More-Than-Human Oversight: Designing A Somaesthetic Space For High-Risk Ai Systems,
2026
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria
More-Than-Human Oversight: Designing A Somaesthetic Space For High-Risk Ai Systems, Mariana Morais, Joaquin Santuber, Kristina Tica, Pablo Hermansen, Marcos Chilet
DRS Biennial Conference Series
European AI regulation (EU AI Act) has assumed that humans will remain in control of AI systems, thanks to human-machine interfaces and a stop button (Art. 14 of the EU AI Act) as two separate static entities. This ontological blindness in legal institutions leads to a problem of making illusory mechanisms through which people relate to the more-than-human agency of AI systems, foreclosing any possibility of coexistence. Against this context, somaesthetic and affective interaction design practices can offer new possibilities of inter-relations between the more-than-human AI-data operations and the human and social institutions’ fixations on representations. This paper provides an …
The In-Situ Ai Pattern Merchant: A Speculative Intervention In Huayao Embroidery Futures,
2026
Hunan University, China, People's Republic of
The In-Situ Ai Pattern Merchant: A Speculative Intervention In Huayao Embroidery Futures, Hao Li, Duoduo Zhang, Siqi Chen, Nick Bryan-Kinns
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Research on AI and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) often reflects a static, object-centered perspective. This paper instead explores how generative AI can be embedded in the living practices of ICH. Through a speculative intervention in a Huayao embroidery community in Hunan, China, we reframe AI not as a tool for content generation, but as a social mediator within local craft networks. By performing as an “AI Cross-stitch Pattern Merchant” during the local festival, the study reveals how AI’s creative empowerment of young women sparked intergenerational tensions around legitimacy, labor, and authority. While youth embraced GenAI for playful self-expression, elder embroiderers …
Learning Design Capabilities In Public Administrations Through Sandbox Experiments: Insights From A 12-City Eu Network,
2026
Aalborg University
Learning Design Capabilities In Public Administrations Through Sandbox Experiments: Insights From A 12-City Eu Network, Patricia Csobánczi, Nicola Morreli, Rike Neuhoff
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reports on an EU research project involving 12 cities in a multi-thematic innovation network. The project supports innovation and the testing of innovative procurement practices, and also generates or improves design capabilities in public administrations. Once local challenges were defined and two solution providers were selected for each city, civil servants worked in Sandbox mode, experimenting in their own urban contexts. This paper focuses on the Sandbox phase, which provided an opportunity for knowledge exchange, inspiration, and the diffusion of design capabilities. Given the extreme difference in local practices, knowledge exchange and shared learning must be accurately planned; …
In Search Of The Definitions For Biodesign: Practice, Identity And Biodesign Literacy,
2026
Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
In Search Of The Definitions For Biodesign: Practice, Identity And Biodesign Literacy, Adela Orcajada, Isabel Ordoñez, Valentina Rognoli
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Since its inception two decades ago, biodesign has consistently been conceptually hazy. It´s an emerging interdisciplinary field lying somewhere between biology and material sciences on one hand, and art and design practice on the other. Despite efforts by academia and industry to define and contextualise biodesign, the lack of shared vocabulary between its two sides and clear standards for who qualifies as a biodesigner continues to hinder its development. This study combines a literature review to examine how biodesign has been defined over time, alongside a survey that analyzes who identifies as a biodesigner. The aim is to explore the …
From Conflict To Care: A Design Learning Experiment On Food Justice In Rio De Janeiro,
2026
Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
From Conflict To Care: A Design Learning Experiment On Food Justice In Rio De Janeiro, Laura Cipriani, Claudio Magalhães, Stefano Maffei
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper discusses the Design for Peace Ecosystem: Urban Conflict and Food Justice course as a situated experiment in transformative design education. Conducted in Rio de Janeiro, the course combined participatory mapping, desk research, and fieldwork to explore how design can reveal and reframe tensions and hidden structural injustices within urban Food Systems. Students first developed urban food conflict maps to visualise inequalities in access, labour, and cultural recognition. Through desk research, they identified local “food care” initiatives that address food conflicts and promote the right to an adequate food culture. Using ethnographic diaries and ethnography techniques, they engaged with …
Making Worlds Thinkable: Design As Diffractive Sensemaking.,
2026
Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Making Worlds Thinkable: Design As Diffractive Sensemaking., Joan Vellvé Rafecas
