This is a blog documenting all my activities. This includes research activities such as publications, conferences, workshops etc; design work; and anything else exciting that happened! If you have comments, questions, or would like a friendly chat on a shared topic of interest, please contact me via LinkedIn or email.
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DECEMBER 2024
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Webinar on Creative Evaluation
11/12/2024
Today we ran a webinar for the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations about how to design and conduct evaluations that promote engagement, participation, inclusivity and creativity. It was a lovely event to join, we had lots of participants and some great conversations in our breakout rooms.
Join us in this session to explore how creativity plays a role in Evaluative Practice. In this session we (Elisavet Christou, Violet Owen and Pinar Ceyhan from Lancaster University) will talk about our research on Creative Evaluation approaches and the role creativity plays in designing evaluations that are engaging, collaborative and inclusive! We will share key principles of Creative Evaluation described in our Little Book of Creative Evaluation, present relevant real-world examples and tools like our Evaluation Visualisation Design Tool (EViD), and share relevant free online resources for those interested in learning more about how to bring creativity in their own evaluative practice.
See the webinar recording here >>> https://www.tavinstitute.org/whats-on/the-role-of-creativity-in-evaluative-practice
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New Journal Article Alert! "Smarter Repair 2053"
06/12/2024
It’s a lovely start to a Monday to see a publication you co-authored go live! I really enjoyed writing with Paul Coulton and Michael Stead about unrepairable aesthetics, AI rights and visions of a more than human right to repair.
In 2023 the European Union enacted the right-to-repair for European citizens, which was undoubtedly a step forward in tackling planned obsolescence and the deluge of electronic product waste being produced at that time. An expansion of the right-to-repair to include smart devices occurred in 2035 acknowledging their increased proliferation as everyday products and services. However, these rights-to-repair did not result in creating a capacity for repair such that consumers were both willing and able to avail themselves of this right. To address this challenge, technologists extended the infusion of datafication and Artificial Intelligence within smart products – resulting in the Right-to-Repair being granted to the devices themselves in 2045. This paper reviews this transition which resulted in both decreasing electronic product waste, increased device longevity, and extending the development of an aesthetic of repair into more products and services.
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NOVEMBER 2024
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Fourth Portal Innovation Showcase
20/11/2024
Myself and Mike Stead joined the Fourth Portal's Innovation Showcase today in Gravesend, London. We brought along our Serious Games, RepairLand and Energy Master.
The Innovation Showcase is a one-day event in Gravesend, Kent, bringing together local communities, academics, and businesses to explore emerging technologies and new economic opportunities.
Despite some major travel issues throughout London, it was a fantastic event to be part of, and we had a great time sharing our serious games with the community of Gravesend. There were also some fantastic talks and presentations, and some amazing displays of vintage computer games, robots and more. The venue was also so beautiful, its not often you get to set up a display next to a pipe organ!
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A Presentation by Beatriz Bonilla Berrocal
11/11/2024
Today I went to a presentation by Beatriz Bonilla, a PhD candidate in Design at the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano. Beatriz contacted me last year via LinkedIn, as our PhD topics are so very similar. It was fantastic to meet someone with such close interests to mine, and fascinating to shareour findings and ideas, comparing the UK and Italian evaluation contexts. Beatriz is currently a travelling researcher residing for the next few months at Lancaster University.
She led a fantastic presentation today!
"Design for social innovation impact: An exploration on design-led evaluation practice inside SMEs"
This seminar will explore the role of design in evaluating and enhancing social innovation within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Participants will discuss how design-driven approaches can be applied to measure social impact, promote sustainable practices, and support business transformation. The seminar will focus on participatory and creative evaluation methods that align with the needs of modern enterprises, and in gathering insights to build a practical framework to assess both qualitative and quantitative outcomes.
Find Beatriz on linked in here>>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/beabonillab/
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ESCR Festival of Social Science 2024
09/11/2024
Today myself, Mike Stead and Paul Coulton brought Energy Master to Lancaster city centre! We braved the freezing temperatures, and Mike towed the Future Mundane Caravan into Lancaster city centre (which if you know Lancaster is an impressive feat in itself!). It was a great day with lots of interested folk trying out Energy Master's debut appearance.
