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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics To Plural Understandings, Cyril Tjahja, Barbara Predan, Joana Meroz, Petra Černe Oven, Harun Kaygan, Flavia Piancazzo, Ines Tolic, Annamari Vänskä Jun 2026

Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics To Plural Understandings, Cyril Tjahja, Barbara Predan, Joana Meroz, Petra Černe Oven, Harun Kaygan, Flavia Piancazzo, Ines Tolic, Annamari Vänskä

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The theme track Opening Up Design Impact Assessment: From Singular Metrics to Plural Understandings addresses the limitations of conventional approaches that rely on standardised and predominantly quantitative metrics. The ten contributions in this track therefore explore alternative ways of understanding design impact, considering it as a situated, relational, and interpretative phenomenon. Instead of proposing a single evaluative framework, the papers collectively demonstrate how impact emerges through diverse practices, contexts, and forms of knowledge. The track is organised into two complementary sessions: one that reconfigures structured approaches to assessment, and another that foregrounds lived experience and participatory processes. Together, they point …

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Experience As Knowledge Contributions, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Camilla Groth, Spyros Bofylatos, Haian Xue Jun 2026

Experience As Knowledge Contributions, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Camilla Groth, Spyros Bofylatos, Haian Xue

DRS Biennial Conference Series

“Experience” is at the forefront of the design and making process of artefacts in different ways. In this year’s conference session, we are interested in exploring all the various ways in which experience is informing design and craft practice and processes. Themes presented in the papers closely align with the call, and many refer to either the authors’ own experiences or those of participants or users in the research process for new designs. We could also detect three concurrent orientations and have consequently divided the presentations into these themes. The first orientation concerns sensory experiences and how they lead to …

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Mediating Sonic Worlds: Critical Approaches To Boundary Objects In Sound-Driven Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Nicolas Misdariis, Elif Özcan, Daniel Hug, Sara Lenzi, Sandra Pauletto, Davide Rocchesso, Simone Spagnol Jun 2026

Mediating Sonic Worlds: Critical Approaches To Boundary Objects In Sound-Driven Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Nicolas Misdariis, Elif Özcan, Daniel Hug, Sara Lenzi, Sandra Pauletto, Davide Rocchesso, Simone Spagnol

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This theme critically examines boundary objects – work arrangements, artefacts and representations facilitating cooperation across diverse social groups [1, 2] – at the intersection of sound and design. Our fundamental question is: how effectively can objects informed or defined by sound and listening fulfil this important role in design [3]? Sound-driven design [4, 5] addresses complex socio-technological challenges induced by sound to design for sonic habitability: positive auditory experiences that enhance well-being, foster social connection, and promote a more harmonious relationship between humans, their technologies, and their environments [6]. Sonic boundary objects leverage sound and listening to structure information and …

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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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Designing More-Than-Human Climate Futures: Affect, Aesthetics And Relational Practices, Rachel E. Clarke, Michelle Westerlaken, Sara Heitlinger, Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi Jun 2026

Designing More-Than-Human Climate Futures: Affect, Aesthetics And Relational Practices, Rachel E. Clarke, Michelle Westerlaken, Sara Heitlinger, Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This track brings together papers that explore more-than-human design practices that generate alternative, plural, situated, and relational approaches to climate futures through affect, aesthetics, and care. Framing climate crisis as a polycrisis of interconnected ecological, political, cultural, and epistemic conditions, the track foregrounds how designers are working across contradictory, incommensurable, and unevenly recognised and experienced impacts of climate change. The included papers examine how more-than-human design can attend to embodied, felt, and sensed worlds of multiple species and digital-material entities, infrastructures, and their environments. Across landscapes, waterscapes, governance, microbial growth, and multiple intelligences, the contributions reveal both the possibilities and …

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Analysing Language Use In Designing: Practices And Performance, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Lisa Perez Elzey, (Eric) Heng Gu, Nathan Crilly, Terresa Hardaway, Vivek Rao, Peter Lloyd Jun 2026

Analysing Language Use In Designing: Practices And Performance, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Lisa Perez Elzey, (Eric) Heng Gu, Nathan Crilly, Terresa Hardaway, Vivek Rao, Peter Lloyd

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The role of language in designing is manifold, including but not limited to representing all aspects of design, enacting roles in design processes, and establishing shared meaning. With the advent of large language models (LLMs), the role of language has further expanded, affording new ways to perform and represent design. This theme track presents five papers that explore how designers use language and language models. We identify themes that cut across these papers to show how language can be used, constrained, adapted, and supplemented in different stages, processes, and domains of designing.