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Across contemporary design practice, an attitude has been consolidating design as diffractive sensemaking. It is not method- or outcome-oriented, nor even necessarily a discipline, but a habit of attention in which fragments, measures and memories, timings and routines, infrastructures and more-than-human traces are placed so they read through one another to develop conscious, situated practices. Often grounded in research practice, these approaches lead to diverse outcomes. In all of them, an ecosophic orientation keeps environmental, social and mental ecologies mutually in play without collapsing them into a single index or metric. In such practices, care appears as activism: framing, positioning, …
Designing The Playing Machine: Stage Design As Play Catalyst,
2026
National University of Theatre and Film "I.L. Caragiale", Romania
Designing The Playing Machine: Stage Design As Play Catalyst, Maria Mandea
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This article presents practice-led research where stage design is understood as an active, agential collaborator in theatrical performance, similar to how toys, playgrounds and material games are used as catalysts for play. Addressing the limitation of static, representational design, we develop a design for play methodology drawing from Constructivist theatre’s concept of the “acting apparatus.” This research explores the agency of material design within the performative space through two complementary case studies: an analogue, embodied board game system and a tech-driven, automated environment where pre-programmed robots act as performers. The playing machine concept is proposed as a design method that …
Bridging Awareness And Action: Visual Communication Strategies For Sustainable Consumption In Fast Fashion,
2026
TU Delft, Netherlands, The
Bridging Awareness And Action: Visual Communication Strategies For Sustainable Consumption In Fast Fashion, Alice Biolchini
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Fast fashion accounts for continuous labor exploitation and 8-10% of global carbon emissions, perpetuating environmental degradation. Yet consumer awareness alone often fails to drive sustainable behavior. This systematic literature review aimed to understand how psychological and communication elements can be used to design an intervention capable of changing consumption behavior. Following PRISMA 2020 methodology, 103 peer-reviewed studies were analyzed from 1,384 papers retrieved across six academic databases. Three thematic strands emerged: sustainable consumer behavior and decision-making, visual and aesthetic influence on awareness, and artificial intelligence in engagement contexts. Findings reveal that consciousness alone is insufficient; interventions are suggested to combine …
Territorial Design As Frictional Landscapes: Reframing Urban-Landscape Discourse And Practice Into Multi-Scalar Governance,
2026
L'École de design Nantes Atlantique, France
Territorial Design As Frictional Landscapes: Reframing Urban-Landscape Discourse And Practice Into Multi-Scalar Governance, Sophie Eberhardt
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper traces the emergence of territorial design as a distinct discourse and practice that repositions urban-landscape design from site-based form-making toward socio-ecological governance across scales. Drawing on a systematic review of scholarly literature (1960-2025), a practice survey (42 questionnaires with designers working in France), and three comparative case studies - Room for the River, Medellín’s social urbanism, and riverfront renaturation projects in Paris and Lyon - we show how ecological planning, landscape urbanism, and territorialist thought converge into methods that couple territorial diagnosis, morphological and biophysical patterning, and participatory co-design. The analysis foregrounds two fertile frictions: replicability vs. situatedness, …
Designing For Dignity: A Method To Explore Emotional Lived Experiences Of Stigma And Dignity In Perinatal Mental Health Environments,
2026
University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Netherlands, The
Designing For Dignity: A Method To Explore Emotional Lived Experiences Of Stigma And Dignity In Perinatal Mental Health Environments, Carmen Heuvelmans, Aslı Günay, Geke Ludden, Jodi Sturge
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Psychiatric care environments are intended to heal, yet their design is often experienced as stigmatizing. This paper presents the Uncovering and Designing for Dignity through Emotions (UDDE) method, a participatory approach designed to uncover the meaning of dignity for perinatal women in psychiatric care, explore lived experiences of stigma and dignity, and identify how care features can be re-designed to uphold dignity. While dignity is often defined as an inherent worth every person possesses, in everyday life dignity is experienced as a lived value shaped by interactions with others and the environment. Emotions act as biological signals that can reveal …
Transforming A Precarious Equilibrium: Embracing Complexity In Public Design Practices,
2026
TU Delft, The Netherlands
Transforming A Precarious Equilibrium: Embracing Complexity In Public Design Practices, Thomas Van Arkel, Nynke Tromp, Deger Ozkaramanli
