IDEC Virtual Fall Symposium 2

Due to COVID-19, the Interior Design Educators Council [IDEC], is pivoting. Instead of in-person Regional Conferences, all five Regional Chairs are collaborating to offer three virtual symposia, which will offer educators an opportunity to share and grow from their experiences.

Laura McDonald Stewart, Founder of plinthandchintz.com, is pleased to offer a cocktail demonstration during the IDEC Virtual Fall Symposium 2 Happy Hour, along with her husband Joey Stewart.

IDEC Virtual Fall Symposium 2:

REACHING THROUGH THE SCREEN: REFLECTING UPON PHYSICALITY IN A TIME OF VIRTUALITY

Interior scale ranges from the intimate to the grand. For many humans, much of daily life is lived engaging the body with spaces, furnishings and objects appropriately scaled for a smaller range of movements such as working within an office environment or learning within a school. The beginning and end of our days are spent in the home where the occupant exercises agency within his, her, or their surroundings.

Physicality of the spaces we inhabit as well as contact with one another have taken on new meanings in the past months as people find themselves confined to a smaller radius of movement than ever lived in modern history. Experience of our physical surroundings intensifies. Awareness of the ordinary heightens. Humans who live outside of our households appear then disappear from our screens. The foreign quality of communication with flattened human heads continues to be unsettling.

How do we imagine the impact this extraordinary experience within the ordinariness of our own homes will have on how humans relate to both home and to public spaces?

What questions do these experiences bring forth for our students as we move (in-person or virtually) into fall classes?

How might the questions we ask within the design studio differ from a year ago?

How do we engage students with physicality in the “design studio” if we continue to be physically removed from one-another?

What can we learn from the past as well as the present conditions as we look toward the future of design of the built environment?

This conference asks presenters and attendees to reflect upon implications of the recent past as well as the current state of affairs on design of the built environment from psychological, pedagogical, and professional practice-viewpoints.

About IDEC

The mission of The Interior Design Educators Council, Inc. is the advancement of interior design education, scholarship, and service. IDEC, the professionally recognized association for interior design educators in North America, was conceived in 1962 and was named and formalized at its first conference in 1963. As described in its first Constitution, the stated purpose of the organization was to be “dedicated to the development and improvement of interior design education,” to establish and strengthen ‘lines of communication between individuals, educational institutions and organizations concerned with interior design,” and to strive “to improve teaching of interior design, and through it the professional level of interior design.” This broad purpose enabled IDEC’s founders to lay the foundation for a long and significant history, one that has had a major impact on the interior design profession.