Design and Grace – Erik Sandelin

Former Konstfack PhD student Erik Sandelin will hold a seminar at the Design Societies Research Unit (DSRU) at the Department of Design, Goldsmiths, University of London.

In times when human activities violently constrict the lives of others, how can designers cultivate creative acts of withdrawal, foreclosure and leaving be? Erik Sandelin employs 'grace' – actively not doing what you are able to do – to decouple action from force and passivity from resignation in design. This understanding of grace informs a series of design experiments that variously draw on and explore design withdrawal alongside the work of Michel Serres, Patricia MacCormack, Simone Weil and Critical Animal Studies.

Between 11am and 1pm Erik will lead a Doctoral Masterclass with MPhil/PhD students at Goldsmiths where we will discuss how his work involves theoretically driven practice-based research.

In the afternoon, between 4pm and 6pm, Erik will present his work in a seminar format, followed by discussion led by Alex Wilkie and chaired by Sarah Pennington.