Statement of Commitment

Statement of Commitment to the Challenges of our Age:

We are well into this next millennium, with an array of pressing challenges at hand. 

Upon identifying the multifaceted and disparate array of ever-changing informants to design discourse, one is confronted with how to unite this dialogue in meaningful ways to current modes of thought and action. The questions gain more significance as our knowledge of the greater socio-environmental domain becomes ever more systemic and complexly heterogenic, while at the same time, approaches to the issues have proved to be progressively more reductivist, disconnected, overtly abstracted or theorized, and universally globalized in regard to multifaceted and content-rich particularities in situ.

Following the primacy of intellectualism, creativity and spiritual hopefulness, design and the allied arts  are intrinsically transformative (aligned with overall goals of higher education), engaged in the revisionary, emancipatory, trans-operative, bespoke, and participatory actions with others in direct relation to our very-real and shared worlds. Their modus operandi question and disrupt the current state and status quo, critically seeing the world always anew and refreshed, redressing and repairing acute fractures, and consciously promoting alterations in the possible ways we can envision and inhabit our life-places to mutual benefit. 

At the same time, we are mandated to denounce all forms of subjugation, abuse of power, racism and prejudice, and marginalization (of self, people, cultures, race, perspectives, worldviews, bio-diversity, life orientations, nature, regions, places, and greater environment, et al), that would otherwise prevent free, inclusive and diverse access to these transformative agencies.   We must refuse to be complicit or overly comfortable in the matters of systemic injustice and inequity, but instead endeavor to serve our communities, to be advocate voices for those in need of redress, to respect and nourish our environments, and to foster well-being and quality life for all.  We embrace the vital force (élan vital, Bergson) of positive and meaningful advancement and are active participants in the co-creative making of a world that supports life in all its forms and fosters equipoise for all our world communities.

We welcome and embrace diverse perspectives across multiple spectrums (the richest palette) to seek a multiplicity of plateaus and agencies.  We act as creative rhizomes (with respect to Deleuze), desiring creative force, dialogue and culture, positive social transformation and freedom of expression that emerges within smooth and free systems. We champion manifold cultural bearings and the multiplicities of creative action within our allied art and design professions, sponsor excellence and beauty in all its forms, usher active community engagements, promote agreeable civil societies (a tranquil and flourishing state), and foremost enable professional development for our abundantly diverse societal members.  Such is the becoming pallet and platform for creative spirits to blossom and take flight. 

Driven by passion and bound by an intrinsic ethos of empathy and care (the highest forms of knowledge), not by passivity or complacency, we welcome the continuant desire for untethered forms of imagination, beauty, and meaning that can be revealed and created anew.  These concepts unapologetically (i.e. ‘fit for defense’) form solidarity for our views, co-substantiate our approaches and methodologies, and drive our productions.

Our values align with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) values.