Angela Norwood | York University (original) (raw)
Associate Professor of Design
Address: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Papers by Angela Norwood
Cumulus Conference Proceedings, 2019
As design programs increasingly evolve from discrete-object to relational systems orientations, t... more As design programs increasingly evolve from discrete-object to relational
systems orientations, there is opportunity to reevaluate core principles that
inform design epistemologies. Indigenous traditional knowledge systems may provide frameworks for governing actions and behaviors that could guide designers to engage in more viable, sustainable and meaningful practices. Exploring Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) or Inuit Traditional Knowledge as a framework for guiding design activity is the basis of a course that introduces students to a range of Inuit artifacts and cultural practices by considering them as objects of design and evidence of externalized knowledge. The course also introduces students to design as a way of knowing, as a process for devising human-made responses to environmental conditions, and as a category of informative and expressive artifacts, of which Inuit cultural objects are often exemplars. A key project is to redesign or modify an everyday object of significance to the student to make it more useful within the context and conditions of the student’s daily life, while integrating IQ Principles. Students discovered a gap between what everyday objects are often purported to be versus the students’ awareness of the implications of their design decisions owing to the IQ Principles. All students wanted to deepen their understanding of traditional knowledge and incorporate it into their practice.
Ethics in Design & Communication, 2020
Communication Design, 2017
Identifying the problem and analyzing the context and audience before shaping the message: this u... more Identifying the problem and analyzing the context and audience before shaping the message: this used to be what information design was all about. And whatever the medium, substrate, or location, th...
Communication Design, 2016
Conference review
Visual Communication, 2009
This article explores the role of design in Ladakh, a remote region in northwestern India that w... more This article explores the role of design in Ladakh, a remote region in northwestern
India that was opened to tourism and trade only 35 years ago. The shift in the prevailing
socio-economic structure is manifested within the region’s forms of visual communication, spanning a continuum from photographic advertising to hand-painted wayfinding systems. One questions the cumulative effects these graphic artifacts have on local people’s perception of the region and their identities integrated with it. Workshops were conducted in which participants were introduced to the abstract visual
language of maps then sketched their home villages. Content analysis of these externalized cognitive maps reveals a consistency of visual representation strategies across all participants. References to natural and manmade features reflect reverence for the land and an understanding of agrarian systems. Currently graphic design in Ladakh is in service to profit outside interests. The author seeks a role for design that values the local constituency as well.
Design & Culture, 2012
Book review
Drafts by Angela Norwood
Cumulus Working Papers, 2014
This paper explores the notion of an “oral form of design” in response to questions at the heart ... more This paper explores the notion of an “oral form of design” in response to questions at the heart of a new major partnership project titled “Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage.” It brings together Inuit and Qallunaat (non-Inuit) who are all engaged in various ways of exploring the cognitive and cultural gap between orality and materiality – information exchange and manifestation
of knowledge for Inuit in the Canadian Arctic. Our team will work with Inuit, particularly in Nunavut, to create new forms of cultural production, to exert their voices and in so doing attempt to redefine contemporary Inuit identity. Through discussion of Deleuze and Guattari’s smooth and striated space, Ong’s orality and literacy, and the role of art and design, the author suggests
that design practice that deploys Ong’s secondary orality can provide opportunity for Inuit youth to participate in making a future that evolves contemporary Inuit identity, and gives agency for exerting Inuit voices.
Cumulus Conference Proceedings, 2019
As design programs increasingly evolve from discrete-object to relational systems orientations, t... more As design programs increasingly evolve from discrete-object to relational
systems orientations, there is opportunity to reevaluate core principles that
inform design epistemologies. Indigenous traditional knowledge systems may provide frameworks for governing actions and behaviors that could guide designers to engage in more viable, sustainable and meaningful practices. Exploring Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) or Inuit Traditional Knowledge as a framework for guiding design activity is the basis of a course that introduces students to a range of Inuit artifacts and cultural practices by considering them as objects of design and evidence of externalized knowledge. The course also introduces students to design as a way of knowing, as a process for devising human-made responses to environmental conditions, and as a category of informative and expressive artifacts, of which Inuit cultural objects are often exemplars. A key project is to redesign or modify an everyday object of significance to the student to make it more useful within the context and conditions of the student’s daily life, while integrating IQ Principles. Students discovered a gap between what everyday objects are often purported to be versus the students’ awareness of the implications of their design decisions owing to the IQ Principles. All students wanted to deepen their understanding of traditional knowledge and incorporate it into their practice.
Ethics in Design & Communication, 2020
Communication Design, 2017
Identifying the problem and analyzing the context and audience before shaping the message: this u... more Identifying the problem and analyzing the context and audience before shaping the message: this used to be what information design was all about. And whatever the medium, substrate, or location, th...
Communication Design, 2016
Conference review
Visual Communication, 2009
This article explores the role of design in Ladakh, a remote region in northwestern India that w... more This article explores the role of design in Ladakh, a remote region in northwestern
India that was opened to tourism and trade only 35 years ago. The shift in the prevailing
socio-economic structure is manifested within the region’s forms of visual communication, spanning a continuum from photographic advertising to hand-painted wayfinding systems. One questions the cumulative effects these graphic artifacts have on local people’s perception of the region and their identities integrated with it. Workshops were conducted in which participants were introduced to the abstract visual
language of maps then sketched their home villages. Content analysis of these externalized cognitive maps reveals a consistency of visual representation strategies across all participants. References to natural and manmade features reflect reverence for the land and an understanding of agrarian systems. Currently graphic design in Ladakh is in service to profit outside interests. The author seeks a role for design that values the local constituency as well.
Design & Culture, 2012
Book review
Cumulus Working Papers, 2014
This paper explores the notion of an “oral form of design” in response to questions at the heart ... more This paper explores the notion of an “oral form of design” in response to questions at the heart of a new major partnership project titled “Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage.” It brings together Inuit and Qallunaat (non-Inuit) who are all engaged in various ways of exploring the cognitive and cultural gap between orality and materiality – information exchange and manifestation
of knowledge for Inuit in the Canadian Arctic. Our team will work with Inuit, particularly in Nunavut, to create new forms of cultural production, to exert their voices and in so doing attempt to redefine contemporary Inuit identity. Through discussion of Deleuze and Guattari’s smooth and striated space, Ong’s orality and literacy, and the role of art and design, the author suggests
that design practice that deploys Ong’s secondary orality can provide opportunity for Inuit youth to participate in making a future that evolves contemporary Inuit identity, and gives agency for exerting Inuit voices.