Digital Commons Network^™

Misinformation, Misattunement, And Autistic Theatre: Representation, Access, And Cultural Harm, Sarah J. Nuttall, Jessica Telling

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores how autistic people experience theatre, showing that exclusion often comes not from individuals but from the way theatre spaces are designed and understood. Using audience feedback from Chameleon (Telling, 2025), an autistic-led production, we look at how common ideas about autism shape both what audiences expect to see on stage and how autistic people are treated in the theatre. Misinformation sets expectations about how autistic people should look, behave, and communicate, and these expectations influence how autistic presence is interpreted. We show how casting autistic performers, designing sensory‑aware environments, and inviting ongoing audience feedback can challenge these …

Pretty Much From Scratch: A Braided Essay On Autistic Diagnosis, Creativity, Identity, And Community, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This braided essay uses memoir and research to explore autistic diagnosis, creativity, identity, and community. It examines how the misinformation around these topics harm and “other” autistics: the fallacy of diagnostic objectivity/neutrality, the dual myths of autistic hyper- and hypo-creativity, and autism as an identity defined solely by medical professionals. The memoir sections play with point of view and genre.

Jenée is a late-realized autistic with ADHD and OCD, who identifies as neurodivergent and neuroqueer. She lives in Washington state with her spouse and dog. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and is currently a Master …

The Unexpected Gift: Using Hip-Hop And Autoethnographic Methods To Challenge The “Symbolic Death” Discourse Of A Child’S Autism Diagnosis, Adam Ellis

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores the social construction of autism through an autoethnographic account of parenting an autistic child in Canada. Drawing on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s grief model, neurodiversity scholarship, and post-traumatic growth theory, the paper examines how parents may experience grief, uncertainty, and the collapse of imagined futures following an autism diagnosis, while also arguing that much of this distress is produced by ableist and deficit-oriented social systems rather than autism itself. Using arts-based research, including a rap song and music video, the article explores: (1) what it is like to receive an autism diagnosis as a parent; (2) the grieving process …

When Distress Is Misread: Autistic Credibility And The Politics Of Interpretation, Katrine Callander

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Misinformation about autism is often understood as a problem of inaccurate facts, stereotypes or public misunderstanding. This essay argues that misinformation also operates through dominant interpretive frameworks that shape how autistic experiences are recognised, understood and believed. Drawing on participatory narrative research with autistic women, the essay examines how institutions frequently reinterpret experiences of harm as personality dysfunction, emotional instability or individual deficit rather than recognising them as relational and socially produced. Autistic forms of communication and storytelling are often treated as signs of unreliability, shaping whose accounts are considered credible within clinical and institutional contexts. By reframing these patterns …

Misinformation Machine, Jan A. Wozniak

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Techwork: Developing And Validating A Reflective Tool For Impact-Aware Design, Sihui Wu, Marirena Kladeftira, Kim Helmersen, Gudela Grote

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Most assessments of technology impact occur only after its deployment, limiting the ability to address unintended social, cultural, and organizational effects. This paper introduces TechWork, a prospective and reflective tool for evaluating emerging technologies within existing work systems. Grounded in reflective practice tradition, socio-technical systems theory, and contemporary work design research, TechWork guides interdisciplinary teams through structured prompts and impact mappings to examine how their own design choices influence autonomy, skills, collaboration, and job demands. The tool was tested through design-education workshops in an architectural studio, applied to vernacular construction practices where embodied expertise and cultural knowledge are central to …

Opening Portals To The Posthuman: A Pedagogical Framework For Materializing Philosophy, Carlos Henrique Araujo De Aguiar

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper critiques dominant design pedagogies for their alignment with positivist and modernist paradigms, which limit design’s capacity for serious philosophical inquiry. It argues that Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) pedagogy offers an alternative philosophy, functioning as a powerful method for fomenting critical engagement by enabling students to materialize abstract concepts. Drawing on a case study from an undergraduate course on human-robot-cyborg relations, the paper employs the metaphor of 'portals' to analyse three thematic case studies. Each portal opens onto a distinct philosophical debate: the nature of reality and the self, the biopolitics of the body, and the networked subject. …

