Joy

June 20–25 2010, Vinalhaven, ME

“Surely joy is the condition of life.”
—Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher (1842)

“The absence of joy is the biggest threat to our society.”
—Will Alsop, Architect (2003)

Does design create or embody joy, or does it merely create conditions for joy to emerge? Is there joy in the designed artifact or in the act of design? Is a designer’s joy the same as a user’s joy? What is the relationship between joy and play and how might design conjoin the two? What might a taxonomy of joy look like?