Prananda L. Malasan | Design and Social Innovation in Indonesia

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).

In Indonesia, design and social innovation are not solely products of formal expertise or top-down interventions—they are embedded within everyday life. This presentation will explore the significance of the everyday as a rich source of design knowledge and innovation, highlighting the capacity of ordinary people to engage in creative problem-solving that shapes social and material realities. Drawing on ethnographic observations and community-based design research, I argue that everyone possesses the ability to “design,” particularly when responding to uncertainty, adversity, or systemic failures.

In this context, seemingly mundane acts, such as hacking tools, customising household objects, or reinterpreting traditional crafts, are not trivial improvisations. Rather, they are intentional rescriptings that subvert imposed norms and articulate plural aspirations. These practices reflect what Albert Camus would call a rebellion against the absurd: a refusal to accept singular interpretations of how things should be done. From crafting birdcages with modified sewing machines to reimagining rattan furniture using discarded tires, these acts reveal an iterative, dialogic, and culturally embedded form of design.

Such everyday innovations challenge dominant models of innovation that privilege high-tech solutions and standardized methods. Instead, they demonstrate how social innovation in Indonesia is enacted through performative and participatory practices grounded in local knowledge and social interdependence. By attending to these micro-practices, we not only broaden our understanding of what counts as innovation but also reframe design as a shared human capacity to navigate, resist, and reshape complex conditions.

This presentation calls for design educators, researchers, and practitioners to take seriously the creativity of the everyday. Doing so not only democratizes design but also affirms a more diverse and pluralistic future for the discipline—one that emerges not from the lab or studio, but from the streets, kampungs, and workshops of everyday Indonesia..

Prananda Luffiansyah Malasan is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Art and Design, Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), and the current Chairman of the Indonesian Industrial Designers Alliance (ADPII). His research and teaching focus on design and social innovation, community resilience, and the intersection between design, anthropology, and cultural studies. Prananda has collaborated with various communities and institutions across Asia, and his work emphasizes participatory approaches to design that address complex social and environmental challenges

Image: Collaborative work with community to develop a disaster mitigation toolkit. Photo: Prananda L. Malasan.

The School of Art & Design Seminar series will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm, between 17 February and 21 October 2025, co-convened by Dr Alex Burchmore and Alia Parker.