Digital Commons Network^™

Design Principles Of The Pluriversal Design Paradigm, Eveline Van Zeeland

DRS Biennial Conference Series

When scientists embrace a different paradigm, this naturally leads to a shift in aca-demic behavior. While the importance and necessity of the pluriversal design framework are evident, understanding how this paradigm influences academic conduct is less clear. Through a systematic literature review of 103 academic papers on the pluriversal approach, it is deducted what it is that researchers do or suggest to do when shaping their research and design practice through the pluriversal de-sign paradigm. In this study, the pluriversal design paradigm is distilled into a set of foundational prerequisites and design principles. These design principles can be applied by …

Faculty Wellbeing In Corporate Academia: A Critical Examination And Reimaging Of The Curriculum Vitae, Aaron Ganci

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Faculty wellbeing is declining among US higher education faculty, and burnout is becoming increasingly common. This study examines the role of design artifacts, namely the curriculum vitae (CV), within this dynamic. The CV has succumbed to interconnected social forces, including neoliberalism and inclusive democratization, fundamentally altering its design and the connected faculty experience. To better understand if design action might improve faculty wellbeing, this study employs a transformative research design to examine how the CV might be reimagined to promote positive transformation and improved wellbeing. This mixed-method qualitative study utilizes a novel bend of interviews, participatory co-design activities, and a …

Pluriversal Design In One Situated Place: An Approach Rooted In The Interface Between The Local And The Global, Iris Y. Luo, Renata M. Leitao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This essay posits that a Place-Based approach is the prerequisite for fostering fruitful and mutually-respectful form of social design in the emerging paradigm of pluriversality – contextualized within the contemporary global order. The concept of "Place" serves as the nexus between the Local and the Global: it's where intermediaries reside, translation unfolds, and power dynamics intensify. By examining four historical phases from the pre-colonial period through post-modernity, this work looks into the evolution of the concept of Place and its role in the construction of power. This discussion encourages designers to ground themselves in the local, embedded within communities, while …

Repositioning Design As The New Attractor In Sustainability, Clee Zhuo Wang, Yiying Wu, Laurent Gutierrez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design’s increasing participation in sustainability raises questions on what sustainability it serves and how. Contextualized in a cartography of sustainability discourse and its four typologies, we establish that design’s efforts on sustainability to date are largely affiliated to the mainstream socio-technological pathway, a continuation of the modernization project deepening the crises. This affiliation, while granting design access to the increasingly active field of sustainability, risks reducing its versatile epistemology to amusing representation. Drawing from Human-Nature Relationships (HNR) research, we propose the utilization of the "sustainability space" as an analytical tool. The processual, embodied, and affective qualities inherent in design are …

‘Does Phosphorus Want To Sound Like That?’: Experiencing More-Than-Human Futures, Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Camillo Sanchez, Felix Anand Epp

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The paper explores the learning possible from including the public in explora-tions of more-than-human future visions. We presented an installation at a de-sign festival of a speculative scenario that emerged from ethnographic research with urban permaculture farmers, using sounds to represent concentrations of nutrients in soil. We studied how visitors wearing a sensor ring experienced the playing of these sounds upon insertion of a finger in the installation’s soil. Re-sponses underscore the importance of cultivating the skill of noticing through deep listening, alongside the profound connection thus established between humans and the more-than-human world. In a further contribution to more-than-human …

Exploring The Design Opportunities For Conversational Agents As Reflection Partners In Domestic Environments, Pelin Karaturhan, Egemen Ertuğrul, Ecem Arıkan, Kemal Kuşcu, Asım Evren Yantaç

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Reflection is a core element of our everyday lives for higher self-insight and better well-being. Guided conversation is one of the methods that supports reflective thinking. The increasing abilities of conversational agent systems make them potential reflection partners for the future. Home is suitable for engaging in reflective conversations with conversational agents on daily experiences since it provides a private space. We explore the user expectations and design considerations for reflection with conversational agents through a mixed-method approach with design/HCI researchers. We first explored a psychology-based reflection approach with a diary study. Then, we designed a future-oriented methodology, adapted our …

