From October 20-22, a dozen invited, international guests from varied disciplines will join members of Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, in Midtown Detroit. Anna Pohlmeyer has been invited to represent TU Delft’s faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.

Part theoretical discourse, part social experiment, D++ Design Salon offers an intimate setting that brings together critical thinkers, do-ers, and makers from different fields to examine the implications of a thorny set of topics. This year, the salon will address the intersections of design, happiness, and futures:

How should we measure and define happiness in a modern age? What are the conditions required to move us toward more preferred futures? What is design’s role in shaping possible futures?

The participants represent the fields of positive psychology, anthropology, philosophy, future studies, environmental psychology, design, design media, design research, and corporate strategy.

Unlike a conference or symposium, the salon is meant to provoke informal conversations across disciplines in a safe environment for conjecture, confusion, and speculation. The outcomes of the salon will be made available to the public through audio recordings and a salon website in early 2018.

This year’s participants include:

Anna Pohlmeyer: Assistant Professor of Industrial Design, TU Delft, the Netherlands
Grant McCracken: Cultural anthropologist and author
Judith Heerwagen: Research Psychologist, US General Services Administration
Mark Dziersk: Managing Director, Lunar Design
Nansook Park: Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan
Neal Moore: Co-founder of Jump Associates
Patrice Martin: Former Co-founder of IDEO.org
Prateeksha Singh: Design thinking, systems, and foresight consultant
Raj Raghunathan: Professor of Marketing, McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin.
Sam Liao: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Puget Sound
Stuart Candy: Futurist and Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design
Susan S. Szenasy: Director of Design Innovation, Metropolis Magazine

For more information on Design + Happiness + Futures, see the salon website http://designplusplus.org