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Toward A Culturally Situated Perspective: Rethinking The Role Of Ai In Intangible Cultural Heritage Pattern Creation, Xiaojing Yuan, Xiang Yuan, Sanyi Wang, Hao Li, Mengzhi He, Duoduo Zhang, Nick Bryan-Kinns Jun 2026

Toward A Culturally Situated Perspective: Rethinking The Role Of Ai In Intangible Cultural Heritage Pattern Creation, Xiaojing Yuan, Xiang Yuan, Sanyi Wang, Hao Li, Mengzhi He, Duoduo Zhang, Nick Bryan-Kinns

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Research on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in cultural design has primarily focused on generative control and creative efficiency, often overlooking the misalignment between AI task definition and cultural creation. This study explores how GenAI can be culturally adapted within traditional pattern-making practices. Using an ethnographically informed generative probe, field experiments were conducted in the Huayao cross-stitch community, which practices a form of Chinese intangible cultural heritage. The findings reveal how cultural practitioners negotiate creative logic and cultural judgment when collaborating with AI, identifying four key orientations: liveliness, locality, creation-in-progress, and community creativity. Building on these insights, the paper redefines AI’s …

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Generative Analogical Intelligence: Speculative Co-Design Through The Fabric Of Analogy, Nishra Ranpura Jun 2026

Generative Analogical Intelligence: Speculative Co-Design Through The Fabric Of Analogy, Nishra Ranpura

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly embedded in creative practice, offering new possibilities for ideation while raising concerns about reduced idea diversity and diminished cognitive engagement. This paper introduces generative analogical intelligence (GAI) as a human-centered approach that foregrounds analogy, material culture, and speculative reasoning to sustain creative thinking. Through a research-through-design (RtD) methodology, the study develops and refines the FABRIC framework (form, action, behavior, relation, intention, context) across three co-design phases involving design students, non-specialists, and design professionals. Findings suggest that analogy-based cross-pollination can reintroduce productive cognitive friction, support both divergent and convergent thinking, and generate varied outcomes. However, …

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Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo Jun 2026

Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

A research project conducted in a major appliance company investigates how Ecodesign, when implemented through a design-led and cross-functional process, can evolve from a technical activity into a catalyst for organisational transformation. The study examines the application of a company-specific Ecodesign tool designed to guide product development teams and support adaptive change. A conceptual framework integrating Design-Led Innovation, Dynamic Capabilities, and the Multi-Level Perspective is adopted to interpret how design mediates learning across functions. The paper focuses on the Seize phase, when Ecodesign is integrated into new product development routines through pilot projects. These pilots act as experimental settings in …

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Fostering Human-Material Co-Creative Dialogical Relationship: Operationalizing The Art Of Making Through Degeneration, Ye Yang Jun 2026

Fostering Human-Material Co-Creative Dialogical Relationship: Operationalizing The Art Of Making Through Degeneration, Ye Yang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Moving beyond instrumental rationality that treats materials as passive objects, this study operationalizes the Art of Making (AoM) by proposing a three-dimensional degeneration approach. Degeneration disrupts object fixity, reframing objects as materials in a state of in-betweenness that invites co-creative dialogue. Adopting drawing as a universal making practice, we empirically grounded this proposition through five workshops with ten participants from diverse countries and design backgrounds. By degenerating sensory, bodily, explorative, and social dimensions of drawing products and practices, the resulting state of material-in-between invited participants into dialogical engagements. Findings reveal that this state sparks curiosity, transcends preconceptions, activates subconscious exploration …

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Reframing Design Success: Care As A Chain Of Responses, Ruiqi Yao, Ziwei Lin, Yiying Wu Jun 2026

Reframing Design Success: Care As A Chain Of Responses, Ruiqi Yao, Ziwei Lin, Yiying Wu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper emerges from a reflection on what counts as success in design. We examine how the relational qualities of care can guide design practice, approaching design as a continuous and socially embedded practice of responsiveness. Drawing on two projects in China, an age-friendly digital service initiative and a community governance intervention, we analyse how design unfolded through incremental adjustments, shared responsibilities, and situated betterments. Across both contexts, value developed through chains of responsiveness involving institutional uptake, resident participation, and evolving collaborations that extended the influence of the work beyond the designers’ immediate involvement. By bringing design into dialogue with …

