DRS2016 Workshop Programme
Workshops will take place primarily on Monday 27th June, on the day prior to the Conference, though some will take place during the days of the conference itself. Below is an overview of each workshop, together with presentation time, a download of the full workshop description, and contact email (click on names) should you need further details.
The deadline for registration is Monday 20th June, but early booking is recommended.
When registering please make sure you note the date and time of the workshop you book and avoid booking any other workshop that runs at the same time. Registration for all workshops is free, but places are limited, and you will need to be a registered DRS2016 delegate to be eligible as a workshop participant.
All workshops will take place at the Brighton University School of Art and Design in the Grand Parade building. Lunch and refreshments will be available for workshop participants on Monday 27th June. A detailed programme of the conference is available here though schedules are subject to change.
Monday 27th June AM
Design-led Entrepreneurship: exploration and systemic mapping of processes and methodologies
Workshop Organiser: Michel de Blois, Université Laval, France
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 13.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
The developed world is rapidly transitioning from an industrialised economy to one powered by startups. This trend, referred to as the 'startup movement, harbours a sub-trend that’s important to the field of design. Increasingly the strategy entrepreneurs use to manage their startups has embraced the process designers use to develop products and services. Since the convergence is happening naturally, the two processes should have synergies. The main objective of this workshop is to explore these synergies.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Visualising Design Ecologies: Collecting, visualising and interpreting data for design research
Workshop Organiser: Daniel Cardoso, Carnegie Mellon University, US. Yanni Loukissas, Georgia Tech, US.
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 18.00 (8 hours) → Register for this workshop
Today’s design processes are increasingly collective, geographically distributed, and digitally mediated by information networks and software. The data produced by these design ecologies - from email and timestamps to digital files, simulation and sensor data and conflict logs - constitute important new sites that researchers might explore for new insights about the social and technical complexity of present and future creative practices. The goal of this workshop is to provide participants with a basic conceptual and technical framework to engage with data as a site of design research.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Rethinking smart
Workshop Organiser: Nicolas Nova, Geneva School of Art and Design, Switzerland
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 13.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
The current EU Horizon 2020 call ‘Smart Anything Everywhere’ speaks to an idea of imagining what ‘smart’ could be in the broadest, most open sense. Anything. Anywhere. But despite this openness, the smart imaginary remains stagnated. So how can we begin to develop a new smart? What role can designers play in order to address the complex societal problems that face us, beyond basic smart products? Workshop attendees will design a thing based on a new notion of smart thinking about complex interactions and systems, new ways of sensing, what computing could mean and the real-function of a product or space.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Using Analogous Research to Build Empathy and Unlock Problems
Workshop Organiser: Kate Burn, IDEO, UK
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 13.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Design research at IDEO exists to inspire and inform design. We blend user research and context research to bring our clients and teams close to real human needs in new ways. Our toolkit of methodologies is constantly evolving to fit ever more complex and diverse design challenges. This workshop exposes participants to IDEO’s practical design research approach, through an interactive workshop, using the conference venue and surrounding area as a site for research. Participants will learn to observe, empathise and problem-solve in new ways.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Design and storytelling: on weaving fragments
Workshop Organiser: Susan Yelavich, Parsons New School of Design, US
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 13.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Nowadays we are encountering many different ways in which designers are telling stories. Within the DESIS philosophy talks we started a reflection on the philosophical value of storytelling in our daily practices as designers, for instance the multiple possible definitions of storytelling, ethical issues connected to it, the poetic value of telling stories as means of empowering the public realm, the idea of storyteller as story-listener, and the value and meaning of time in telling stories. This workshop derives from the framework of the DESIS philosophy talks, particularly on the value of story-listening and storytelling in design practices and seen as an experiences of weaving together fragments of the mainstream.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Socio-Cultural Fiction Prototyping in Design Thinking
Workshop Organiser: Jan Schwarz, Academy for Fashion and Design, Munich, German
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 11.00 (2 hours) → Register for this workshop
Science fiction (SF) prototypes, narratives based on science and technology, are a means to develop new products, services, and business models. SF prototyping uses fictional stories about the future to investigate the implications of science and technology not yet feasible at present. This approach allows participants to focus on the design thinking process of the future. This workshop is intended for practitioners from any background who are interested in predictive design research but also for researchers who are working on understanding the process of design thinking.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Food Design for Sustainability
Workshop Organiser: Stephen Clune, Lancaster University, UK
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 13.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
The consumption of food contributes to a significant proportion of a person’s overall greenhouse gas emissions accounting for 20% of an individual’s carbon footprint globally. Agricultural production is responsible for 19%–29% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, an estimated 30% of food purchased for home consumption is not eaten and wasted. This workshop responds to several interlinked global challenges in global warming, obesity, health and waste, of which food has made a significant contribution. Participants will gain insight into the challenges of ‘sustainable food design’ via designing potential solutions
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Capturing and Shaping Meaningful Sensory Experiences in the Urban Environment
Workshop Organiser: Lois Frankel, Carleton University, Canada
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 9.00 - 18.00 (8 hours) → Register for this workshop
People navigating their way through a city do not rely only on their vision for feedback, but use happenstance street sounds, smells, and tactile contact. These complex layered experiences are often not even registered consciously by them (or designers). This workshop draws from our ongoing design research with sensory walks (sound walks and multi-sensory explorations) with students and community members. We explore how sensory design research can provide insights for creative and meaningful urban design interventions.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Design Ecologies: Products, Places & Communities - developing strategies for revitalizing traditional practices
Workshop Organiser: Jejon Jung, Lancaster University, UK
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 11.30 - 13.00 (2.5 hours) → Register for this workshop
Many culturally significant, traditional practices around the world are in decline as older artisans retire and younger people move from rural communities to the cities (examples include Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand among others). As part of this research we are looking at potential strategies for the sustainment and revitalisation of traditional designs, products and practices. This workshop will present to the participants our initial mapping of these potential factors which will provide a starting point for the following discussions and participatory activities.