Løp Gård: Revitalyzing History Through Food And Performance, Marija Griniuk, Barbro Laxaa, Magnus Sivertsen Sørvig

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The current research explores the intersection of archives, history, food, and performance. Based on a case study from Løp Gård, a museum site within Nordlandsmuseet in Norway, the museum performance director (museumsregissør in Norwegian) Barbro Laxaa has developed a book that presents historical recipes created by former generations of Løp Gård’s owners. Laxaa explores methods of performing memory and the spirituality of place, positioning food as a catalyst that unites the lived experience of audiences with archival material and historical recipes rooted in the site. The method of this study is artistic research, which has led to the development of …

User-Centered Dread: A Lovecraftian Critique Of Design, Lewis Urquhart, Emma Lawrie

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper offers a speculative critique of contemporary design practice through the lens of Lovecraftian horror by critically interrogating assumptions embedded in user-centered design theory. Drawing on the oeuvre of 'weird fiction' author H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmically pessimistic mythologies, this paper explores three thematic dimensions - control, user unknowability, alien materiality - to reveal the limitations of human-centred design paradigms. Utlising examples from literature, film, and everyday experience, this critique demonstrates how design’s aspirational narratives, centered on mastery, empathy, and progress, are increasingly inadequate in addressing the complexities of a more-than-human world. The concept of 'user-centered dread' emerges as a central …

A Researcher And A Guide Talk Into A Paper: A Dialogue On Being Many Things At Once, Ranjani Balasubramanian, Shweta Srivastav

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper argues that the positionality of the practitioner-researcher often remains centered in the self-reflective question “Who am I?”, fixing identity at the core of a relational web. We propose shifting this inquiry toward “Who can I be?” and “Who can I be in relation?”, recognising identity as fluid, contextual, and co-constituted through relationships. The paper unfolds through a conversational method that unpacks the ongoing PhD research of the first author. The authors navigate this landscape of lived research and practice in dialogue with two simultaneously held identities - the Practitioner-Researcher and the Scholar-Provocateur. Drawing from decolonial praxis, we conceptualise …

Designing Safer School Routes In Busan, South Korea: Living Lab Approach To Child-Centered Traffic Safety, Yong-Ki Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Urban traffic environments in Busan, South Korea, often remain poorly adapted to the needs of children, despite infrastructure-based safety measures. This paper reports on a Living Lab project for co-creating safer school commuting environments through participatory service design. Researchers, elementary school students, parents, residents, and local authorities collaboratively identified critical issues, generated design ideas, and evaluated context-specific interventions. This paper synthesizes the Living Lab as both a methodological framework and a civic learning ecosystem by tracing how stakeholders’ perceptions, roles, and capacities evolved through iterative co-design, mapping, and prototyping activities. The findings highlight the potential of Living Labs to bridge …

Value Co-Creation, Co-Displacement, And Co-Destruction In Design: Bridging Value And Values In Human-Data Interaction, Boyeun Lee, Ella Tallyn, Ramprabu Thangaraj, Chris Elsden, Chris Speed

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Data has emerged as a fundamental driver of value creation within design processes, shaping economic, ethical, and environmental outcomes across societies and socio-technical systems. Existing scholarship often frames value in binary terms of co-creation and co-destruction, overlooking the systemic complexities introduced by interconnected, data-intensive systems. This paper introduces the novel concept of value co-displacement to capture how alternative forms of value emerge and displace others within human–data interaction. Drawing on four design research case studies, we investigate how value and values are co-created, co-displaced, and co-destroyed across interconnected, data-intensive systems. We develop a framework that conceptualises the dynamic interplay of …

Emerging Hybrid Human-Genai Workflows To Optimise Human Ideation, Sketching And Design, Mauricio Novoa Munoz, Juan Antonio Islas Munoz, Alejandro Lozano Robledo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article presents findings on the reciprocal relationship between industrial design education and the industry it prepares graduates for. Particularly considering the growing impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on ideation, sketching, design methodologies, and productivity. To inform this research, industry professionals currently integrating GenAI into their practice were consulted to establish benchmarks and highlight critical areas for updated pedagogical approaches and digital transformation, thereby ensuring that design learning and productivity workflows remain relevant. The study arises from an awareness of current workforce shifts that are anticipated to become more pronounced soon. Rapid technological advancements are driving significant cultural and …

