Borders are an ever more pressing issue in the 2020s. Whether geopolitical, human and non-human, or digital and physical, the solidification and liquification of borders raises questions around design's role in creating, undoing and negotiating divides.
The significance of borders today is highlighted by the interlaced ramifications of Brexit, Covid-19, international conflict, the climate emergency, the dissolution of colonial borders, gender binaries and the rise of polarising social media platforms. In this context it seems timely for design history to debate the implications of borders past, present and future.
The 2024 Design History Society conference will invite explorations of design’s role in borders and the effect of borders on design and asks how looking at borders and boundaries can help further design history more widely.
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