The Association for Culture and Education PiNA together with University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Design Split and Institute Joanneum of the University of Applied sciences Graz, is organizing a second edition of Design+Science Summer School, which explores the concept of cohabitation through merge of design and science. The summer school will take place between 11 and 15 July 2022 in Ljubljana, and will gather 21 participants from all over the world to explore the topic of Cohabitation.

An estimated 8.7 million species populate planet Earth today. We, humans, are the only representatives of at least eight other human species that existed with us 300,000 years ago. Due to our imperative of progress, we are in the process of wiping out one species after another, making us, humans, the dominant species on this planet. In this Design+Science Summer School, we will explore the three aspects of the emerging human monoculture: relationships within our species and their consequences, especially in the fields of architecture and urban design, ecological impact on our interactions with nature and other living beings, and finally our interaction with technology and artificial systems. We are here to live together, not just to coexist, don't you think?

Boštjan Botas Kenda, the creative director of the Summer School presented this year's idea: »The successful outcomes of the curriculum's educational processes are the basic framework for the development of the profession. This is why the desire to continuously update and implement new content and processes in real-time has led us to a format called: summer school. The formula we conceived is an international form of interdisciplinary integration of science and visual communication. With bold and unpredictable results, we bring freshness to existing educational and project processes of different disciplines in contemporary society. As Mark Fisher wrote: no cultural object can retain its power when there are no longer new eyes to see it.«

Borut Jerman, the leader of the RUK project at PiNA continued: »The Design+Science summer school is an important activity within the RUK network, as it connects several stakeholders and approaches in an innovative way - the academic sphere with non-governmental, scientific research and design, art and science. The question of cohabitation is at the same time extremely relevant and on the other hand, has accompanied human society from the very beginning. This year, we added an international dimension to the summer school with partners from Split and Graz, which ensures the long-term development of the school. I look forward to this year and all subsequent editions.«

Ivica Mitrovič, from Split University explains why they are part of it: »Our interest is based on the long-lasting partnership with the summer school initiators. Ljubljana and Split have more than 20 years of collaboration on formal and informal initiatives in design education. The summer school concept, based on multi and interdisciplinary collaboration, group work and criticality, perfectly fits with our educational background, based on the critical and speculative design perspective with a strong reflective approach on the design as a practice and design as education. Moreover, we hope that the success of this summer school will lead us to new cross-national educational curriculums, based on these fundamentals.«

The applications will open in May 2022. Follow https://www.designscience.school/ for more information or contact us at design.science@aluo.uni-lj.si.