Exploring Common Understandings And Bodily Experiences Of Vulnerability In Design Researchers In Sensitive Contexts, Bhakti Moghe, Roberta Antognini, Sofie Dideriksen, Zhuochao Peng, Francesca Toso, Maarten Houben

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design researchers are increasingly being exposed to stressors while empathizing with their participants such as feeling emotionally charged, leading them to feeling vulnerable. Currently, there is a lack of clear consensus on how this vulnerability arises and manifests, hindering both individual and collective awareness and support. To address this gap, we conducted an empirical investigation into the vulnerability of design researchers. We conducted exploratory workshops with PhD students working in the field of design research in sensitive settings. The workshops consisted of three approaches to understand researcher vulnerability: (1) Reflecting on individual and collective vulnerability, (2) Exploring embodied experiences, and …

The Memory Loom: Reweaving Curatorial Power Relations With Source Communities In Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage Exhibitions, Ning Zhao, Ziqiang He, Shijie Ming, Haopeng Yuan, Furui Sun, Ke Jiang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how to redistribute curatorial power in VR heritage exhibitions by designing actionable governance mechanisms. We conceptualize VR heritage exhibitions as political curatorial infrastructures rather than neutral storytelling media. We employ a two-stage RtD framework: first building a baseline VR stage, then embedding two mechanisms: Parallel Weave (narrative authorship) and Asynchronous Governance Lock (publishing/veto rights). With N=32 participants, analysis reveals four tensions: (1) community narratives increased affective engagement and epistemic recognition, yet (2) parallel inclusion also risked narrative segregation; (3) a visible veto established accountable workflows, but (4) this power redistribution also transferred sociopolitical risk onto community representatives, …

The Influence Of Generative Ai On Design Students' Confidence And Self-Efficacy: A Case Study Of Logotype Design, Yamile Guzman-Saleh, Juan-Carlos Rojas, Johana Gisela Hernandez-Martinez, Manuel Contero

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines the influence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on design students’ self-efficacy and perceived confidence during a logotype creation task. Through an exploratory pre–post experimental protocol, 35 undergraduate design students generated manual sketches and subsequently refined them using a GenAI tool. The results show that, while GenAI effectively transformed manual sketches into more elaborate visual representations, its impact on students’ perceived creative mastery remained moderate. Self-efficacy and confidence levels showed no significant differences after the intervention, although slight improvements were observed in aspects related to imagination, collaboration, and willingness to face challenging situations. Students assessed the utility, novelty, …

Interiority As A Pedagogical Approach In Interior Design Studio Education, Selin Aktan Abraham, Fulya Özbey

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As the central platform of design education, interior design studios function as dynamic learning environments that advance creativity and sensitivity to the social and spatial dimensions of design. Although the experiential qualities of space are conceptually acknowledged within studio pedagogy, the notion of ‘interiority’ remains unstudied compared to the emphasis placed on technical requirements. This paper positions interiority as a critical yet underexplored component of interior design pedagogy. Through a literature mapping and thematic synthesis, this paper defines five core dimensions of interiority as (1) spatial, (2) sensory, (3) affective, (4) identity-related, and (5) temporal, then correlates these dimensions in …

Interspecies: A Collaborative Curatorial Inquiry Into New Romanticism, Mariana Pestana, Katerina Inglezaki, Carlos Pastor, Mathilde Gouin, Bernardo Gaeiras, Fernanda Costa, Mariana Simões

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper presents a situated, plural, and horizontal curatorial methodology centered on questioning rather than providing solutions in response to posthuman thought and practice. It inquires whether we might be witnessing the emergence of a New Romanticism in contemporary design and architecture concerned with interspecies relations. This romantic turn arises by acknowledging subjectivity and imagination while engaging critically with the complexities of the climate crisis. To this end, this paper examines the making of an exhibition that assembled material evidence from science, art, technology, and design. The exhibition was developed through a three-step curatorial framework aligned with the decentering narratives …