As we integrate more ‘smart’ digital products and services into our everyday lives, they are using AI to make more decisions for us. Our AI-driven digital products and services are becoming ‘moral agents’ in which we often unconsciously place our trust. Our society needs to transition to new forms of sustainable energy production and consumption to fight climate change. However, the growing autonomy of ‘smart’ technologies raises critical ethical considerations. This is because these technologies themselves are extremely energy hungry and create huge amounts of carbon emissions.
Given these hidden energy-related environmental impacts… How Much Do You Trust an AI to Look After Your Energy for You?
Given these hidden energy-related environmental impacts… How Much Do You Trust an AI to Look After Your Energy for You?
This work is produced as part of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub and EPSRC's InterNETZERO project.
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Testing... Testing!
05/11/2024
Today we did the final testing of Energy Master in the Future Mundane caravan before it's debut at the ESRC Festival of Social Science. It's so exciting to see it working in action, after a rather short and intense development phase! Energy Master is an interactive experience designed to help members of the public consider their relationships with AI, and contemplate how much trust they can place in AI systems.
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Contemporary Issues in Design: The Internet of Things
01/11/2024
Today I covered a seminar for the BA(Hons)Design students at Lancaster University. Really what happened is I got to sit back and enjoy the students leading their own session (whilst providing a little support on timings from me). The students have been tasked to design a seminar, structured around thought-provoking questions, based on that week's lecture and learning. It was a great format, and really pushed students from a passive role into an active one. It was a pleasure to be asked by Naomi Jacobs to join.
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OCTOBER 2024
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Creative Evaluation with Blackpool Council
31/10/2024
Today, myself and Jess Shaw led a session on Evaluation and Creative Evaluation for Blackpool Council. We introduced an overview of what evaluation is, evaluative processes and addressed some common misconceptions about evaluation. Then we led some hands on Creative Evaluation activities, to demonstrate different methods for evaluation that can be more engaging, more equitable and more participatory.
They were such an attentive, vibrant, and participative group to work with, we had such fun!
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Feeling Autumnal
05/10/2024
Today, I was invited to take part in a pumpkin making workshop! I've been learning ceramic hand building and throwing over the last year, but have had a bit of a break to try and focus on my PhD. So it was a lovely opportunity to dive back in just for an evening. I can't wait to see how they turn out when they are fired and glazed!
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SEPTEMBER 2024
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V&A Digital Design Weekend
20/09/2024 - 22/09/2024
We were invited to be part of the Victoria & Albert Museum's Digital Design Weekend 2024, part of the London Design Festival. What an event! Each day was so busy, we had so many great opportunities to interact with the public and talk about digital repair. Myself and Mike Stead were joined by The Making Rooms' Tom MacPherson-Pope, Uzair Patel and Nishad Joshi.
We ran a series of interactive activities, freely available to the public, including: an introduction to Re:Play - a handheld console that is broken, and as players learn to repair it, they gain more functionality and access to games; RepairLand, a choose-your-own adventure online game that helps players to explore the end of life management and barriers to repair of a broken IoT device; and Robot badges, an activity to get the public to learn basic repair techniques such as soldering and understanding circuitry.
Despite managing to get Covid, it was a fantastic weekend. I really hope to be invited back in the future!
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This is Us Evaluation Workshop
09/09/2024
Myself, Elisavet Christou and Pınar Ceyhan led a Creative Evaluation workshop today with Cumbria CVS in Kendal. I love these types of workshops, working with small teams, helping to build their evaluation capacity. It's awing to be surrounded by so much concentrated knowledge, by individuals so passionate about the group they are working for. It's a privilege to help them work through their ideas and form a tangible and useable evaluation plan.
We used the EViD tool to engage our participants in a participatory planning and design process. The EViD tool, created by Elisavet Christou, Pınar Ceyhan and Philip Ely, is a visualisation tool for planning and designing evaluations.
