Browsing by Author "Forlano, Laura"

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  • “Bejay (water) is our sister”: Wearable speculations to entangle collectively.
    (2024-06-23) Botero, Andrea; Sánchez-Aldana, Eliana; Cuarán Jamioy, Alexandra; Chicunque Agreda, Susana Patricia
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    Inspired by the feeling-thinking-making of the tšombiach, a traditional belt or sash woven by the Kamëntŝa people (authors 2023) this paper explores the potential of a collection of wearable speculations to entangle collectively in matters of care (Puig de la Bella Casa 2017) relating to water in a territory. Through five speculative, hand-woven garments we (2 Kamëntŝa and 2 sn̈ená/foreign women) open dialogues on how wrapping/involving, in a tšombiach logic, can be a practice of care: of the body and of the territory. The pieces are speculative in the sense that they are not actual garments, nor are they tšombiachs, instead they are pieces woven to feel-think-make with. Through them we invite each other, and other people, to physically engage with situated stories of bejay -water- our sister; to wear these pieces as a call to care, but also to be involved and entangled in the stories.
  • Designer-maker: Merging cognition and construction in practice-led design research
    (2024-06-23) Mahler, Laureen
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    In the decades since the establishment of design research, efforts to identify the nature of design knowledge have repeatedly returned to the question of design’s relationship to science. The resulting debate is often framed by the opposing tenets of positivism and constructivism, and this gap continues to characterize research across the discipline. This paper challenges the paradigmatic divide between cognition and construction through an examination of practice-led design research and, more specifically, a redefinition of the designer-maker. It presents perceptualspace as an active, multimodal medium where cognition and construction emerge simultaneously, as evidenced by the work of the designer-maker. Thisin turn supports a necessary evolution in design thinking: through the lens of making, design thinking is design doing, demonstrating the interconnectedness of practice-led design research, craft knowledge, and material-driven design, as well as their significance for the broader discipline.
  • ‘Does Phosphorus Want to Sound Like That?’: Experiencing More-Than-Human Futures
    (2024-06-23) Rosen, Anton; Sanchez, Camilo; Epp, Felix Anand
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    The paper explores the learning possible from including the public in explora-tions of more-than-human future visions. We presented an installation at a de-sign festival of a speculative scenario that emerged from ethnographic research with urban permaculture farmers, using sounds to represent concentrations of nutrients in soil. We studied how visitors wearing a sensor ring experienced the playing of these sounds upon insertion of a finger in the installation’s soil. Re-sponses underscore the importance of cultivating the skill of noticing through deep listening, alongside the profound connection thus established between humans and the more-than-human world. In a further contribution to more-than-human design, the paper examines implications for practices of noticing and pre-sents four principles for problematising and reimagining how data pertaining to the more-than-human world may be sensed and represented.
  • Editorial: Design, Research and Feminism(s)
    (2018) Lindström, Kristina; Maze, Ramia; Forlano, Laura; Jonsson, Li; Ståhl, Åsa
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
  • Making, mending and growing in feminist speculative fabulations: Design’s unfaithful daughters
    (2016) Forlano, Laura; Ståhl, Åsa; Lindström, Kristina; Jonsson, Li; Maze, Ramia
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    Drawing on a recent book by Stengers and Despret (2014), this conversation seeks to consider design research practices around critical and speculative design (Dunne & Raby, 2009, 2013) and speculative fabulation (Haraway, 2011) from a feminist perspective and, in particular, core feminist arguments around corporeality, materiality, embodiment, affectivity and experientiality. Haraway discusses the ways in which “worlding” happens in part due to material artifacts writing about as well as the ways in which the factual, fictional and fabulated come together in research. She draws on Marilyn Strathern’s ethnographic work on gender, stating that “It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.” Bardzell (2010) describes a feminist HCI methodology as including: a commitment to both scientific and moral objectives, a connection to feminist theory, a deliberate use of methods based on values and goals, an empathic relationship with research participants, transparency around the role of the researcher along with their beliefs, co-construction of research, mixed methodologies and reflexivity. This conversation will draw inspiration from critical feminist theory such as Haraway’s cat’s cradle (1994) as well as recent examples from critically engaged design practice on topics such as composting (Lindström and Ståhl forthcoming), the spider-ant (Jönsson 2014), the future of work (Forlano & Halpern, 2016), and the history of women cyclists (Jungnickel, 2014). In particular, we will imagine new ways of practicing design by examining relationships between speculative futures and reimaginings of the past; the role of a feminist perspective in problem-making and questioning; speculative design and fabulation as participatory practice; the role of practices around mending, growing, maintaining and repairing; and, the posthuman design and the anthropocene. These examples and themes will be enacted through collaborative prototyping and the crafting of new feminist speculative fabulations that will materially embody the discussion and allow for an active, experiential session. In this way, and in keeping with feminist figurations, this conversation will engage in a double move to leave something behind while also suggesting something new (Åsberg et al 2012).
  • More Samples of One: Weaving First-Person Perspectives into Mainstream HCI Research
    (2024-07-01) Gamboa, Mafalda; Núñez-Pacheco, Claudia; Homewood, Sarah; Lucero, Andrés; Beuthel, Janne Mascha; Desjardins, Audrey; Helms, Karey; Gaver, William; Höök, Kristina; Forlano, Laura
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    Interactive systems have become an integral part of our daily lives, influencing how we communicate, work, and play. Understanding the intricate relationship between humans and technology is at the core of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research and design. Amid the array of methodological tools available, first-person research methods have emerged as powerful instruments that enable researchers to delve deeply into the human-technology experience. Five years after the first edition of the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) workshop on first-person methods, this full day workshop invites HCI researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts to embark on a journey of discovery of their sample of one. Drawing inspiration from the rich tradition of autoethnography, autobiographical design, embodied ideation, and more, we aim to explore the omnipresence of technology in our everyday lives while acknowledging our own subjectivity and positionality in research and design.
  • Prototyping as a translational practice within cross-organizational B2B service innovation
    (2024-06-23) Hyvärinen, Jaana; Mattelmäki, Tuuli
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    This paper focuses on service prototyping in a global B2B technology company experimenting with the B2C market. We first establish the research framework with existing literature on service prototyping and then report a case in which service prototypes and prototyping approaches were used to contribute to different phases of a new service development project: a) discover and define, b) develop and deliver and c) implementation and rollout. We then reflect on the role of prototyping as a translational practice in facilitating cross-organizational collaboration and aligning and enhancing the commitment of various stakeholders. The first author, with a dual role of designer and researcher, was engaged in planning, documenting, re-constructing and examining the case project's process, activities, actors, outputs and outcomes. The results illustrate that prototypes and prototyping are translational practices in which knowledge from research and design practice becomes entangled.
  • Transitions to Multispecies Futures in the Design Classroom
    (2024-06-23) Gaziulusoy, İdil; Berglund, Eeva
     A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa
    Sustainability Transitions and Futures is a mandatory course of the Creative Sus-tainability master’s program in the Department of Design of Aalto University de-livered jointly by the co-authors. It aims to provide a basic understanding of how sustainability transitions projects unfold in practice and the ways through which designers can contribute to these projects as part of interdisciplinary teams. For two consecutive years, we focused on multispecies sustainability. We have pro-vided the students with the necessary theoretical and critical lenses through a curated selection of guest lectures from fields including law, philosophy, urban ecology and planning. For the practical part, the students in groups reimagined the Aalto University campus in the year 2050 as a multispecies campus and de-veloped pathways to demonstrate how their visions can become anchors for re-directing campus development plans. This paper reflects on our experience and provides pointers for systems change-related courses to engage with post-anthropocentric future-making.