Knowledge Systems

This sub-track investigates the evolving landscape of design methods in architecture and design, shaped by the rise of Artificial Intelligence. From early rule-based systems and computational models in the 1960s to today’s deep learning algorithms, we explore how generative approaches have transformed – and continue to transform – creative processes. Emphasizing both historical continuities and emerging practices, the sub-track invites critical perspectives on automation, authorship, ethics, and the role of the designer in AI-mediated workflows. It also addresses the shifting dynamics of education, asking how design schools and studios must adapt to this technological shift. Contributions are encouraged from researchers, practitioners, and educators reflecting on the potentials, limitations, and epistemological challenges of designing with (and through) intelligent systems.

The sub-track invites papers which explore, but which are not limited to, the following themes:

• Histories and Theories
• Design Methods in an AI-Saturated Landscape
• Critical Perspectives and Ethical Frontiers
• Futures of Design Education and Practice
• Futures of Design Education and Practice

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For further inquiries please refer to the (sub)track coordinator:

Socrates Yiannoudes syiannoudes@uniwa.gr

This sub-track explores the photographic archive as a dynamic site of memory, identity, and visual culture. It examines how archives (personal or institutional, analogue or digital)shape collective histories, political imaginaries, and aesthetic practices. Participants are invited to engage with photography’s archival function not only as preservation, but as a contested terrain where power, authorship, and representation are constantly negotiated. As digitization and AI technologies redefine archival logics, new ethical, epistemological, and artistic questions emerge. This sub-track welcomes contributions from theorists, artists, archivists, and curators that interrogate the role of photographic archives across cultural contexts and temporalities, with special attention to postcolonial, feminist, and decolonial methodologies.

The sub-track invites papers which explore, but which are not limited to, the following themes:

• Photographic Archives as Sites of Memory and Identity
• Aesthetics of the Archive
• Digitization and the Future of the Photographic Archive
• The Ethics of Archiving Photography
• The Everyday Archive
• Institutional Perspectives and Archival Practices
• Decolonizing the Photographic Archive

For further inquiries please refer to the (sub)track coordinator:

Io Paschou ipaschou@uniwa.gr

This sub-track deals with the aesthetic/philosophical consideration of contemporary design through its relation to the past. An endless series of different—philosophically speaking—approaches to history and nature, interrelated with particular cultural environments, interprets the human-made environment of the past and mobilizes imagination to create new approaches to design. Here, the role of technology/science is under interrogation, not only due to its rapid development at the expense of the spiritual/cultural dimension of contemporary humans, but, more than that, due to the irreversible changes which nature has undergone in this context. This track welcomes proposals that contribute to a broader philosophical discussion on the role of contemporary design as it confronts both history and novelty.

For further inquiries please refer to the (sub)track coordinator:

Eleni Tatla etatla@uniwa.gr

This sub-track explores how design contributes to the creation of dynamic, interconnected systems of knowledge that bridge local practices with global approaches. It focuses on cases where design serves as a tool for organizing, disseminating, and co-creating knowledge—ranging from education and digital platforms to the creative industries and learning communities. Aligned with the theme “Global Concepts | Local Practices,” this sub-track invites participants to examine how design methods can foster living, participatory, sustainable, and culturally embedded ecologies of knowledge.

For further inquiries please refer to the (sub)track coordinator:

George Priniotakis gprin@uniwa.gr