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Longevitytech Cities: Design For Age-Inclusive Urban Futures, Sheng-Hung Lee, Sofie Hodara, Satu Miettinen, Bruce Hanington, Carla Sedini, Andreas Sicklinger, Miso Kim, Joseph F. Coughlin Jun 2026

Longevitytech Cities: Design For Age-Inclusive Urban Futures, Sheng-Hung Lee, Sofie Hodara, Satu Miettinen, Bruce Hanington, Carla Sedini, Andreas Sicklinger, Miso Kim, Joseph F. Coughlin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The global demographic transition toward longer lifespans is fundamentally reshaping cities, services, and social infrastructures. This editorial introduces the LongevityTech City track at the Design Research Society (DRS) conference, positioning it as an evolution of Design for Longevity (D4L) toward urban-scale systems integration. Building on prior D4L discourse that emphasizes life-stage continuity, service systems, and human-centered design, this track foregrounds the intersection of technology, participatory design, and systemic urban transformation. Eleven accepted papers collectively explore how emerging technologies, multisensory experiences, participatory methods, and service ecosystems can support equitable, meaningful, and sustainable aging across diverse contexts. Organized around three interdependent themes—1. …

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Public Design Education: Plural Practices And Situated Teaching And Learning, Luis García, Lara Salinas, Sofía Bosch Gómez, Geert Brinkman, Francesco Leoni, Estefania Ciliotta Chehade Jun 2026

Public Design Education: Plural Practices And Situated Teaching And Learning, Luis García, Lara Salinas, Sofía Bosch Gómez, Geert Brinkman, Francesco Leoni, Estefania Ciliotta Chehade

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This editorial introduces Track 8.1, Public Design Education: Plural Practices and Situated Teaching and Learning, and reflects on the submissions, review process, and accepted contributions as a way of exploring how public design is currently being interpreted, taught, and learned. We position public design as a transdisciplinary mode of practice enacted within and alongside public administration and other public-sector subjects, where institutional ways of working, governance conditions, and commitments to public value shape the design process itself. Drawing on contributions to the track, we examine the diverse interpretations surrounding the term, the competencies and capabilities associated with becoming a public …

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Discourses In Design Research: Historical, Critical, And Speculative Perspectives, Peter Lloyd, Theodora Vardouli, Moa Carlsson, Arlene Oak, Anna Talley, Haian Xue Jun 2026

Discourses In Design Research: Historical, Critical, And Speculative Perspectives, Peter Lloyd, Theodora Vardouli, Moa Carlsson, Arlene Oak, Anna Talley, Haian Xue

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The field of design research is now over 60 years old but, despite comprehensive archives existing, such as the DRS Digital Library, little systematic historical research has been done looking critically at how concepts in the field have developed over time. Studies looking at how certain discourses have come to dominate in design research, and those that have been disregarded, are long overdue. The theme-track Discourses in Design Research: Historical, Critical, and Speculative Perspectives invited submissions engaging historically and critically with ideas and concepts that have helped shape the discipline of design research. The papers share a concern both with …

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More-Than-Human Design In The Real World: Resistance, Regeneration, And Radical Solidarity, Cristina Zaga, Iohanna Nicenboim, Elisa Giaccardi, Joseph Lindley, Arne Berger, Claudia Garduño García, Laura Forlano Jun 2026

More-Than-Human Design In The Real World: Resistance, Regeneration, And Radical Solidarity, Cristina Zaga, Iohanna Nicenboim, Elisa Giaccardi, Joseph Lindley, Arne Berger, Claudia Garduño García, Laura Forlano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In Capitalocene, humanity faces the intertwined crises of technological advancement and ecological collapse. These urgent challenges require us to question the power structures embedded in design, technology, and society. As a response, More-than-human design (MthD) recognizes the agency, sentience, and mutual influence of nonhuman species, materials, and environments, foregrounding principles of care, reciprocity, and collaborative co-shaping to foster multispecies cohabitation, ecological justice, and planetary well-being. Yet, it remains unclear how MthD can move beyond academia to influence policy, industry, and communities for ecological and social regeneration. Practicing MthD in the real world means proposing different ways of knowing and ways …