We've already planned a follow up online workshop with CCVS, and I can't wait to see how their evaluation plans develop.
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AUGUST 2024
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Lancaster Evaluation Group Writing Retreats
20/08/2024 & 27/08/2024
We created LEG to have the opportunity to foster collaboration between different disciplines, department and partners in and around Lancaster University. As well as our series of fantastic seminars, we also wanted to use this time to focus on the future and decide the next steps for LEG. This July, we have engaged in a series of bid writing workshops with the LEG core team, using this time to decompress after a very busy June and strategize about what comes next.
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JULY 2024
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Sourdough Interview
17/07/2024
In recent years I've been asked to act as a participant in various research. Sometimes this is for colleagues., other times it's for students. Today I was interviewed by a fantastic MA student from the University of St Andrews about baking sourdough! I love engaging in these niche areas of research, and supporting students in their academic journey.
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Creative Evaluation goes to Southampton
15/07/2024
Myself, Elisavet Christou and Pınar Ceyhan led a Creative Evaluation workshop today at Southampton University. We had such a great group of attendees, it was lovely to share all we've learned over the past 5 years with them, and help them on their way to conducting more creative, productive, meaningful evaluations.
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LUMS Filming
09/07/2024
Today I took part in some promotional filming for the Lancaster University Management School (LUMS). In my research on evaluation I work closely with Elisavet Christou, Lecturer in Management and Organisation Studies at LUMS, and was asked to reflect on our collaboration. This is the first time I've been filmed for research purposes; it was a bit nerve racking, but I'm hopeful the outcome will showcase great interdisciplinary work we do at Lancaster University.
Photographed, Pınar Ceyhan being filmed.
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Festival of Making
06/07/2024 - 07/07/2024
There is no rest for the wicked. I got home from DIS last night and I'm right to the next event. This weekend I joined the Making Rooms for the Festival of making in Blackburn.
The National Festival of Making is a unique celebration of UK making, from the kitchen table to the factory floor. Presenting a programme of work that combines Art, Manufacturing, Making and Communities, we commission international and national artists to create world class works, a year round programme and a participatory FREE FAMILY festival for all to enjoy.
Myself and Mike Stead brought RepairLand V2 to do some user testing, as well as PetTap V1. We also ran a soldering activity that was so popular there was a queue! On Saturday we joined Tom MacPherson-Pope facilitating a beta workshop about Re:Play, our handheld console that helps young people to develop a love for repair. We had some young volunteers participate in the workshop, telling us what we need to develop next to make Re:Play usable, functional and fun!
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DIS Conference 2024
01/07/2024 - 05/07/2024
I've been at the DIS conference all this week in Copenhagen, and what a week its been! I've met some amazing researchers, heard some inspiring talks, karaoked!!!, and am thoroughly exhausted in the best way.
DIS Workshop
Today, members of the Fixing the Future Team led a workshop “Creating sustainable IoTs future. Aligning legal and research agendas.” We had some amazing participants who presented their research, we played games, we talked, and we post-it-noted (and despite my inability to count when preparing resources) we had a blast!
Zine Library
Also being featured at DIS is our zine, part of the informal zine Library. I love the addition of the zine corner at the conference, especially one thats unmoderated, so it simply is about sharing ideas/perspectives/cool things, providing a different kind of conference contribution. Our zine “What might a more sustainable Internet of Things look like?” provides insights into the interdisciplinary research that Fixing the Future explores.
I was presented a plaque today for best paper in the PWiP track at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Copenhagen for our paper “Fostering IoT Repair Through Care: Learning from Emotional Durable Gaming Practices and Communities”. You can now download the full paper here>>> https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656156.3663702
I got to make a cool poster too to summarise the paper. Any excuse to illustrate a Gameboy Color!
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JUNE 2024
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Lancaster Evaluation Group Event Series 4
27/06/2024
We welcomed Barbara Befani and Jessica Ozan to the final of the Lancaster Evaluation Group's (LEG) hybrid seminar series, discussing "Suitability and creativity in evaluation design: prioritising the needs of participants." This final seminar is bittersweet. I'm so proud of the seminar series that we at LEG have produced, but so sad its the last one! It won't be the end of our events at LEG, so watch this space.
