Editorial
The transversal character of Actio’s editorial project, systematically shown in its editorials, also implies alliance building. In this edition, the journal joins the Red Latina para el Desarrollo de Procesos
de Diseño (Latin Network for the Development of Design Processes) with the purpose of publishing several papers presented at the 7th International Forum on Design as Process.
The Latin Network for the Development of Design Processes is a Latin language and culture group studying design processes. Its members join in a forum, conceived as an international thematic conference, for the debate
and sharing of ideas, studies, findings and experiences. It was created in 2008 with the Manifest “Carta di Torino.” Since its inception, it has established an interinstitutional collaboration that, in
the course of time, has projected the network members’ cultural and scientific approach. Today, the network’s place of reference is the University of Bologna, Italy, more specifically the Department of Architecture’s
Unity of Advanced Design.
The network’s community has considerably grown in these twelve years of activities. It includes members in fifteen countries and has mobilized more than 500 international speakers for the Forum’s previous six editions.
This time, the Faculty of Engineering and Administration at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Palmira, organized the 7th International Forum on Design as Process, to be held in Cali, jointly with Monterrey’s
Technological Institute, Mexico, and the University of Bologna, Italy.
Despite our efforts, at the end of 2019 an outbreak of pneumonia that did not respond to known treatments developed, and few days later, a high number of persons in China were infected. It soon spread to several territories
and, on March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic. Given the sanitary emergency caused by COVID-19, it was necessary to quickly adapt to the change,
generate options and redesign the event. Thus, the following decisions were made: first, plan a virtual event; second, broadcast the main speaker’s lectures on-line; third, continue with the initial editorial process.
This last point consisted in publishing the papers sent by professors, students and researchers that had been evaluated by high-level academic peers to be presented at the Forum. Thus, this international event’s
academic production was included in several prestigious journals, Actio among them.
Actio No. 4 therefore includes some of the articles written for this forum, whose subject matter seemed to be an omen: «Design and territory; emergencies and conflicts». The forum focused on the appropriation
of the design processes made by the communities, as well as on approaches from associated disciplines on design with identity, and affection for the environment. This discussion is fully relevant today in times
of COVID and when reflecting on a-COVID scenario.
Territory may be understood as a device beyond geography and history, managing different spaces and times, as well as multiple designs and design processes, with linear, progressive, circular, cyclical, simultaneous,
fragmented and discontinuous behaviours. In this sense, emerging scenarios in design included in this forum approach conflict situations in the territories, which today, when thinking of the emergency we face, are
particularly relevant and invite reflection. The articles included deliberations on territory from the local, regional and global, with their possible relationships, forms of perception and assessment, which show
themselves to be changing and conflicting, and are framed within design and other related disciplines.
Reflecting on the interrelation among the multiple dimensions of territory and design entails questions about economic and social inequalities, increasingly dramatic changes in the environment, identity processes and
their populist deliriums, migrations (transnational, from rural to urban, intraurban, etc.), population’s aging process, cultural transformations, equity and gender identity, among many others.
Articles in this number: relationships among territory, narratives and methodological investigations on research-creation
This edition includes nine articles, six of which came from the 7th International Forum on Design as Process. The first one, “Collaborative Reactivation of the Built Environment: A Socio-cultural Perspective”,
by Daniel Fanzini, Irina Rotaru, Gianpiero Venturini, Angelo de Cocinis, Cristiana Achille and Cinzia Tommasi, approaches the built environment and social innovation. The authors connect project, technology and
creativity in the understanding of a process of activities and space renewal. Bernardo Uribe Mendoza, in his article “Parametricism, Heuristics and Co-creation in the Arts of Design”, associates themes from the
Parametricism Manifesto with the human factor and creation in design, within the scenario of current technological environments. In their paper “Characterization of manjar blanco’s consumption in Palmira from a
food semiotics’ approach”, Lesly Nathaly Quevedo Ayala and David Artemio Ríos Méndez explore the consumption of one of the most iconic products of the Department of Valle del Cauca, analyse the signs, hierarchies
and associated meaning processes from a semiotic standpoint.
The fourth article, “Conflict among multigenerational groups in urban parks and public goods design” by Sebastián Martínez Barco, offers an investigation on the relationship between the experience of using public goods
and conflict situations. He uses as case studies five parks in the city of Palmira, Colombia, and presents a proposal for the re-structuring of these goods that promotes social tissue building. Cleuza Ribas Bittencourt
Fornasier and Seila Cibele Sitta Preto, in the text “Management System for Integrative Projects”, analyse a design system that combines creative, cognitive, scientific and projective methods with creative tools,
aimed at supporting the teaching-learning process applied to a case study at a Fashion Design undergraduate program. This group of articles ends with «Development and application of a methodological tool for bio-inspired
design», by Mayra Alejandra Morales Carmona, who compares six methods of bio-inspired design and then proposes a methodological approach suitable for object design.
On their part, Patrick W. Jordan, Andy Bardill, Kate Herd and Silvia Grimaldi, in their article “Narrative and Design for Wellbeing: A User-Centred Approach”, present an exploratory survey, on how the role of narratives
affects people’s wellbeing, and on how products and services make such narratives possible. The following article in this number, “Reflections on research-creation oriented to hypermedia prototypes. Case study:
graduation project in digital design and multimedia,” by Andrés Felipe Parra Vela and Ximena Castro León, analyses the elements defining an assertive methodological project in graduation thesis submitted by students
of Digital Design and Multimedia programs, including conclusions with a prospective approach.
Finally, our last piece, “Audio-visual writings: biography as a narrative gender”, by Marcela Andrea Negro, offers an ongoing research in which the paradigms of the biographical gender and the teaching or audio-visual
writing are examined. The subject is highly relevant for education in the context of communication and cinema schools, for it approaches little explored genres with a deep impact on the current audio-visual industry.
The author explains transversal didactic strategies for, when approaching gender writing, not only narrative structures but also gender history, geography, culture and politics are included, widening the educational
and interdisciplinary process. This is an article written with mastery and profoundness, on an investigation undertaken at the University of Buenos Aires, and relevant to the educational field.
Screenshot of the Actio editorial team. In this issue, we want to make visible the people who collaborated in the elaboration of this edition of the journal. From left to right and from top to bottom you can see them:
Julio César Goyes Narváez, Jorge Andrés Hernández Vargas, Nélida Yaneth Ramírez Triana, Lissa María Muriel Guisado, Jeannette Insignares Melo, Linda Carolina Rodríguez Tocarruncho, Karen Lange-Morales and Javier
Segundo Olarte Triana.