Abstract:

The pandemic that the whole world has been facing has highlighted some of the fragilities of society. From a system of values that we took for granted and has, at the same time, brought to the surface limitations in the economic system to new paradigms and unexpected energies we did not dare to put into practice before. Different challenges and initiatives are trying to explore this theme, such as the New European Bauhaus launched by the EU trying to shape a collaborative movement of designers to rethink and replan promising practices for our future.

Following this direction, we'd like to contribute to shaping this movement, giving voice to designers and researchers that can and must play a leading role in the current transformation.

In doing so, we decided to open a worldwide debate dedicated to the culture of the project in June 2020, during the COVID outbreak. The result was an educational and research experience named 24h Worldwide Design Conversations, powered by the PoliMi Design System community (Department of Design, School of Design, and POLI.design Consortium): a continuous 24-hour live broadcast dedicated to the culture of the project, oriented towards reflection on design practice changes.

The article's focus is the 24H Worldwide Design Conversations experience that has been designed from the beginning as an audiovisual format to support internationalization and sharing knowledge.

From a first edition (June 2020) focused on mapping new forms of research and education born as a result of the lockdown in a time of crisis, the second edition has become a consolidated format that aims to investigate, year after year, new practices at the global level. While digital technologies and digital platforms were the only possible way for teaching, researching, and disseminating during the COVID-19 outbreak, for the second edition of the format, they became a tool for exploiting global connection and expanding connectivity. The result was the activation of a global discussion among researchers, practitioners, and educators within a debate structured as a 24-hour live broadcast through a schedule that followed the international time zones traveling worldwide.

Since the emergency we faced seems to have generated, among its side effects, a better individual relationship with technology, we would like to propose some reflections on how we should maintain and integrate this audiovisual format as a learning device within design curricula in terms of:
1) use of storytelling as a coping device;
2) use of digital technologies and digital platforms for the enhancement of debates, networking, and connections among educators, researchers, students and practitioners within the design field.

Keywords:

Audiovisual format, research, network, digital technologies.