State Department officials are meeting with artists at the Rhode Island School of Design this week for a series of workshops on design and public policy.
RISD head of continuing education Greg Victory said good designers consider a variety of perspectives. He thinks that approach that might improve things like public policy and legislation.
“Often times the times the process doesn’t really include for lack of a better term the user, until late in the game, and at some points, that’s too late.”
Participants in the RISD workshop will learn about design principals then try to apply them to case study. Victory said they will use energy policy as a case study.
“That’s not necessarily something initially that people have a say in. Right, there’s a handful of people who make those sorts of decisions. So how do we create more human-centered policies,” said Victory.
Workshop participants will visit a variety of sites in Massachusetts, including Fort Devens military base and a hybrid car company. Victory said he organized the workshop after a RISD student interned at the State Department.
RISD says this is the first time the State Department has ever partnered with an art school for this type of conference.
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