Sensemaking About Power In Anti-Oppressive Design Practice, Jessica Meharry

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The concept of power can be an effective discursive tool to wield when designing against oppression and designing for joy, desire, and flourishing. While power is a critical concept in oppression, it is underdeveloped in most design methods and practices. This paper makes the case that designers interested in social justice can explore dimensions of power to uncover and redirect bias and inequities in both design processes and outcomes. I summarize the conceptual debates about power's meaning and survey how designers are currently engaging with the concept. I then offer a loose anti-oppressive framework for sensemaking around power in professional …

The Heritage Language And Graphic Landscape Of London's Chinatown, Robert George Harland, Angelina Hang Pan, Alison Barnes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The preservation of minority heritage through language is widely recognised as an important means for safeguarding ethnic identity within multicultural settings. This paper investigates the visibility of "heritage language" through the lens of graphic heritage within the distinctive ethnic enclave of London's Chinatown. Located in the City of Westminster, Chinese identity is officially designated on street nameplates that demarcate geographic boundaries as well as depict a shift in the cultural influence of this migrant community. In this study, the visual analysis of 209 retail signs displays 313 instances of language. The research findings indicate the extent of retention of heritage …

A Co-Design Approach To Aesthetic Customization Of Prosthetics, Icaro Ibanez- Arricivita, Alethea L. Blackler, Maria A. Woodruff, Levi Swann, Abigail Winter

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The symbolism of prosthetic limbs has predominantly been about restoring function. However, for prosthetic wearers, symbolism expands to include psychosocial meaning, which has been expressed in prosthetic customizations, collaborations, and artistic explorations. Therefore, an opportunity exists for designers to understand how psychosocial symbolism can be elicited and translated into pros-thetic visual and aesthetic language. The objective of the paper is to develop personalized prosthetics that reflect the principles and convictions of the individuals utilizing them. We conducted a co-design process with three Paralympian amputees to explore and visually represent the psychosocial meanings attached to their prosthetics. The results demonstrate how …

Unleashing Collective Imagination Through Controversies: Lessons From A Smart City Project, Julieta Matos-Castaño, Corelia Baibarac-Duignan, Michiel De Lange, Anouk Geenen, Mascha Van Der Voort

DRS Biennial Conference Series

We explore the role of futures-oriented design interventions in leveraging socio-technical controversies to foster collective imagination. We elaborate on a practical application of a speculative and scenario-based design tool called Future Frictions. Our study focuses on the use of Future Frictions to engage citizens in the development of an assessment framework for implementing sensors in Amsterdam. By employing the "controversing" framework to operationalize controversies through design, we explore how Future Frictions provides an interface that bridges speculative and real-life urban contexts. This interface facilitates recontextualizing controversies in daily life, fostering sensemaking, and making space for collective agency. This, we argue, …

Becoming Microbes: An Approach To Cultivating Microbial Sensibilities In Biodesign, Jiho Kim, Raphael Kim, Joana Martins, Elvin Karana

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Microbes assume an indispensable role in design, given their inherent adaptability, functional diversity, and abundance. Yet, designing with microbes presents notable challenges for biodesigners, stemming from, for example, the distinct temporalities and scales of microbes. Conversely, cultivating microbial sensibilities—reflecting human comprehension and alignment with the distinctive characteristics of microbes—stands out as a unique potential of biodesign for fostering a deep connection between humans and other living entities. In response, we present the concept of “becoming microbes”, a philosophically grounded approach advocating for a non-anthropocentric stance in biodesign, aiming at immersing biodesigners in the realms of microbes with a fresh perspective …

Mealsense: A Fiction About Datafication And Algorithms In Commoning Food, Viktor Bedö