Barbara Befani presented her work on "Hybridity and creativity in evaluative practice." Using single methodologies in evaluation is increasingly rare. There is now widespread awareness that designs ought to be bespoke and adapted to an evaluation's specific circumstances. Various terms have been used to describe these designs, but what does creating bespoke or hybrid designs mean and entail? Mixing, combining, adapting, comparing? This seminar attempts to clarify the ambiguity by distinguishing between four actions: comparing or selecting appropriate methods, co-designing evaluations by engaging stakeholders, combining or mixing otherwise self-standing options, and using hybrid (or inherently quali-quanti) methodologies. The discussion will include how to ensure quality under all of these circumstances.
Jessica Ozan presented her work on "Putting Children and Young People at the heart of evaluations." Some of the first evaluations in the United Stated focused on youth and educational policies (e.g., the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study in the 1930s, the Eight-Year Study 1932-1940). The studies aimed to capture the effectiveness of different juvenile delinquency interventions or curricula and very much focused on administrative data. Practice has drastically changed over the last century. Alongside the “new sociology of childhood” and children’s rights movement, evaluators are now trying to create safe spaces for children and young people to participate meaningfully in studies that concern them. Dr Ozan will explore what this means for evaluation practice today in the UK. What does participation look like? Is this compatible with all methodologies? Who commissions evaluations focusing on children and young people? What are they key challenges and pitfalls? And most importantly, why are we putting children and young people at the heart of our evaluations?
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Digital Good Network Summer School
24/06/2024
I was asked to be part of the Off-Key Note session at the ESRC Digital Good Network Summer School hosted at the University of Sheffield. The fantastic Alex Taylor, who was originally asked to deliver a traditional KeyNote, requested that instead of the normal speech or lecture format, instead different researchers of different backgrounds and stages in career are invited to form a panel. I was lucky enough to be asked, joined by Ben Collier and Ros Williams.
Despite some unexpected circumstances (a massive spider running out from under our chairs whilst I was in the middle of presenting 😅) it was such fun. Thanks to all the DGN team for your organisation to make this event possible, to the fantastic PhD students who bravely shared their research (wow what an amazing diversity of projects!), to Alex Taylor, Ros Williams and Ben Collier for being generally fantastic to present with (truly inspiring), and Daniel Richards for inviting me!
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Narrative RPG's Interview
21/06/2024
Today I was interviewed by an MA student about narrative Role Playing Games (RPGs). I've loved videogames since I was a young child, I've grown up in the 90's boom of mainstream household gaming consoles. RPG's are amongst my favourite style of game. I love the gripping narratives they provide, how you can shape a character, and try on different personas in a safe space. For example, in Star Wars Jedi Knights of the Old Republic (circa 2003) you could influence your character towards the light side or the dark side which would effect the story, dialogue options, and how NPCs acted towards you.
It was great to be asked to nerd out for an hour and talk about why I love these games! Photographed above is Fahrenheit, another favourite game of mine.
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DIS Best PWiP Award!
21/06/2024
I got notified today that our PWiP paper was awarded best paper in its category!
Fostering IoT Repair Through Care: Learning from Emotional Durable Gaming Practices and Communities
Electronic waste (e-waste) has become the fastest growing waste stream in the world. So called ‘smart’ Internet of Things (IoT) devices, now ubiquitous in our homes, are increasingly contributing to this waste stream, due to their lack of repairability and consumer cycles driven by planned obsolescence. However, other electronic household products, such as gaming devices, are often used and cared for by their owners for far longer than other IoT devices, whose protean lifecycles are driven by fast moving, profit-focussed consumer markets. This paper argues that by developing a deeper understanding of the relationship between gamers and their devices, and the communities they inhabit, design practitioners and researchers can learn to engender the design of IoT products that foster emotional durability and care, and support the development of more sustainable repair practices, to tangibly improve the lifespans of next generation IoT products.
The full paper will be published soon! Watch this space.
