Taking the pulse of responsible design: exhibitions as a critical discourse venue

While there are examples of public discourse around responsible innovation in science, technology, and engineering, less exists on public discussion in the field of responsible design. Without creating space for this to happen, how can design educators stay abreast of the contemporary perspectives of the societies they wish their students to serve? Using a single case study methodology, we describe a snapshot safari activity which convened a multidisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners to reflect on and discuss design exhibits and their relation to social innovation. We propose this activity as a conceptual model for convening new forms of publics around exhibited work, enabling critical discourse on different responsible design perspectives. We believe this model could form the basis of further active research ultimately supporting universities to stay contemporary in their relationship with society through a better understanding how others understand responsible design and helping design pedagogy nurture the responsible designers the modern world needs.