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What Is Regenerative Design, Anyway? Foundations, Lexicons, And Interdisciplinary Intersections, Angela Kilford, Inge Panneels, Iohanna Nicenboim, Sonya Withers, Rob Phillips, Chris Speed Jun 2026

What Is Regenerative Design, Anyway? Foundations, Lexicons, And Interdisciplinary Intersections, Angela Kilford, Inge Panneels, Iohanna Nicenboim, Sonya Withers, Rob Phillips, Chris Speed

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This theme track seeks papers that establish foundational understanding of Regenerative Design as an emerging paradigm in design research and practice. Moving beyond sustainability approaches focused on harm reduction and consequences, regenerative design actively fosters ecological and cultural renewal through relational, more-than-human perspectives. Recent work across biodesign, materials research, and ecological design demonstrates growing interest in regenerative approaches, yet the field lacks conceptual coherence and metrics of success. Existing papers span diverse domains—living materials, Indigenous design methodologies, multispecies interaction design, and data practices that challenge extractive digital economies and ecological restoration—often using inconsistent terminology and theoretical frameworks. This fragmentation limits …

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Sketching Futures: Cultural Dimensions, Pedagogies, And Digital Transitions, Bryan F. Howell, Janwillem Hoftijzer, Mauricio Novoa Muñoz, Amos Scully Jun 2026

Sketching Futures: Cultural Dimensions, Pedagogies, And Digital Transitions, Bryan F. Howell, Janwillem Hoftijzer, Mauricio Novoa Muñoz, Amos Scully

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This track gathers eighteen papers that consider the work of the sketch and sketching in a moment of accelerating cultural and technological change. Across three sessions: (1) Sketching for Thinking, Expression, and Information; (2) Visualising Narratives; and (3) Sketching & Generative AI, the authors examine analogue, hybrid, immersive, and AI-augmented practices to reveal how design sketching is evolving and rendering the seen and the unseen, the personal and the cultural, the speculative and the practical. Building on the conversation begun at DRS 2024 conference, this year's papers address cultural specificity, decolonial and feminist methodologies, narrative-driven generation, and the pedagogies that …

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Critical Reflections On Systemic Design Participation: Ethics, Care And Justice, Cecilia Landa-Avila, Josina Vink, Sine Celik, Simon Downs, Peter Jones Jun 2026

Critical Reflections On Systemic Design Participation: Ethics, Care And Justice, Cecilia Landa-Avila, Josina Vink, Sine Celik, Simon Downs, Peter Jones

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This theme track examines how participation is conceived and practised within systemic design for complex challenges. Designing for interwoven systemic crises requires the participation of those who both affect and are affected by these systems. Participation is reframed here not as a discrete event, but as a dynamic, ongoing meta-process that reconfigures power relations and influences what is recognised as meaningful data. Synthesising fifteen papers across three sessions, this editorial explores the tensions between care, justice, and ethics, moving beyond performative co-creation toward sustained, power-sharing partnerships.

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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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Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains In Designing And Researching For Transformation, Femke Coops, Marysol Ortega Pallanez, Joanna Boehnert, Idil Gaziulusoy, Silvana Juri, Anja Overdiek, Alma Leora Culén, Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Dan Lockton, Emma Dewberry, Fabrizio Ceschin Jun 2026

Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains In Designing And Researching For Transformation, Femke Coops, Marysol Ortega Pallanez, Joanna Boehnert, Idil Gaziulusoy, Silvana Juri, Anja Overdiek, Alma Leora Culén, Ida Nilstad Pettersen, Dan Lockton, Emma Dewberry, Fabrizio Ceschin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The theme track ‘Troubling Transitions: Growing Pains in Designing and Researching for Transformation’ at DRS2026 includes 12 papers that explore the growing pains, the frictions, contradictions, and (unresolved) dilemmas that characterise designing for transitions and transformations including tensions around epistemic challenges, transdisciplinarity, and participation, and the responses designers/design researchers are exploring to meet them. This editorial describes key growing pains addressed in the papers, while highlighting the different response to dilemmas in transition work. Through reflecting on the contributions to the track, several opportunities for future work arise as the field matures.