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines how design space for engaging with complexity was constrained, negotiated and expanded within a Dutch public sector organisation providing occupational disability services. While systemic design calls for transformation and embracing complexity, practical understanding of enacting this within a political-administrative context remains limited. Through critical analysis of a participatory action research project, we trace six key moments where possibilities for transformation were opened up or constrained: from processing the initial individual-centric framing, through recognising relational complexity, to translating insights into interventions. Our analysis reveals tensions between systemic aspirations and organisational realities: while the project successfully reframed reintegration from …
A Perceived Value Framework For Automotive Design Innovation: Rethinking Strategic Transition Of Incumbent Oems In The Post-Ice Era,
2026
School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, China
A Perceived Value Framework For Automotive Design Innovation: Rethinking Strategic Transition Of Incumbent Oems In The Post-Ice Era, Zikun Song, Shizhu Lu, Yaqin Peng, Lixin Song
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As the industry moves beyond the internal combustion engine, incumbent original equipment manufacturers (incumbent OEMs) need a systematic, experience perception-centred way to evaluate design. We introduce a Perceived Value Framework (PVF) derived from a 2015–2025 review that defines six dimensions: perceived functionality, performance, intelligence, aesthetics, brand, and sustainability, each linked to sensory indicators. These dimensions are mapped to the emotional design model’s visceral, behavioral, and reflective levels to connect first impressions, in-use experience, and long-term meaning. Comparative case analyses of four OEMs’ 2024–2025 products validate how these dimensions operate across distinct value orchestration and design transformation initiatives. Cross-case results reveal …
Reflecting With Eco Material Libraries: Bridging Material Experimentation, Teaching, And Sustainability Discourse,
2026
University of California Davis, United States of America
Reflecting With Eco Material Libraries: Bridging Material Experimentation, Teaching, And Sustainability Discourse, Beth Ferguson, Sam Edens, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Eco material libraries are emerging in design education as more than repositories of samples. We define them as pedagogical material infrastructures that combine samples, recipes, documentation, and situated curation to support hands-on experimentation and reflection. Drawing on two case studies at the University of California Davis and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we examine how these libraries are built, maintained, and engaged in practice through interviews with faculty curators and a preliminary student survey. Across both sites, the findings suggest that eco material libraries extend conventional material-library models by linking material selection to making, comparison, documentation, and student contribution. They …
From Fragile Remnants To Regenerative Systems: Circular Design Through Eggshell Waste,
2026
Institute for Future Technologies, De Vinci Higher Education, Paris, France
From Fragile Remnants To Regenerative Systems: Circular Design Through Eggshell Waste, Hasti Valipour Goudarzi, Esther K. J. Clifford, Ramkumar S
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Eggshell waste, designated by the EPA as the 15th largest food-based pollutant, is reimagined here as a regenerative material through circular and reciprocal design practices. This research explores how discarded eggshells can be transformed into bioplastics, coatings, and modular construction elements. The project integrates ecological theory (Haraway’s “response-ability,” Kimmerer’s reciprocity) with hands-on material experimentation across diverse geographies, including India and Europe. Emphasizing student-led, non-hierarchical learning, it cultivates ecological care and interdependence between human and more-than-human worlds. Installations, workshops, and collaborations with local experts support regenerative construction practices rooted in local materials and needs. By challenging extractive, linear waste systems, the …
Narrativizing Care: Exploring Narrative Medicine For Designing Ai-Mediated Remote Patient Monitoring,
2026
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Narrativizing Care: Exploring Narrative Medicine For Designing Ai-Mediated Remote Patient Monitoring, Somayeh Ranjbar, Tara Capel, Peter Lloyd, Douwe E. Atsma, Somaya Ben Allouch, Jeroen Raijmakers
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines how care is enacted and understood within Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) systems, which promise efficiency and autonomy but fragment care into data flows. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Dutch hospital’s RPM program for myocardial infarction patients, we analyze how stories, reassurance, and contextual interpretation unfold alongside structured data, revealing the promise and limits of AI-mediated care. Using narrative medicine’s triad of attention, representation, and affiliation, we identify how extractive data models overlook patients’ lived realities and relational dimensions of care. We propose three design provocations for exploring the application of AI in RPM systems: narrative layers …
Sherlock Holmes In The Studio: Supporting Deductive And Inductive Reasoning Skills In Design Education,
2026
Istanbul Technical University, Turkiye
