Azimuts 54

Azimuts 54 – Azimuts 54 reports on a selection of design research surveys that were conducted in Saint-Étienne between 2015 and 2022 by various researchers and collectives in collaboration with artists and academics in connection with this territory, theirfield. Far from reflecting the exhaustiveness of design research undertaken here and elsewhere, this issue attempts to present the diversity of approaches, methodologies and objects of study that it is possible to find in such a restricted geographical area.

Some of the work deals with local and regional issues that concern the territory and identity of Saint-Etienne. These surveys – completed or still in progress – are part of the territory of Saint-Etienne and gravitate, intellectually and statutorily, around the ecosystem of the Esadse-Cité du design.
This set of surveys is, in this issue, compiled by institutions (pink paper: Esadse, white paper: collectives from Saint-Etienne, green paper: Cité du design (research center).
This Azimuts was conceived and shaped by the team as a methodological toolbox. Thus, in a process of dissecting each contribution we decided to integrate metadata extracted from each survey, in order to show the plurality of ways of doing research, indicating: GPS coordinates and the date of the research topic, the number of words in the contribution, the surface area of the published article once it is put on the wall, etc.
Its form adapting to its content, Azimuts 54 “Learning from Saint-Etienne” can therefore be dismantled, page by page, so that new uses can be proposed once again and new spatial configurations, inducing new forms of reading and display of research content, can be found.