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Play Design Materials: Entangled Matter And Making, Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Mathias Poulsen, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Sofie Kinch, Hyunjae Daniel Shin, Ricardo Conçalves Dutra, Eun Sun Park, Louise Ravnløkke, Jennifer Ann Skriver Jun 2026

Play Design Materials: Entangled Matter And Making, Helle Marie Skovbjerg, Mathias Poulsen, Tuuli Mattelmäki, Sofie Kinch, Hyunjae Daniel Shin, Ricardo Conçalves Dutra, Eun Sun Park, Louise Ravnløkke, Jennifer Ann Skriver

DRS Biennial Conference Series

To design for play is to engage with materials, whether physical, virtual, symbolic, or ephemeral. In design for play we don’t just select materials; we shape and are shaped by them. Yet within design research, we must explore how materials do play, not merely support it. This theme track invites contributions that consider materials not as passive tools, but as active collaborators in a relational field where matter, mood, meaning, affect, and politics entangle. We are interested in how materials act not only as substrates for play, but as collaborators, provocateurs, and agents in the making of play, relationships, and …

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Designing Preventive Health Technologies And Practices, Ayşe Özge Ağça, Teresa Almeida, Armağan Karahanoğlu, Anna Vallgårda Jun 2026

Designing Preventive Health Technologies And Practices, Ayşe Özge Ağça, Teresa Almeida, Armağan Karahanoğlu, Anna Vallgårda

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This track explores how design influences preventive health technologies and practices, considering them as spaces for care, negotiation, and future planning. While preventive health is often examined through medical and technological lenses, design offers a unique perspective by focusing on lived experiences, care relationships, and the processes of making sense of things. In this editorial, we outline five contributions that investigate preventive health across diverse contexts, including behavior change, immersive care technologies, critical perspectives on healthcare systems, health communication, and bio-inspired design frameworks. These findings together show that designing for preventive health goes beyond just predicting or reducing future problems …

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Design For And With Values In Designing For Social Change (Design Ethics Sig), Deger Ozkaramanli, Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke, Sine Celik, Geertje Slingerland, Michael Nagenborg, Natalia Gulbransen-Diaz, Leigh-Anne Hepburn Jun 2026

Design For And With Values In Designing For Social Change (Design Ethics Sig), Deger Ozkaramanli, Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke, Sine Celik, Geertje Slingerland, Michael Nagenborg, Natalia Gulbransen-Diaz, Leigh-Anne Hepburn

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This editorial introduces the theme track ‘Design for and with values in designing for social change’. Building on prior work that frame ethics as an invitation to care, the track focuse on values as a central construct in socially engaged design. It responds to a growing need to move beyond abstract value frameworks toward understanding how values are elicited, surfaced, negotiated, and enacted in practice. Drawing on 24 selected papers, we reveal a strongly interdisciplinary collection where participatory design emerges as a dominant method. The contributions are organized into four overlapping themes revolving around the concepts of power, methods, dignity …

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Design In The Wild, Peiyao Cheng, Gianluca Carella, Sylvia Xihui Liu, Cees De Bont Jun 2026

Design In The Wild, Peiyao Cheng, Gianluca Carella, Sylvia Xihui Liu, Cees De Bont

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The DRS2026 track titled “Design for business in the wild” examines how design operates within business contexts shaped by uncertainty, resource constraints, organizational complexity, and technological change. Building on long-standing discussions of design’s contribution to innovation, differentiation, user experience, and strategic advantage, the track reflects a shift from demonstrating design’s business relevance to examining the conditions through which design value becomes actionable in practice. The following contributions are organized around three themes: Entrepreneurial Ecologies, Organizational Frictions, and Data, AI & Foresight. Drawing on 12 accepted papers, the track highlights how design for business is increasingly examined through its situated relations …

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Design And More-Than-Human: Forming Ecologies Of Practices, Laura Popplow Jun 2026

Design And More-Than-Human: Forming Ecologies Of Practices, Laura Popplow

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This editorial introduces a set of emerging and consolidating practices in more-than-human design, situating them within a shifting landscape where coherence is not yet achieved—and may not be the goal. Rather than stabilizing the field, the contributions gathered in this meta-track move within an “ecology of practice” (Stengers) that remains attentive to frictions, partial connections, and unresolved tensions. Braiding both interrelated but also incoherent experiences, the authors of this panel work through relational agency, somatic literacy, and productive friction: outlining and reconfiguring design beyond human-centered paradigms. Across contexts—from biodesign and biodiverse architecture to embodied experiments with non-human perception—design is approached …

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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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Regenerating The “Sustainability Project”: Transitioning Design And Sustainability Research Into The 21st Century, Michael Stead, David Sánchez Ruano Jun 2026