MONDAY 27TH JUNE pM
Positive design
Workshop Organiser: Pieter Desmet & Anna Pohlmeyer, TU Delft, The Netherlands
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
“If you want to increase your happiness, don’t buy new products, change your behaviour." Positive psychologists sometimes advise that not too much ought to be expected from the contributions to subjective wellbeing made by consumer products. This workshop challenges this view by proposing that design can increase happiness. The central question addressed is: How can design contribute to human flourishing?
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Storytelling as a Method for Problem Framing in Design
Workshop Organiser: Dalsu Özgen Koçyildirim, Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Storytelling is a prominent topic in design, as design researchers and practitioners discover its effectiveness in not only communicating ideas but understanding human behaviour, motivation and interactions. The workshop theme will be ‘The Last Night Before The Deadline’, a phrase many designers are familiar with and that proposes an emotional experience they can relate to. The phrase is also reminds us that the design process itself is a story. Rethinking a familiar topic through a visually expressed narrative provides an opportunity to explore storytelling as a problem framing tool.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Stop Motion Typography
Workshop Organiser: Baris Atiker, Beykent University, Turkey
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Stop Motion Typography is an international workshop which has been accomplished in design festivals such as TypoBerlin 2015, MODE Dublin 2015, BDF Bishkek 2015, MOTYF Warsaw 2015. The workshop is combining interdisciplinary elements such as stop motion animation and typography to explore both experimental / conceptual typographic forms and animations. The aim of the workshop is expressing the interaction between the meaning and form by using daily objects as animated as unexpected typographic forms.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Mobility as Empowerment: Co-Design with Communities as Empathic Service Innovation
Workshop Organiser: Priscilla Chueng-Nainby, University of Edinburgh, UK
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Mobility is a critical contributory factor to quality of life. Public transport systems are among the most ubiquitous and complex large-scale systems. People with poor mobility are less likely to access services, participate in civic life, and have reduced quality of life. Two systems of thinking are relevant in this workshop: Transport design and Co-Design for service Innovation. Both require a visualization system that is useful for the communities to collectively innovate for their needs. Through this workshop, we hope to explore the framework of co-design tools when collaborating directly with communities for service innovation.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Empathy "Things"/Games
Workshop Organiser: Lorraine Gamman & Adam Thorpe, University of the Arts London, UK
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Barack Obama has famously written about an empathy “deficit” and the need for the human race to have more empathy for each other as well as the planet and similarly the economist Jeremy Rifkin has made the case for the need to build empathy. How do empathy “things” (including social games) expand or reinforce the human capacity for empathy, and what are the devices/strategies they utilize to make empathic connections and what is their value to participatory design research? Workshop participants will be invited to attend either with an empathy `thing” to deconstruct or to attend as a critical friend who would engage in the deconstruction process.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Bodies-in-action as a medium of design
Workshop Organiser: Kakee Scott, Carnegie Mellon University, US
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Interaction designers have demonstrated growing interest in the performative body as a major variable in designed systems, aspiring to “whole-body interaction”, “interfaces that are in some way physically embodied”, and the development of systems that will “more fully engage people’s bodies”. However, most design-led research on human bodies has been concerned with how bodies interact with the forms and products of design— artifacts, spaces, interfaces, communications and services. In this workshop, we invite participants to explore bodies-in-action as a medium of design, in an effort to broaden conceptions of and possibilities for design practice.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Multiple Measures: Design in the Interdisciplinary Mix
Workshop Organiser: Kate Tregloan, Monash University, Australia
Date and Time: Monday 27th June, 14.00 - 18.00 (4 hours) → Register for this workshop
Multiple Measures is an Innovation & Discovery research project funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching. The project asserts that the students of today are the researchers of tomorrow. Developing the competencies of next-generation designers and researchers is itself a research challenge, requiring new paradigms and approaches to pedagogy. Participants in the Multiple Measures workshop will leave with a broader understanding of the values associated with interdisciplinary practice; the range of interdisciplinary pedagogical objectives and approaches currently being offered to students; and new skills and tools to locate their own teaching and research opportunities in this context.