Landlords' Attitudes Towards Age-Friendly Adaptations: Implications For The Well-Being Of Older Private Renters, Eva Severens, Ruth Stevens, An-Sofie Smetcoren, Ann Petermans

DRS Biennial Conference Series

A large share of private rental housing in Flanders, Belgium, is unsuitable for older people who want to age in place, which can negatively affect their well-being. Since it is often unclear what changes tenants are allowed to make, this study examines landlords’ attitudes toward age-friendly housing adaptations and their impact on the tenant’s well-being through the self-determination theory. Using student-designed adaptations, exploratory interviews were conducted with five landlords. Our findings reveal landlords' negative attitudes frequently stem from the desire to protect their own well-being by avoiding potential hassle and property damage. However, this can negatively impact tenants’ feeling of …

Playing With Possibility: Exploring Materiality, Affordances And Forms Of Participation Through Construction Play, Jesper Falck Legaard

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Material exploration is central to both play and design, where imagination unfolds through tactile and social engagement. This study examines how materials participate as agents in creative exploration through three video-recorded construction-play sessions involving children aged five to six. Using reflexive thematic analysis, the study identifies three key findings: (1) expressive form elements augment material agency; (2) affordances are encountered through two distinct relational mechanisms — Affordance Emergence and Affordance Orientation — which mediate between imaginative states and material properties; and (3) participation shifts dynamically between contributing, cooperating, and collaborating. By clarifying how affordances bridge psychological engagement and material structure, …

Weaving Relational Dynamics: Civil Servant Agency In Service Design Collaboration, Annukka Svanda, Martina Čaić, Tuuli Mattelmäki

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines relational dynamics within a programmatic service design collaboration shaping public service development in Espoo, Finland. Over two years, a service design researcher collaborated with civil servants to co-create more inclusive employment practices. Drawing on iterative design interventions, observations, interviews, and informal everyday communications, reflexive analysis identifies three conditions that enabled collaborative design agency: relational alignment, infrastructuring coherence, and reflexive reconfiguration. These relational conditions highlight how civil servants actively advance design work and institutional learning. By bringing forward the concept of collaborative design agency, the study highlights how design in public services is an emergent capacity calling for …

Making Sense Of Pain: Participatory Design Approaches To Understanding And Supporting People Living With Chronic Pain, Ivana Nakarada-Kordic, Jannisa Seck, Nathan Beetge, Cassandra Khoo, Stephen Reay

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Pain is universal, yet its invisible nature makes it difficult to express or understand. Understanding the intricate mechanics of chronic pain and how to manage it effectively can be particularly challenging. This paper describes research exploring how human-centred design, transdisciplinary collaboration, and participatory approaches can produce diverse design outcomes that support the management and treatment of chronic pain. Two case studies are presented: 1) an exploration of how pain might be expressed through illustration and storytelling to offer insight into lived experience, and 2) how experiences of pain could be made more tangible through physical artefacts to support patient–clinician communication. …

Default Bodies: Challenging Gendered Norms In Fighting Games Through Participatory Design, Shalom Taiwo, Laura Pruszko

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The over-sexualisation of female characters in video games peaked in the 1990s and 2000s and fighting games have been slow to move away from it. Their reliance on visual exaggeration to convey identity and fighting style makes this harder to change. With 48% of players today being women, this raises questions about how these portrayals persist. This paper examines how participatory approaches can be used to explore how women players respond to these designs through a survey, a within-subject evaluation task, and a co-design workshop. Participants recognised exaggeration as part of the genre’s identity but criticised its association with sexualisation. …

Modes Of Being Amid Anthropocene: Living Through The 2024 Rio Grande Do Sul Floods, Natalia Dai Prá Penteado, Guilherme Meyer