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Commoning is on the rise as a socio-economic practice advancing the outlook of more just food systems. While smaller commoning operations can predominantly rely on informal arrangements, tracking and monitoring the conditions of the use of resources becomes vital for larger operations. This paper explores the datafication of hunger, pleasure, ingredients, cooking and spoiled food for crafting imaginaries of commoning-based algorithmic food futures. To address not only frictions around datafication but also gainful proposals, the paper mobilizes concepts of ‘unwieldy data’, ‘good enough data’, and ‘minimal feasible datafication’. It uses fiction writing as a method to amalgamate scholarly references in …

Reimagining Temporality: Exploring The Intersection Of Time And Trauma In Design Research, Catherine Wieczorek, Laura Forlano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Time plays a central role in design research, influencing how people complete daily tasks, plan for the future, and interact with technology. Designers employ various methods, such as journey maps, diary studies, temporal probes, and storytelling, to articulate their conceptualizations of time. They use time to ground findings and envision future possibilities through tools like systems maps and the futures cone. This paper critically examines the use of time-based techniques in design research, highlighting their limitations and capabilities. It explores the intersection of time and trauma, acknowledging trauma's impact on an individual's perception and experience of time. The paper advocates …

Beyond Braiding: Transcending Artifact-Centered Conceptions Of Craft In Digital Fabrication, Nathaniel Elberfeld, Lavender Tessmer, Alexandra Waller

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Craft traditions have motivated recent scholarship and projects by practices and pedagogies with diverse research agendas in digital fabrication. In this work, the technical complexity of a traditional craft is explored through a conceptual lens such as automation, software development, or knowledge encapsulation. Despite the varied research landscape, many of these projects focus on the craft artifact itself and disengage from the broader ecologies in which it is traditionally creat-ed. In this paper, we establish a positioning framework for craft-based digital work and introduce new terminology to define its theoretical boundaries and to disambiguate the increasingly crowded space of “digital …

Resisting The Historical And Geographical “Other”: The Role Of Expertise In Video Game Music, Tommy Dainko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video games create rich, virtual worlds for players to explore. Game developers have often utilized exoticism, allowing players to experience the “Other” from the comfort of home. Music is a powerful tool to evoke Otherness and can reinforce stereotypes about the past and different cultures. This thesis looks at recent games where developers have collaborated with expert musicians either from the culture depicted or with expertise in historical performance practices. I document two purposes these collaborations can serve. First, the use of expert musicians creates a veneer of authenticity allowing developers to market the games as “authentic” experiences. Second, these …

Do You Know Where Your Games Come From? Artificial Intelligence And Game Development, Andrew Begemann

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

ABSTRACT

This paper was written to explore the possible effects of artificial intelligence being implemented in the design pipeline of video game development. In it, we will explore a history of artificial intelligence, from its early imaginings in books and philosophy, to its current iterations, such as ChatGPT and other popular engines like Midjourney and Stable diffusion. We will also discuss steps in game development so as to understand where the potential implementations of artificial intelligence can, will, or does occur. Following those explanations, we will explore the three methodologies of Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and Cultural Studies as ways of examining …

Crafting 21st-Century Trend-Compliant Fashion Collections For Muslim Women: Ghana In Perspective, Rashida Abdulai, Ninette Afi Appiah, Isaac Abraham

Journal of Art, Design and Music

Purpose: The study examined the integration of global fashion trends with Islamic modesty principles in clothing design for Ghanaian Muslim women. It explored the blending of contemporary styles with the requirements of Islamic dress codes, considering the increasing diversity and modernization of Muslim women’s fashion preferences.

Method: The study utilized art-based studio research and the double Helix Praxis-Exegesis Model, which involves customer profiling, concept creation using mood boards, and design techniques. Ten respondents were purposively selected and interviewed. Feedback from interviews ensured the designs resonated with the target audience.

