Visible Records: Mapping the Narrative of Vernacular Design
A Special Issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752) belonging to the section "Visual Arts".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 January 2027 | Viewed by 607
Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Almost all design is vernacular in the first two definitional senses of the word: in the language used by ordinary people in a particular place; local and functional. Designs historically accepted as canonical, though, tend to violate the third meaning: not imposed as a second [visual] language. This issue seeks to map narratives of designs which are vernacular in all three definitional senses of the word. Such designs aren’t canonical or imposed—instead they offer, accommodate, and benefit; they are unforced, purposeful, autonomous.
In a global pluriverse (Escobar 2018), design praxis helps to build “a world with multiple centers, in which many realities can co-exist" (Leitão et. al. 2020). Through this aspirational lens, vernacular design—ordinary, local, functional, accommodating, autonomous—operates in a landscape of horizontally distributed power relative to historically canonical design. Yet unequal power relationships remain: in design and design-historical praxis, in the designed and experiential world where we live (Chopra and Del Gaudio 2023; Meharry 2024; Palmieri et. al. 2025). The planned Special Issue extends ongoings dialogues around what it means for design to be pluriversal, decolonialized, and/or vernacular.
To challenge the power relationships and dominant paradigm of scholarly publishing, this issue seeks two kinds of contributions. Firstly, authors can submit critically annotated artifacts to the issue’s Provisionary Atlas of Vernacular Design. Captions including maker, date, location, and photo credit should accompany a single documentary image (4x6” at 300dpi, authors must obtain publication rights). Annotations of 500–750 words should place the design in context and critically examine its particularized form, function, and socio-cultural significance. Secondly, authors can submit an abstract for a long-form scholarly article. These might take the form of recuperative and decolonial historical narratives, case studies from contemporary design praxis, or theoretical and/or methodological engagements with “the vernacular.” In mapping vernacular design as ordinary, local, functional, accommodating, and autonomous, authors might consider but are not limited to (1) designed artifacts: images, objects, physical or digital environments, systems, etc; and/or (2) the pluralistic, collaborative, and/or anonymous design practices which produce “the vernacular.”
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, all interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–400 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (dgriffin@arts.ufl.edu) or to /Arts/ editorial office (arts@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Leitão, R. M., Noel, L., and Murphy, L. (eds.). 2020. Proceedings of Pivot 2020: Designing a world of many centers, 4 June 2020, London, United Kingdom, Design Research Society. dl.designresearchsociety.org/conference-volumes/37
Meharry, J. 2024. Sensemaking about power in anti-oppressive design practice, in Gray, Ciliotta Chehade, Hekkert, Forlano, Ciuccarelli, and Lloyd (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1139
Chopra, Maya and Del Gaudio, Chiara. 2023. “Unpacking Dominant Design: A critical analysis of power and dominant discourse in Design.” In IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design. Presented at IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9–13 Oct 2023, Milan, Italy. doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.844
Palmieri, Teresa, Kseniia Obukhova, J Ammendola and Sergio Previte. 2025. “A Power Lexicon: Exploring Articulations of Power during an Eco-Social Design Semester Project.” In Power in Transformation: Creative Practices as Catalyst of Change, eds El Moussaoui, Krois, and Palmieri, pp.115–127. hdl.handle.net/10863/50457
Wise, Susie. 2022. Design for Belonging. Series: Stanford dSchool Library. San Francisco: Ten Speed Press.
Dr. Dori Griffin
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- vernacular design
- pluriversal visual languages
- design and autonomy
- design and power
- design and belonging
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