tuesday 28TH JUNE
Designing Research for Computational Design
Workshop Organiser: Philippa Mothersill, MIT Media Lab, US
Date and Time: Tuesday 28th June, 11.15 - 12.45 (1.5 hours) → Register for this workshop
The future of design is becoming ever more digital: from the Computer Aided Design systems designers use to create 3D models of their inventions, to the digital fabrication machines that can build physical objects previously impossible to manufacture, to the online crowd-sourcing research tools that allow researchers to collect thousands of responses to their studies. How best can thinking about computing be embedded in the philosophy of design, and design research? This workshop proposes some responses to this question, specifically considering the design of physical objects.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
From Care(ful) Research to Care(ful) Design
Workshop Organiser: Liesbeth Stam, KU Leuven, Belgium
Date and Time: Tuesday 28th June, 14.00 - 17.30 (3.5 hours) → Register for this workshop
Various studies show that the environment – products, services, and spaces – has a significant impact on patients’ wellbeing and as such can add to their healing process. Most product and service designers, architects, and hospital boards are convinced of this impact but often lack accessible information offering a nuanced insight into patients’ experiences. This workshop explores how design input based on different information formats can provide designers with insight into real people’s experience of a (health)care environment.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF) || → Further workshop information
Being relational: entering the world of sensory & embodied communication design
Workshop Organiser: Caroline Yan Zheng, Royal College of Art, UK
Date and Time: Tuesday 28th June, 14.00 - 17.30 (3.5 hours) → Register for this workshop
The workshop will explore how design research can be used for rethinking ephemeral phenomena, such as smell. The workshop will offer participants the opportunity to engage and interact with the intangible, considering the potential for sensory communication beyond language, and engage interactive objects as mechanisms for materialising the intangible. These explorations aim to broaden the understanding of participants on how the intangible can shape our lives in more meaningful ways. It is a probe into the possibilities of Communication Design for individuals and society.
Wednesday 29th june
Let’s Get Physical: Exploring the Design Process of Data Physicalisation
Workshop Organiser: Yvonne Jansen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Date and Time: Wednesday 29th June, 11.15 - 17.30 (6 hours) → Register for this workshop
Data visualisation is becoming a common practice in industry and a recognised research field that contributes to a richer understanding of the potential to encode data visually. Yet representations which address more than the visual sense and which could facilitate sense making in novel ways are still largely unexplored. Data physicalisation, i.e. the design of physical artefacts whose geometry or material properties encode data, is an emerging research area that explores the potential of physical data representations as a sense making and communication medium; making information genuinely graspable. This full‐day workshop will provide a rich hands‐on introduction into the area of data physicalisation.
→ DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (PDF)
Today’s and tomorrow’s design researcher ‒ reinventing the intersection
Workshop Organiser: Andrea Augsten, Volkswagen AG & Wuppertal University, Germany
Date and Time: Wednesday 29th June, 14.00 - 17.30 (3.5 hours) → Register for this workshop
This workshop is about the different roles and competences of design researchers, focussing on the personal role the participants currently fulfil including the implicit links between competences, methods and team formation. This workshop will be both an active reflection about the competencies of design researchers and an interactive production of new ideas and knowledge about their linking role in teams.
Thursday 30th June
"The Neological Institute" performance or how language can inspire and empower design
Workshop Organiser: Nik Baerton, Pantopicon (B) & LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
Date and Time: Thursday 29th June, 11.15 - 15.30 (3.25 hours) → Register for this workshop
In a rapidly changing world we are often confronted with the inadequacy of our current vocabularies of words and expressions in describing new meanings and new phenomena. This workshop has a two-fold aim: 1) to explore the potential of a series of language games to create neologisms and understand their generative value as design tools for the embodiment and exploration of future worlds and their phenomena, 2) to engage participants in a design performance of which the fictional nature enhances the experience and allows them to understand its potential as a research/engagement tool.