Findings and Conclusion: The study discovered that contemporary Islamic fashion combines …

Umbrella And Jellyfish, Yanran Bi

Masters Theses

Rainy season arrives as soon as the summer begins in Shanghai. For some reason, I rarely remember to bring an umbrella with me. I have a lot of umbrellas, most of them are transparent ones bought at subway stations. When it suddenly starts pouring rain, umbrella vendors in Shanghai gather at each crowded exit of the subway sta- tions to sell umbrellas to people like me. The cheapest umbrellas they have are always the transparent ones. The whole city is turned upside down by the rain with its reflections on every street. Then a transparent umbrella opens up, then another, …

“Touching The Untouchable”: Time As Material And The Fragmented Self In The Maximodern Era Shori V. Sims © 2024 Shori V. Sims All Rights Reserved Shorisims., Shori V. Sims

Masters Theses

In the conventional division of disciplines, film/video/moving images and stationary sculpture are categorized as formal and conceptual opposites. In my work and in this thesis, I am arguing that moving images constitute a form of sculpture in the style of assemblage by the manipulation of time around them. Yes, the image is flat and stationary on its own: but the cut of time which it represents exists multi-dimensionally (spatially and temporally) to be combined in a collage-like manner. In my practice, moving images constitute a form of assemblage that manipulates time and space in ways normally attributed to sculpture.

This …

Embodied Visions: Interactive Installations That Reimagine Bodily Presence In Digital Imaging Apparatuses As Shadows, Yunzi Shi

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Contextualized within a history of technological development, the evolution of imaging devices and technologies is accompanied by the abstraction of spatial relationships between the body of the observer, the apparatus, and physical reality, which leads to disembodying experiences for the observing subject. Compared with devices and interactive experiences, critical reflection on the epistemological impact of digital imaging devices has less priority in computational imaging and human-computer interaction research. Taking an artistic approach, this thesis describes Embodied Visions, an exhibition featuring three interactive installations exploring the technical infrastructure for imaging and reflecting on the (dis)embodied experiences in the digital age. …

Seeing Is Believing: Observing Trans Spirituality Through The Smith-Waite Tarot, Phoebe Santalla

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In 1909 the Rider Company published the Smith-Waite Tarot deck which featured 78 illustrated cards by Pamela Colman Smith. With heavy use of appropriated and ambiguous symbology, the Smith-Waite deck became a meditation tool for realizing alternative realities. By observing the history of the deck, analyzing Smith’s approach to illustration, and retracing the counterculture occult explosion in the 1970s, this essay argues that the Smith-Waite deck is an object the reflects the queered body and self. The modern, trans-contentious, Western political climate creates an environment that obscures the fact that transgender people exist beyond the medicalization of their bodies. To …

Graveyard Shifts: Unearthing Identity Myths And The Retro Rebrand, Rebecca Puno

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay examines a trend in brand identity at the time of writing wherein icons of several decades past are resurrected to play to nostalgic feelings associated with a product or service. It begins with a case study of iconography for popular pizza chain logos through several decades alongside definitions of advertising models employed at the time, concluding with the axioms of cultural branding theory. The next section will reexamine the terminology alongside Roland Barthes writing on mythology as a language of semiotics passed through time. The text will then go on to draw parallels between the American fascination with …

Welcome Home Stranger: The Evolution & Assimilation Of The Queer Monster, Dee Cea

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

The queer monster has been a staple in fiction for ages. The “other” aspect that defines monstrosity is naturally paired with the ostracized queer figure. How better to accent a demon, than with the demonized? This essay explores why queerness clings to the monstrous, and how this dynamic has shifted over time. When does monstrosity feed into queerness, and when does queerness enhance the monstrous? Using the character Mystique from the long-standing X-Men franchise as a case study, I compare how her strange appearance and abilities have villainized her queer subtext, and yet how they have come to strengthen her …

Good Enough, Haley Levin

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

The seven-foot-tall sculptural painting Good Enough explores the cultural significance of trophies in contemporary American society. As an ancient object representing achievement and reward, the irony of trophies’ current junk-status pokes at absurd contradictions embedded in American culture. I offer context on the evolution of “the readymade” from Dada to Pop Art to 90s assemblage, and position Good Enough’s handmade, tender approach as a celebratory twist to that lineage of cultural critique.

