Call for Speakers
Design Innovation Basecamp 10
25 Sep 2026
27 Sep 2026
Online
Designing the 21st Century Studio Culture
Basecamp is an annual charette held by MassArt Design Innovation in the mountains of New England to explore the future practices of design and kick off a year of exploration.
In our 10th year, we are centering on a brief that could last multiple cycles: what is a world-class design studio culture in the coming era?
THE CHALLENGE
We are currently in a state of cultural disequilibrium. The pandemic and the subsequent pivot to hybrid, digitally-mediated work have left us with tools for efficiency but a lack of clarity regarding the nature of our presence. While we navigate digital whiteboards, we are missing the deeper, kinesthetic experience of shared focus—the state of neural synchrony found when creators play off one another in real-time.
This charette asks: What defines a world-class design studio culture for the next generation? Before we look at methods or spaces, we must first define our future state: how we work, how we share, and how we exist together in a way that is meaningful and deliberate.
DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
We will ask our graduate students to investigate the "connective tissue" of design culture. They will look beyond current models shaped by momentum, habit, and the incredible convenience of a world moderated by screens and cameras. They will be asked to think about the ideal state and how we can bring it into reality in our processes, rituals, principles, and spaces at MassArt.
Call for Speakers
13 Mar 2026
11 Sep 2026
Seeking visionary design leaders, designers, creativity experts, psychologists, sociologists, and organizational behavior specialists!
Help us figure out what a world-class studio culture might be.
Design studios have always been interesting and varied places. But these days the idea that they are places at all isn't such a safe assumption. Which brings us to a whole bunch of questions we hope you might help us explore.
WHERE YOU COME IN
To do this work, students need to dive into the practices and dynamics that matter. We are looking for forward-thinking design leaders, systems thinkers, and specialists in thinking, creativity, and collaboration to weigh in. Lend us your perspective and expertise to help students parse the messy reality from the ideal future state.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
There are three primary ways to join us:
- Sign up to be interviewed by our students. We'll ask you to join a 30 to 60 minute discussion over Zoom on Friday or Saturday of the charette. Ideally, we'd like to record these sessions for our own records, but it is not required.
- Submit a pre-recorded video with your thoughts on the topic. It can be really quick or you can send a lecture; it is up to you. You can just send us the file (or a link to it) and we'll load it into our research space for the weekend where students can access it.
- Get interviewed by AI. This can be anytime on your schedule; we will use a design research platform called Marvin to conduct the interview and collect your thoughts where students can then review the discussion.
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