Designing Countercultural Heritage at New Origins Unconference

On the 25 June 2024, Dr Violeta Tsenova (Anglia Ruskin University) and Dr Anaïs Carlton-Parada (Loughborough University, London) gave respective talks—chaired by Dr Philip Ely, Reader in Design at MMU—at the Transformative Practices‘ research group New Origins Unconference currently running at Manchester Metropolitan University.

In response to our research theme of Designing Countercultural Heritage, Dr Tsenova’s talk, “Agonism: Design-led Inquiries Towards Transforming Cultural Venues” explored how we can apply agonistic thinking to designing within the field of cultural heritage. Dr Carlton-Parada took an alternative view of the notion of ‘countering’ suggested by our theme, framing her talk as “Countering Heritage through Design” and exploring the idea of radical heritage-making possibilities. Together, our presenters looked at new ways of framing design-led research inquiries in the cultural heritage sector which the Transformative Practices researchers at MMU are actively involved with locally, nationally and internationally.

You can watch their talks here, followed by a brief panel discussion:

https://mmutube.mmu.ac.uk/id/1_3un77hxo