Theme: “Perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity”

Aalto University School of Art and Design, Helsinki, May 23-25.2010
Submission deadline: 15.12. 2009 (both Finnish and English submissions are acceptable)

Conference overview
Nordic ISCAR welcomes researchers and students from all around the world to its 2010 conference in Helsinki, on the 23rd-25th of May. The conference is dedicated to examining human creative activities. We conceive of design as a field of knowledge and activity concerned with the creation of artifacts. Creative activities operate with diverse modes of knowing and representations. Creativity is a social quality that involves communication and community formation. Creative activities and design are needed when humans transform their circumstances by developing new technologies and institutions. Creation of the new relies on cultural mediation and historically accumulated resources. Activity theory and socio-cultural approaches offer fresh perspectives on these themes. The conference aims at bringing together diverse points of view and disciplinary orientations to discuss social creativity, design and activity.

Keynote addresses
1. Susanne Bodker (human–computer interaction) http://www.daimi.au.dk/~bodker/About_Susanne.html
2. M.P. Ranjan (design and craft) http://www.ranjanmp.in/
3. Kari Kuutti (activity theory) http://www.tol.oulu.fi/users/kari.kuutti/
4. Kai Hakkarainen (collective creativity); CRADLE http://www.helsinki.fi/science/networkedlearning/eng/personnel.html

A multi-disciplinary conference for researchers, professionals, and practitioners We invite researchers, specialists, and students in the fields of art, design, education, health care and other professional activities to participate in the Nordic Conference on Activity Theory and the Fourth Finnish Conference on Cultural and Activity Research (FISCAR10) The conference is seeking proposals, which represent studies emphasizing variety of the perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity. The sub-themes of the conference are the following:

Design as an activity
 Collaborative nature of design process, participatory design, and co-configuration
 Representation and play as design activities
 Social creativity and new technologies and artefacts
 Inclusive design as societal activity

Theory and methodology for research on creativity and design
 Central theoretical ideas in Activity Theory and Sociocultural Theories
 Methodologies of developmental interventions
 Ethnography of change
 Discourse and activity

Design and creativity in diverse forms of communities
 On-line and virtual communities
 Social simulation and emergence
 Social movements
 Ethnic and cultural diversity

Design and creativity in educational activities
 Social creativity in education
 Educational interventions and practice-developing research
 Inclusive education
 Education and social media

Design and creativity in work activities
 Spaces for innovation and knowledge-creation
 Design of new organizational forms
 Creativity in Interventions at work
 Historically new forms of work

Digitalization of culture
 Media as a research field
 Digital media and digital social networks
 Inclusive digitalization
 Digitalization of work

Design and creativity in heath care and social services
 Work-based methods and tools of occupational health service
 Multi-actor collaborations in improving work-related well-being
 Design of system of social support
 Enhancing client agency and creativity

Submission categories
 Paper sessions
 Posters
 Workshops
 Symposia
 Tutorial on the foundations of activity theory in design, education and work

Fees: ISCAR member early bird 100€; ISCAR member on site 150€; Non ISCAR Early
bird 200€ ; Non ISCAR on site 250€; Students 70€
Main organizers
Aalto University School of Art and Design Helsinki in collaboration with
CRADLE, Faculty of Education, University of Helsinki

Program committee:
Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, CRADLE, University of Helsinki
Lily Diaz, Aalto University School of Art and Design
Jarkko Hautamäki, Department of Education, University of Helsinki
Klaus Helkama, Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki
Timo Honkela, Aalto University School of Science and Technology
Leena Norros, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Teemu Leinonen, Aalto University School of Art and Design
Matti Vartiainen, Aalto University School of Science and Technology
Jaakko Virkkunen, CRADLE, University of Helsinki
Annalisa Sannino, CRADLE, University of Helsinki
Turkka Keinonen, Aalto University School of Art and Design
Antti Raike, Aalto University School of Art and Design
Maija Töyry, Aalto University School of Art and Design
Laura Seppänen, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Kari Kuutti, University of Oulu
Kai Hakkarainen, CRADLE, University of Helsinki

The first Nordic-Baltic conference on Activity Theory was already held in Helsinki, 1997; the second Nordic-Baltic conference on Activity Theory and Sociocultural Research was held in Ronneby Sweden in 2001. The third Nordic Conference on Cultural and Activity Research was in Copenhagen, Denmark and the fourth one was held in Oslo, Intermedia, 2007. While the first Finnish Conference of Cultural and Activity Research (December, 2003) focused on mediation; the second one (May 2005) on boundary zones between organizations and the third (September 2007) focused objects of activity, this fourth one addresses the perspective of social creativity, design and interaction.

The present conference is associated Nordic ISCAR and with the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR, www.iscar.org). This organization focuses on promoting and developing multidisciplinary investigation regarding societal, cultural and historical dimensions of human practices. Within the frame of ISCAR, socio-culturally oriented investigators engage in productive interaction with activity theorists.