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Reframing Practice: Architectural Design Research And The Expanding Role Of The Architect, Manuela Triggianese, Juan Sádaba, Lee Moreau, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Kees Kaan, Georg Vrachliotis, María Risueño Jun 2026

Reframing Practice: Architectural Design Research And The Expanding Role Of The Architect, Manuela Triggianese, Juan Sádaba, Lee Moreau, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Kees Kaan, Georg Vrachliotis, María Risueño

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Architecture extends far beyond the design of buildings and cities, engaging with environmental, technological, and societal challenges. As practice evolves, so must the research that supports it. This theme track examines architecture’s expanding role in collaboration, communication, and service, positioning it as a research-driven discipline and a tool for inquiry, innovation, and responsiveness to communities and stakeholders. Operating across systems, social processes, and technological infrastructures, architecture is increasingly understood as an interdisciplinary practice. The track strengthens Architectural Design Research by addressing its evolving methodologies and its role in knowledge production. Contributions explore co-creation, artificial intelligence, data as design material, and …

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Design Research During And After Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Lee-Smith, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Mafalda Gamboa, Stephan Wensveen Jun 2026

Design Research During And After Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Lee-Smith, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Mafalda Gamboa, Stephan Wensveen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The shift in design research caused by the escalation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking considerable space in the field. In a mixture of potential and undeniable risks, we looked for a blend of critique and practice, of analysis and foresight. In the set of papers to be published, we see a span of precisely that: reflexive re-orientations in the evaluation of what AI is doing to design, mirrored in current practices; and speculations on the after (en)during AI. In this editorial, we contextualize the research in the world it was produced in, exposing the during that unfolded hand-in-hand with …

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Bodies In Design: Rethinking Norms, Materials, Technologies, And Methods, Gözde Göncü-Berk, Sarah Kettley, Elif Ozden-Yenigun, Theodore Hughes-Riley Jun 2026

Bodies In Design: Rethinking Norms, Materials, Technologies, And Methods, Gözde Göncü-Berk, Sarah Kettley, Elif Ozden-Yenigun, Theodore Hughes-Riley

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Bodies in Design track deals with the ways design engages with the human body with an emphasis on critical and creative investigations into the role of the body in contemporary design. While the body remains implicitly central to design thinking, it can be rendered invisible by a focus on the rational user or the cognitively motivated actor, and unreflexively normalized through forms of conservative and market-driven design agendas. Advancements in wearables and soft systems however, are reshaping design as a practice that engages the body in more considered and complex ways. We therefore sought contributions across material domains that …

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No One Knew. They Came. Exploring Photo-Elicitation In Societal Development, Jennie Schaeffer, Mira Karlsson, Andreea Strineholm, Erika Andersson Jun 2026

No One Knew. They Came. Exploring Photo-Elicitation In Societal Development, Jennie Schaeffer, Mira Karlsson, Andreea Strineholm, Erika Andersson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Citizen dialogues strive for inclusivity but often exclude marginalized groups. New participatory and creativity-based approaches are needed to be evaluated and become a part of the skillset repertoire for public officials to foster an inclusive dialogue. This paper reflects on photo-based conversations as a dialogic method for societal development and inclusion. The results show that the method provides possibilities to creatively involve participants, strengthen relationships and open a space for diverse narratives between different actors in society. However, the challenges of internal exclusion, lack of strategies for impact, and the need to build competence in handling conflicting stories, without depoliticizing …

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Food Morphology: Food Forms Matter, Pedro Reissig Jun 2026

Food Morphology: Food Forms Matter, Pedro Reissig

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This research is guided by the general question: Why do foods have the forms they do, and what is the best form for a particular food? The possible answers are multiple and complex, and involve a mix of factors, starting with ingredients and their transformative technologies, immersed in geographical and cultural contexts, informed by the customs, needs, tastes, and food functions of each place and time. These factors, and the interactions between them, constitute the determinants of a particular food's shape or form. Food morphology is defined by the author as the study of the generation, transformation and reading of …

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Acknowledging The Blind Men And The Elephant In The Room, Arvind Lodaya Jun 2026