Sherlock Holmes In The Studio: Supporting Deductive And Inductive Reasoning Skills In Design Education, Koray Gelmez, Pelin Efilti, Hatice Kubra Kubra Yildiz, Ali Cankat Alan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Reasoning is a central skill in design education, yet it often remains implicit in studio courses. This paper presents an instructional exercise that adapts methods of deductive and inductive reasoning, commonly associated with crime scene investigation, into industrial design education. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ investigative methods, students examined manufactured products as ‘crime scenes,’ collecting traces of production and assembly as evidence. By reconstructing these processes, they practised analytical thinking and transferred investigative reasoning into design reasoning. Implemented across three semesters with around 101 students, the activity was followed by interviews with 25 participants. Findings indicate that students reported stronger observation, …
An Exploration Into The Value Of ‘Gap System’ Within Regenerative Design,
2026
Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology
An Exploration Into The Value Of ‘Gap System’ Within Regenerative Design, Ariane Camille Fourquier, Delfina Fantini Van Ditmar, Iohanna Nicenboim
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores the possible contribution of ‘gap system’ within the context of regenerative design, highlighting how ‘gaps’, as overlooked, unexplored, and unrecalled dimensions of creative practice, can provide critical opportunities for regeneration. Drawing on ongoing research into weave structures conceptualised through the holes in between yarns, and by presenting the outcomes of a workshop, we illustrate the potential of thinking through ‘gaps’ as a nuanced perspective for regenerative design. Here, ‘gaps’ become sites of reflection, emergence, and transition. We show how this approach reshaped participants’ ways of mapping systems by focusing on ‘gaps’ rather than existing linear knowledge, enabling …
Older Adults As A Critical Group In The Design Of A Mobile Application For Hearing Screening And Monitoring,
2026
Loughborough University, School of Design and Creative Arts, United Kingdom
Older Adults As A Critical Group In The Design Of A Mobile Application For Hearing Screening And Monitoring, Emilene Zitkus, Leonardo Morgadona Tosi Rodrigues, Vinicius Dantas, Leticia Santos, Patricia Campos, Ana Laura Oliveira, Rikarla Sales, Lucas Vieira, Sheila Andreoli Balen, Deborah Ferrari
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The global population is aging rapidly. Hearing loss (HL) constitutes the leading cause of years lived with disability for individuals over 70. With 42% of the 430 million people experiencing disabling HL aged 60 or older, and the majority of them residing in less developed regions, accessible intervention strategies are essential. This paper details an initial study from an ongoing project to develop a digital health intervention (DHI) for hearing screening and monitoring, specifically considering the difficulties faced by older users living in Brazil. User needs revealed critical design requirements, including simplified language, the need for adding images for guidance, …
Crafting Legacies With Care: Speculative Frameworks For The Digital Afterlife,
2026
Independent Researcher, Denmark
Crafting Legacies With Care: Speculative Frameworks For The Digital Afterlife, Sara Bilić, Jessica Sorenson
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Emerging grief technologies promise to preserve the dead through data, yet often neglect the relational, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of memory and identity. This paper proposes a care-centred framework for digital legacy design, grounded in the speculative concept of A Living Will, which uses augmented reality to enable co-created posthumous memories between the living and the deceased. Through autoethnography, participatory workshops, and theoretical analysis, the study critically examines how care ethics and co-authorship can transform digital legacy from an act of preservation to one of participation. By treating identity as distributed and legacy as relational, we reframe grief technology as …
Systematic Material Experimentation With Photosynthetic Biomineralisation Across Waste Substrates For Circular Product Design,
2026
Living Systems Lab, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London N1C 4AA, United Kingdom
Systematic Material Experimentation With Photosynthetic Biomineralisation Across Waste Substrates For Circular Product Design, Hyejo Shin, Lorraine Archer, Matt Malpass, Carole Collet
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In response to escalating planetary challenges, circular bioeconomy frameworks are increasingly vital for sustainable resource management. Biomineralisation, a natural process in which organisms produce inorganic materials, has been extensively studied in engineering but remains underutilised in circular product design. This paper investigates systematic material experimentation with photosynthetic biomineralisation across diverse waste substrates for circular product design. Through a practice-based biodesign methodology integrating biological protocols with design experimentation, the study developed a material sample collection of eleven waste substrates biomineralised by cyanobacteria. The findings reveal that the type of waste substrate influences material formation, consolidation, and aesthetic qualities, informing distinct design …