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper situates the 2024 Rio Grande do Sul climate disaster within the intertwined crises of the Anthropocene, arguing that those impacted developed situated practices to preserve identities and sustain life amidst collapse. Drawing on in-depth interviews with thirteen individuals directly affected by the floods, the research identifies Modes of Being that illuminate strategies of adaptation, care, and continuity rooted in Latin American ontologies. Through the interpretive lenses of Anna Tsing’s concepts of ghosts, monsters, and ruins, these modes reveal how to endure life in the Anthropocene and reconfigure identities and relations to persist. The study proposes a framework of …

Measuring Service-Related Subjective Wellbeing In Paediatric Oncology, Valentina Marques Da Rosa, Priscila Goergen Brust-Renck, Flavio Sanson Fogliatto, Leandro Miletto Tonetto

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Children’s hospitalisation affects more than physical health; it shapes children’s subjective wellbeing (SWB). Yet design researchers rarely systematically capture SWB. This study introduces the Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire for Hospitalised Children (SWBQ-HC), a tool that measures children’s perceptions of themselves, hospital services, and spaces. Developed by combining validated psychological scales with service- and space-specific items, the tool was piloted with 19 paediatric patients (aged 4–13) and 35 parents. Factor analysis revealed four dimensions: Positive and Negative Feelings about Self, and Feelings about Hospital Services and Spaces. The results highlight the interplay between relational and environmental factors in shaping SWB and reveal …

“Why Do All The Schools Look The Same?” Exploring Children’S Spatial Design Preferences Through Generative Ai In India, Chinmay Pade, Charu Monga

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly embedded in creative and spatial design processes, transforming how ideas are visualized and interpreted. This study examines how generative AI tools influence children’s imagination and articulation of spatial design preferences for schools in India. In a context where school environments are often standardized and children’s perspectives remain marginalized, participatory workshops with primary-school students engaged them in describing, writing, and generating AI-assisted images to express their visions for school spaces. The process revealed both the potential and the limits of AI-driven visualization. While AI expanded imagination and made ideas instantly visible, it also reproduced globalized aesthetics detached …

Exploring How Llms Shape Collaborative Decision-Making In Service Design, Yaoqi Li, Hyunyim Park

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The increasing integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) into design workflows is reshaping how designers make decisions. This study examines the influence of LLMs on design decision-making during the early stages of service design, through a diary study with service design practitioners. By analysing usage logs and conducting post-intervention focus group interviews, we examine collaborative decision-making across three interaction dimensions: designer–designer, designer–LLM, and LLM–LLM. The findings reveal that LLMs reshape the internal decision logic and collaboration mode within service design teams. Across different stages of collaborative decision-making with human, LLMs take on varying roles as apprentice, collaborator, advisor, expert, co-creator, …

Distributed Care Hubs: Rethinking Disability Care Policy Through Participatory Research, Christina Chi Zhang, Kyra Zimmerman, Austin Duncan, Jiin Jung

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper develops the concept of "distributed care hubs" to describe the informal, relational infrastructures through which disabled people sustain everyday life amid insufficient formal care systems. Drawing on participatory research in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—combining community mapping, ethnographic interviews, and computational analysis—we show how community-built care emerges through ordinary social interactions, shared spaces, and reciprocal relationships. Distributed care hubs reveal that disability care and everyday sociality are inseparable; they challenge independence-centered policy frameworks by foregrounding interdependence as a universal human condition. Yet these hubs remain precarious, functioning as compensatory mechanisms shaped by systemic failures that force disabled people into informal survival …

Agnes As A Critical Wearable: Mediating Age, Materiality, And Embodied Expertise, Elisa Cardamone, Taylor Brennan, Sophia Ashebir, Lisa D'Ambrosio, Joseph F. Coughlin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design is increasingly engaging with the body through soft systems, wearables, and responsive materials, exploring how material interactions shape experiences of care and inclusion. This paper examines the Age Gain Now Empathy System (AGNES) - a wearable suit simulating the chronic physical conditions and functional changes associated with older age - as a critical, soma-focused design intervention. Drawing on auto-ethnographic reflection and participant observation, we present a theoretical and methodological analysis. We argue that AGNES' critical materiality actively mediates how the ageing body is read and made visible, inviting embodied understanding and supporting co-creation partnerships. We analyse how this wearable …