Acknowledging The Blind Men And The Elephant In The Room, Arvind Lodaya

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Systemic design addresses complex, transdisciplinary challenges by integrating systems thinking and design methods. Yet, academic discourse remains limited to formal research and institutional methods, “invisibilizing” the rich, plural, and grounded practices of grassroots non-designer practitioners such as social workers, indigenous knowledge practitioners, and community facilitators. This paper challenges that narrow epistemology, and advocates restoring practice-centricity and incorporating plurality & pluriversality as essential ethical and political commitments to advancing the field. Mashing up the metaphors of “The Blind Men and the Elephant” and “The Elephant in the Room”, it highlights the need to proactively accommodate multiple perspectives for better reflexivity. The …

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Hidden Constellations: Mapping Queer Sapphic Spatiality In New York City, Yuchun Zhang Jun 2026

Hidden Constellations: Mapping Queer Sapphic Spatiality In New York City, Yuchun Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Hidden Constellations examines how queer sapphic spatiality in New York City is shaped through everyday negotiations rather than formal venues. While official data record only four lesbian bars, this paper argues that scarcity in data does not signify absence in lived experience. Drawing from qualitative interviews and participatory cognitive mapping, the study treats mapping as a queer design method that transforms memory, emotion, and silence into spatial knowledge. Informed by queer phenomenology, feminist and critical cartography, and data feminism, the research reframes mapping from representation to resonance. The paper shows how sapphic individuals tactically inhabit, sense, and remake urban space …

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Bodies In Play: Queering Ai, Sport, And Medicine Through Design, Felix Kosok Jun 2026

Bodies In Play: Queering Ai, Sport, And Medicine Through Design, Felix Kosok

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Queerness in design often operates from the margins, yet to remain transformative it must also confront the heteronormative hegemonies embedded in central societal infrastructures. This paper examines how queer design intervenes in the fields of artificial intelligence, sport, and healthcare, identifying three strategies through which design can challenge normative systems: disruption, subversion, and circumvention. Through a comparative analysis of three case studies – Christensen and Conradi’s AI/IA experiments with queer artificial intelligence, Gabriel Fontana’s sport design projects Multiform and Sidelined, and the queer-led digital health platform Every Health – the paper explores how design practices reconfigure infrastructures that regulate bodies, …

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Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking, Gillian Russell, Katherine Reilly, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu Jun 2026

Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking, Gillian Russell, Katherine Reilly, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Citizen science and citizen data are widely used to engage with anthropogenic effects such as pollution and species loss. However, their focus on data gathering and objectivization can result in dispassionate learning. Futures scaffolding offers an alternative design approach that reimagines how environmental knowledge can be generated, experienced, and materialized. Positioned within co-speculative design, this practice uses design methods to make visible what data represents and to cultivate ocean futures. This paper mobilizes a workshop kit called Monsters of Marine Debris (MMD) as an object of design to illustrate futures scaffolding. MMD makes data a source of futures-making rather than …

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Symbiotic Behaviors And Strategic Design: A Situated Participatory Framework For Organizations Led By/For Older Adults, Juliana Gómez, Mariana González, Tala Pedraza, Laura Sofía Riveros Jun 2026

Symbiotic Behaviors And Strategic Design: A Situated Participatory Framework For Organizations Led By/For Older Adults, Juliana Gómez, Mariana González, Tala Pedraza, Laura Sofía Riveros

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Café Séneca, the largest affinity chapter of the Uniandinos Alumni Association in Colombia, is dedicated to the wellbeing of older adults and led by retired members. Despite its popularity, the chapter lacked a strategic design structure, relying on inertia to shape its activities and limiting its ability to evolve sustainably. This paper presents a reflective case study of SenSilver, a situated participatory strategic design framework developed for organizations led by and for older adults. Combining business, positive, and empowerment-oriented design with biological, social, and psychological dimensions of aging, the framework was applied through a research-consultancy process with Café Séneca. The …

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We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon Jun 2026

We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Planet B emerges as a practice-based-fiction responding ironically to the slogan “There is no Planet B.” The project speculates on the discovery of an alternate planet and the task of replicating Planet A under the principle “if it looks the same, it is the same.” Through absurd protocols for selecting the perfect rock, flower, and stick, the experience enacted a satire of technoscientific control. Developed within the School of Materialist Research’s exploration of Nature and Artifice, it asks: what sensory, political, and aesthetic implications would the discovery of a Planet B bring to the design practice? Children spontaneously took over …

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From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden Jun 2026

