On June 7-8, 2018 at Unisinos university in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul held a symposium on research through design. Stan gave an address about the use of academic prototypes. The lecture consisted of a video talk, some questions delivered by video, and video answers. The video starts with comments in Spanish from some of the participants of the symposium. The lecture begins at 2:40 and the questions start at 21:07:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vi0dQkMjLewwSwZ5vweAO_3Dn87UGMyl
On May 27, 2018, Yaguang gave a paper at the PhD forum of the 2018 China Green Building and Ecological City conference.
From the abstract:
This paper summarizes the characteristics of several intelligent transportation products, studies the operational principles of intelligent technology in various transportation applications, objectively summarizes the development constraints in its technical application, and proposes a system for analyzing and evaluating the advantages and disadvantages.
Priscilla presented the paper “Smart Citizenship: Designing the interaction between citizens and smart cities” at the Design Research Society conference in Limerick, Ireland on June 25-28, 2018. Stan is her co-author.
From the abstract:
This paper develops a critical reflection about the reasons why not every citizen in a smart city can be considered a smart citizen. We point out some of the primary causes and the role of design to help to develop possible solutions. The paper uses the concept of the network society and actor network theory in order to understand the infrastructure of smart cities and develop an analysis of the changing role of citizens in smart citizens. We propose that there is a need for new methods to generate sustainable and inclusive social engagement to solve collective urban problems. Moreover, it is speculated that smart citizenship will be an important part of the future of smart cities. In this context, design plays an important part, framing the way actors understand and interact with each other in the city ecosystem, and enabling citizens to shape the future of their cities.
From May 26-28, 2018, Stan presented on hardware and software emulation at the annual conference of the Canadian Society of Digital Humanities/le champs numerique (CSDH/SCHN) in Regina, Saskatchewan. The talks were part of a panel of four papers organized and run by Marley Liepert, entitled “Emulation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery.” Zhabiz and Gerry were co-authors.
From the panel abstract:
Considered both as an aspect of cultural heritage and as locations of untold voluntary labour, the video games and virtual worlds of the past have a value that should be preserved, and, if possible, maintained for continued use in some form. In this panel, we propose a number of approaches to strategizing the preservation and even continued use of video games and virtual worlds.
From April 13-22, 2018, Stan was invited to Poland to work with Dr. Celso Scalesky from Unisinos, Brazil and Dr. Piotr Michura from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków to deliver a workshop for graduate students on the use of prototypes to define research questions. A panel discussion on the topic of design research was held in the afternoon preceding the workshop; it included Stan, Celso, and Piotr along with Prof. Michael Renner from the Basel School of Design, Switzerland.
From Jan 20 – Feb 4, Stan participated at a summit in the Amazon jungle, organized by the International Development Innovation Network. The purpose of the summit was to pilot a co-design process that can help local communities and the communist guerrillas imagine a better future together. Stan helped to lead the ideation process, using a workshop developed around Dator’s model of the four futures: growth, discipline, collapse, and transformation. Juan de la Rosa and Natalie were also there, working as design consultants.
From Nov 23 to Nov 29, 2017 Stan was a guest at the Dalian University of Technology. He presented the following talk:
What is New Knowledge in Design?
Many design practitioners would rightly claim that research is a part of practice. For example, in order to produce a new design, it is often useful to learn about the people who will use the design, which involves research about people. In order to get the configuration of a design into a satisfactory condition, it is necessary to consider materials, the manufacturing process, requirements for styling, and so on, all of which involve research about the components of the design. However, research from design practice is usually not intended to produce a generalized understanding. For that to happen, it is useful to introduce additional questions like what theories are we attempting to build, what do those theories predict, and how can we best validate the theories by testing their predictions? In this talk, we will examine, using a series of examples, how new knowledge is created through design research, and how design practice can potentially contribute.
Stan visited the Masters of Design program at the National University of Colombia from Nov 13-17, 2017 to present a public talk and two workshops.
The first workshop was for graduate students and the other for people involved in research with communities. Both explored the use of experimental prototypes for gathering data in design research, using Dator’s 4 possible futures: growth, discipline, collapse, and transformation.
From the public talk:
This discussion will focus on the topic of validity in research, and in particular how different research results in design can be evaluated, given that design research may concern itself with the past and present, some preferred future, or the transition period from the present to that future.
The premise is that the same standards of validity that are applicable in the sciences and the humanities, which focus on studying the past and present, are not entirely transferable to the situation in design or other generative disciplines such as engineering and computer science.
We will examine a number of published design research projects from this perspective, drawing on interdisciplinary work with the sciences (the pill browser), the fine arts (the simulated environment for theatre), and the digital humanities (speculative timelines). We will also look at projects that represent collaborations with industry (decision support) and community members (bubblelines machine).