Omnipresence And An Outlier, Cheyenne Monk

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this thesis, I explore the possibility of existence outside the confines of labeled identity through the lens of art, drawing inspiration from personal experiences of racial alienation and the desire to transcend societal labels. Through figurations and world-building, I challenge the notion that one's identity must be defined by categories such as race and gender. By removing categorical physicalities and portraying violence as a means to confront bias-motivated aggression, I aim to provoke dialogue on prejudice without further alienation. Through a blend of surrealism, abstraction, and neo-expressionism, I create tense yet playful presentations of bodies to communicate themes of …

Container Film, Dena Kopolovich

Theses and Dissertations

Container Film is an experimental nonfiction short film that explores the theme of carrying. Drawing inspiration from a blend of anthropological, religious, and artistic sources, the film is guided by an unknown narrator who contemplates the origins of humanity. Unlike conventional storytelling, the narrator’s uncertainty and inner dialogue punctuate the narrative, challenging a traditional linear structure. Jumping between diverse thoughts, she resists depicting human history with a singular hero or linear trajectory. Visually, the film unfolds through vivid tableaux vivants, dance sequences, and curious object arrangements, illustrating the subtle relationship between human cognition and materiality. Through its nuanced, tactile approach, …

Diverse Voices, Sticky Maps And Wicked Patterns. Using Creative Methods To Explore Environmental Justice, Clare Saunders, Daksha Patel

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Environmental justice is multi-faceted. It is distributional, procedural and context inter-dependent. Achieving environmental justice therefore requires transdisciplinary thinking and collaborative practice with participants holding a variety of experiences and knowledges. This paper explores the different meanings of environmental justice in theory, and through artistic practices. It introduces and evaluates a series of creative workshops designed to enhance understanding of environmental justice. The workshops consisted of 1) image-informed co-created cross-national Zoom conversations; 2) using colours and shapes to tease out meanings of environmental justice; and 3) mapping local environmental injustices while centring more-than-humans. It proposes that these creative methods are useful …

Passages, Arden Carlson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Passages is a collection of wood sculptures and drawings by Arden Carlson, exploring a mesh of southern intimacies and queer musings; underpinned by the logics of belief, grief, and love. The result is a tender field of angelic birds fixed in flight over gnawed surfaces of grain and graphite. The following dissertation details the artist’s logic during the construction of the visual art thesis exhibition, Passages. The writing is composed in an autoethnographic format, backed by supporting anecdotes and creative methodologies that help to route the operational modes used. Near the end of this writing, you’ll find an additional addendum …

Linguistic Heritage In Digital Landscape: A Collective Memory Of Indigenous Script, Sumi Limbu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present-day digital world reflects the historical structures of power, as evidenced by the dominant presence of specific languages in online spaces. Globalization, post-colonization, and language preferences on digital platforms also present significant dangers to indigenous languages, resulting in their gradual disappearance in both online and offline settings. The insufficient provision of typographical support and acknowledgment worsens the marginalization of indigenous languages by hindering their inclusion in digital spaces. The script plays a vital role in visual design by effectively delivering information. Language serves as the primary means of communication, which enables knowledge production. This study aims to look into …

From Mountains To Cities: East Asian Landscapes, Catherine Haley, Conrad Martens, Cyndy Basil, Emma Wylam, Isobel Debenham, Katherine M. Tyson, Lenna Kouzoujian, Miriam Glatfelter, Molly Griffith, Noelle Muni, Yan Sun

Schmucker Art Catalogs

Under the direction of Prof. Yan Sun, student curators examine diverse depictions of landscapes from China and Japan. The selected works, including paintings on silk, ornate carvings in lapis lazuli, and prints, among others, offer meditations on nature and industrialization. Students consider the historical, material, aesthetic, and environmental significance of the works on display.