From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates the transformation of NHS Scotland garment systems through a design-led, commons-based localist framework that challenges prevailing globalised procurement models. Drawing on co-design methodologies and sustainable material innovation, this project repositions garments - specifically surgical caps and scrubs - as relational artefacts embedded within systems of care, identity, and ecological responsibility. Collaborations with healthcare professionals, designers, and regional manufacturers have yielded prototypes utilising regenerative fibres such as lyocell and linen, made locally within Scotland. These interventions demonstrate the potential of commons-design to foster civic engagement, decentralised production, and circular economies. By embedding garment systems within local ecologies and …

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Democratizing The Newsroom: A Participatory Design Approach To Empower Citizen-Participatory Journalism And Civic Knowledge, Sangyun Lee, Kyungho Lee Jun 2026

Democratizing The Newsroom: A Participatory Design Approach To Empower Citizen-Participatory Journalism And Civic Knowledge, Sangyun Lee, Kyungho Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Local news sustains democratic life by connecting citizens to community issues and fostering public deliberation. Yet the global phenomenon of Local News Desertification—the decline of trustworthy local media—has weakened civic discourse, civic knowledge, and collective belonging in local areas. Citizen-participatory journalism enables citizens to report and interpret local issues; however, conventional newsroom hierarchies and insufficient support for community participants without formal journalistic training hinder its democratic potential. This study frames that tension as a Participatory Design (PD) problem concerning power and imbalanced agency in sociotechnical news systems. Through a PD process, the study develops a citizen–AI participatory journalism model that …

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Infrastructuring Transitional Bio-Materialities: Case Of The Biomakerstudio, Ena Naito Jun 2026

Infrastructuring Transitional Bio-Materialities: Case Of The Biomakerstudio, Ena Naito

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designers today are actively engaging with experimentation and innovation of bio-materials derived from living matter, foregrounding the interrelationship between biological processes, material design, and ecological responsibility. In this context, workspaces that provide conditions to design with living organisms become especially crucial to leverage their transitional material potentials. Grounded upon a 24-month research-through-design study, this paper discusses the ground-up infrastructuring work of establishing a biodesign workspace to support designing with living matter in a university setting. I highlight the emergent nature of such endeavour, including the continuous alignment, containment, and care and maintenance work necessary for growing a provisional intervention into …

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Designing With Care For The End Of Life: A Reflective Co-Design Workshop Using Material Facilitation, Chenfei Yu, Michael Arnold Mages Jun 2026

Designing With Care For The End Of Life: A Reflective Co-Design Workshop Using Material Facilitation, Chenfei Yu, Michael Arnold Mages

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Conversations about end-of-life (EOL) care are often delayed until moments of crisis, leaving little time or emotional capacity for people to reflect on what matters most to them. This paper reports on a reflective co-design workshop in which fifteen participants used material-facilitated methods to explore their imagined EOL experiences. Through landscape making, journey mapping, and collaborative service model building, participants expressed hopes, fears, values, and priorities that are difficult to articulate through direct questioning. The materials created a low-pressure and supportive environment, allowing participants to approach a sensitive topic at their own pace and translate personal meaning into ideas for …

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Redefining Design Practice As A Sensory And Decentred Experience, Azeem Hamid, Umar Hameed, Kristi Kuusk, Nithikul Nimkulrat Jun 2026

Redefining Design Practice As A Sensory And Decentred Experience, Azeem Hamid, Umar Hameed, Kristi Kuusk, Nithikul Nimkulrat

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how sensory focused practice can decentre the role of the design educator-researcher within design education, reframing learning as a relational and embodied form of practice-led design research. Drawing on a sensory workshop with foundation-year design students in Lahore, Pakistan, it explores how listening, movement, and tactile engagement foster reflective awareness and co-creation. Informed by theories of embodied cognition and relational pedagogy, the study considers how agency in learning environments extends beyond the educator to include materials, atmospheres, and collective experiences. Sensory practice is presented not as an adjunct to design but as integral to it, cultivating attentiveness, …

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Investigating The Embodied Aesthetics Of Kinetic Structures At Biennales And World Expos, Hatice Hilal Topuz, Güzin Şen Jun 2026

