the questions that EDL seeks to respond to.
- Is ethical consumerism a ‘band-aid’ that distracts from more structural issues of global justice?
EDL recognises ideals of global justice and empowerment, but also acknowledges that it is better to start with practical steps that build trust, rather than grand gestures that are impossible to sustain. Declarations can easily end up sitting on a shelf gathering dust. The key is to develop real world practices that engage with existing interests.
The default model for ethical consumerism is a buyer who chooses to purchase a product on the assumption that this will have a beneficial effect for those involved. In this arrangement, the ethical reach ends with the purchase. The consumer is free then to use the product as they wish, ethically or not. A covenantal understanding of consumerism extends ethics to the act of consumption, enabling the purchaser to sustain the ethical relationship in their use of the product. This broader concept of consumerism extends the ‘feel good’ factor beyond the check-out and towards an ongoing custodial relation.
- Does ethical design simply reproduce the old hierarchy of a powerful First World that saves a helpless Third World?
EDL recognises that there have been significant global changes recently that have brought into question the unilateral relation between the West and the rest. Nations such as China and India now position themselves as superpowers with their own global interests. As reflected in networks like Southern Perspectives, the terms of engagement with the region are evolving from leadership to partnership.
EDL operates with mutual respect for all parties. It attempts to make minimal assumptions about the interests at play, particularly about producers’ interest in sustaining traditional lifestyles. It accords equal respect to both design and the skill that is necessary to realise the design. While at the moment, it is countries like Australia that outsource designs for production, there is no reason why the reverse cannot occur. In the case of glass, for instance, Australia is a regional specialist in the skills and workshop for production.
- To what extent are accreditation schemes such as Fair Trade forms of rent-seeking by powerful NGOs?
It is always important to be mindful of the real benefits of ethical services. In the textile industry, there is the phenomenon of ‘audit fatigue’ resulting from the myriad of codes governing standards in different countries. The additional bureaucracy in product development can also reduce the trust that has been developed between parties. The tendency in development to formalise relationships needs to be countered with recognition of the social ties that are sustained by local practices such as ritual.
The kinds of platform developed by EDL are intended not only to regulate value but also to provide new opportunities for creative development. As in the case of refrigeration for primary industries, it seeks to enable the source conditions of production to more effectively travel to distant markets. Thus it seeks an alternative to the normal processes of commodification that substitute information about means of production with a shrink-wrapped brand identity. It attempts to replace this with a narrative structure that links producer with consumer. Part of the ethical design process thus entails development not only of story, but also how the story can be carried by the object.
Projects
- Sangam: Australia India Design Platform
- Joyaviva: Live Jewellery across the Pacific
- The Bigger Picture: A Roundtable on Current Directions in Ethical Design
Members
- Kevin Murray, Adjunct Professor, RMIT
- Professor Tim Scrase, Associate Dean (Research), Australian Catholic University
- Associate Professor Shaun McVeigh, University of Melbourne Law School
- Associate Professor Soumitri Varadarajan, RMIT Industrial Design
- Jo Cramer, Lecturer, RMIT Fashion
- Olivia Guntarik, Lecturer, Media & Communication
For inquiries, please contact Kevin Murray at kevin.murray@rmit.edu.au.