Regenerating The “Sustainability Project”: Transitioning Design And Sustainability Research Into The 21st Century, Michael Stead, David Sánchez Ruano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design has been a key protagonist in the story of the “Sustainability Project.” Yet, with capitalism, emissions, biodiversity loss and social injustice increasing, it might be argued that ‘the project,’ and design’s role in it, have failed to engender the sustainable transitions the planet and its people urgently require – and indeed deserve. This theme track aims to counter this defeatist narrative. Emphasising the ever-evolving relationship between Design and Sustainability, the track reflexively recognises that although design can often find itself a main driver of environmental unsustainability, it can similarly be harnessed as a critical conduit for positive planetary change. …

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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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Unfashionable Knowledge: Patina, Repair, And The Philosophy Of Endurance In Design, Mitchell Vassie Jun 2026

Unfashionable Knowledge: Patina, Repair, And The Philosophy Of Endurance In Design, Mitchell Vassie

DRS Biennial Conference Series

What if the future of fashion lies not in novelty, but in endurance? This paper proposes patina, the visible traces of wear, repair, and time, as a philosophical lens for rethinking design’s relationship to sustainability, identity, and value. Drawing on collaboration with Red Thai (Thái Đỏ) artisans in Vietnam, the research reimagines denim not as commodity, but as memory cloth: garments as temporal archives of land, ritual, and community. The work asks whether fashion can exist outside imperatives of novelty and speed, locating beauty instead in incompleteness, opacity, and repair. By framing patina as “unfashionable knowledge,” it positions endurance and …

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Situated Pedagogies For Public Design Through Genai, Anca Serbanescu, Noor Murteza Jun 2026

Situated Pedagogies For Public Design Through Genai, Anca Serbanescu, Noor Murteza

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores the integration of Generative AI (GenAI) in design education through the lens of public design learning. Drawing on critical pedagogy and a situated classroom case study, it examines how GenAI reshapes the epistemic and ontological journey of becoming a public designer. The study foregrounds ethical, cognitive, and systemic challenges associated with human–AI co-creativity, highlighting the pedagogical implications for cultivating political sensitivity, collaborative reflexive capabilities, and design agency. Through an in-class activity involving persona co-creation with GenAI, the paper illustrates how students engage with plural and contextually grounded design practices. It concludes by advocating for inclusive, reflexive, and …

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Making Futures With Textiles: Boundaries, Practice, Sustainability, Martin John Bonney Jun 2026

Making Futures With Textiles: Boundaries, Practice, Sustainability, Martin John Bonney

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores craft as a site of making and thinking, asking how practice-based ethnography can extend design theory amid ecological and social uncertainty. Drawing on apprenticeship-style fieldwork (2024-2025) with craft communities in London (UK) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia), the study engages practitioners working across textiles, silver, gold, stone, wax-resist batik, wool, and silk. While textiles provide a methodological thread, the research examines how diverse materials shape knowledge through constraints, resistances, and affordances. Grounded in design anthropology and practice-based interpretations of posthuman and new materialist thought, material agency is understood as the capacity of matter and process to influence decisions and …

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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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Reading Against The Grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, And Rhythm As Pedagogical Infrastructures In First-Year Design Education, Yaw Ofosu-Asare Jun 2026

Reading Against The Grain: Ubuntu, Sankofa, And Rhythm As Pedagogical Infrastructures In First-Year Design Education, Yaw Ofosu-Asare

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) study examines how African philosophies can function as pedagogical infrastructures, not decorative add-ons, in first-year design education. Through a 12-week introductory studio with 25 students meeting twice weekly (2.5 hours per session), I embedded Ubuntu (relational being), Sankofa (retrieving wisdom from the past), and rhythm (cyclical temporality) into the course structure. Learning artefacts comprise studio materials, anonymised teaching feedback collected as part of routine class activities, and my own teaching observations reviewed thematically around space, time, and feedback relations. Observed teaching indicators suggested higher participation in critique (average peer comments per student rising …

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Cuia Colab: Toward A Design Across Species, Worlds And Relations, Andrea Bandoni Jun 2026

Cuia Colab: Toward A Design Across Species, Worlds And Relations, Andrea Bandoni

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Cuia Colab emerged from a design research project seeking to explore whether biodesign practices in the Amazon could foster equitable exchanges between traditional knowledge and contemporary design. The research combined theoretical and empirical methods, beginning with a literature review and a case study focused on the cuias of Santarém. Subsequent stages involved active field investigation through observation, collaboration with traditional cuia artisans, biodesign experiments integrating living organisms, and a co-created exhibition. Grounded in a situated, multispecies, and pluriversal approach, Cuia Colab revealed both the challenges and possibilities of establishing ethical and reciprocal relations between design and the Amazonian context. The …

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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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