Investigating The Embodied Aesthetics Of Kinetic Structures At Biennales And World Expos, Hatice Hilal Topuz, Güzin Şen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In biennales and world expos, where creative ideas, cultural values, and technological developments in art and architecture are exhibited, kinetic systems are increasingly used in installations and pavilions. This paper frames kinetic structures in relation to embodied aesthetics and investigates how such kinetic structures go beyond mere display to offer visitors a holistic aesthetic experience. It introduces a selection of kinetic structures presented in diverse biennales and expos by utilizing publications, commentaries, and curatorial statements; deconstructs and analyzes their designs regarding types of movement, body-space-time relations, participation modes, embodied metaphors, and conceptual narratives. Thus, the paper shows how kinetic structures …

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Resilient Design Pedagogies: Examining Sustainability's Translation Into Contemporary Design Education, Flavia Alice Mameli Jun 2026

Resilient Design Pedagogies: Examining Sustainability's Translation Into Contemporary Design Education, Flavia Alice Mameli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

What is the status quo of contemporary design education in the context of sustainability as a holistic and timely training, a binding professional ethos, and materialised everyday practice for future designers? This research investigates how contemporary tertiary design education is responding to polycrisis discourse and the multilaterally demanded paradigm shift towards sustainability. This includes a critical reflection on the political dimension of the term itself. A mixed-methods approach, combining systematic programme mapping, discourse analytical case studies of tertiary design education, and interviews with educators, investigates the translation of sustainability rhetoric into pedagogical practice across design and architecture education worldwide. A …

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The Ecology Of Effort: Aesthetics Of Resistance In The Age Of Frictionless Design, Stefano Caggiano Jun 2026

The Ecology Of Effort: Aesthetics Of Resistance In The Age Of Frictionless Design, Stefano Caggiano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how design can restore cognitive and sensory depth within a culture shaped by frictionless digitality. The dominance of frictionless design—defined by speed, ease, and seamlessness—has optimized usability but diminished the experiential conditions that make meaning possible. Meaning emerges through resistance: the effort, uncertainty, and interpretive engagement that activate attention and reward. Drawing on embodied cognition and semiotic theory, the paper argues that cognitive effort and sensory resistance are essential to perception and value. Physical and spatial artefacts, through material texture, spatial articulation, and perceptual complexity, can reintroduce friction into everyday experience, inviting interpretive participation rather than passive …

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Designing Preparatory Haptics: Relational Timing And Bodily Anticipation In Industrial Driving Contexts, Zhe Dai, Yonghong Liu, Pingping Fang, Xiangtian Bai, Yifei Xue, Fan Wu, Qian Ou Jun 2026

Designing Preparatory Haptics: Relational Timing And Bodily Anticipation In Industrial Driving Contexts, Zhe Dai, Yonghong Liu, Pingping Fang, Xiangtian Bai, Yifei Xue, Fan Wu, Qian Ou

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In safety-critical industrial contexts, visual alerts often fail under high cognitive load. This paper introduces Preparatory Haptics, framing haptic timing as a relational medium that reshapes bodily anticipation. We developed a wearable haptic prototype synchronized with auditory cues to investigate how temporal coordination and vibration modes influence attention and readiness. A driving-simulation study showed that advance-timing haptic cues foster proactive anticipation, whereas sustained vibrations are perceived as bodily resonance rather than interference, particularly under complex task conditions. These findings ground the Preparatory Haptics Framework, which treats temporal materiality as a generative element of embodied interaction and offers theoretical and practical …

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Co-Creating With Fungi: Mycelium Toys And Pedagogies For Regenerative Futures, Flavia Alice Mameli, Robbi Zidna Ilman Jun 2026

Co-Creating With Fungi: Mycelium Toys And Pedagogies For Regenerative Futures, Flavia Alice Mameli, Robbi Zidna Ilman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This practice-based research project presents BLX, a series of mycelium-based educational toys. Shaped like inflated building blocks, BLX invites children (early years to primary education) to construct playful structures whilst materialising biological and anthropogenic circularity through design. Unlike plastic toys that embody permanence, BLX can be played with, composted, or repurposed as plant pots—rendering regenerative processes tangible. Drawing on speculative design and material studies, the project positions mycelium as both educational medium and more-than-human collaborator. By embracing decay as (re-)generative, BLX challenges material cultures of permanence and offers children embodied encounters with temporality and transformation. This contribution is threefold: methodological …

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