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Lancaster University Public Engagement Network
20/06/2024
Today myself and Elisavet Christou facilitated a workshop on Creative Evaluation Approaches for the Public Engagement Network at Lancaster University. We love visiting other institutions to share our work, but there is something extra special about sharing your findings in house. Thank you LU colleagues for some fantastic questions and discussions, I’m certain I’ve taken away just as much from this workshop as I shared!
Thank you for inviting us Jess Shaw we had a great time, we hope to continue working closely with Public Engagement Network.
A big shoutout to Pınar Ceyhan who unfortunately couldn’t join us but was integral to our planning and preparation for all the events we have run this week, you were missed!
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Lancaster Evaluation Group Event Series 3
19/06/2024
We welcomed Nathaniel Pickering, Samantha Child, Jonathan Schulte and Emma McDowell to the third of the Lancaster Evaluation Group's (LEG) hybrid seminar series, discussing "Exploring spaces for collective learning in evaluative practice." I had the privilege of facilitating this event and acting as host. Thank you so much to our speakers, it was an amazing day!
Nathaniel Pickering, Samantha Child, and Jonathan Schulte presented their work on "A manifesto for evaluation: An introduction to the Evaluation Collective." During the presentation, we provide an introduction to the Evaluation Collective, we talk through the Evaluation Collective manifesto and then discuss the Wicked Issues project.
Emma McDowell presented her work on "Creating space for collective learning: Centre for Cultural Value." Dr Emma McDowell from the Centre for Cultural Value will discuss the work behind the recently-launched Evaluation Learning Space, which uncovers learning hidden in evaluations from the cultural sector. As a tool to share insights and knowledge to support cultural organisations and practitioners, the resource hub has placed an initial focus on what we can learn from the evaluations of UK-based Cities and Capitals of Culture. Building on the work of the Centre in evaluation practice methodologies and training, these initial resources shed light on who was involved, what methods and frameworks were used and the challenges evaluation teams faced.
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Transforming Tomorrow Podcast
18/06/2024
Today I recorded a podcast with Elisavet Christou for the Transforming Tomorrow Podcast Series created by The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, Lancaster University. We spoke about our research on Creative Evaluation and Elisavet's work with the EVID tool.
Thanks to Jan Bebbington and Paul Turner for inviting us!
Listen to the full podcast here>>> https://pod.co/transforming-tomorrow/what-is-creative-evaluation
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Happy 90th Birthday!
15/06/2024
Today we celebrated my Nan's 90th Birthday. 4 Generations of the Owen's family travelled from London, York, Burnley, Bracknell, Windsor and Australia to Farnham to spend this special day with her.
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Creative Evaluation Workshop with UCL
13/06/2024
We are thrilled to have been a part of UCL’s “Transform: Creating Impact through Knowledge Exchange Programme.” Yesterday, together with my colleagues Elisavet Christou and Pınar Ceyhan we delivered a training session on Creative Evaluation Methods, exploring a variety of creative approaches to evaluation and how they can enhance impact activities.
Thank you very much to Tadhg Caffrey for the invitation, the UCL staff for their support and to all our participants for their contributions. We also had the experience of our workshop being captured by a visual note taker. This was awesome!
Thank you very much to Tadhg Caffrey for the invitation, the UCL staff for their support and to all our participants for their contributions. We also had the experience of our workshop being captured by a visual note taker. This was awesome!
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Lancaster Evaluation Group Event Series 2
10/06/2024
We welcomed Gemma Moore and Rick Davies to the second of the Lancaster Evaluation Group's (LEG) hybrid seminar series, discussing "Participatory and collaborative approaches to evaluation."
Gemma presented her work on "Coproducing evaluations: Evaluation that Engages." Voluntary and community organisations in the UK want, and are under pressure to, improve their capacity to evaluate their work, whilst universities have corresponding research skills and expertise. Within this session, we share a case study of how a university has respond to this need: the Evaluation Exchange. The Evaluation Exchange is a partnership between UCL and a community-infrastructure organisation Compost London . It is a structured 6-month programme that matches interdisciplinary teams of researchers with organisations to improve their capacity to evaluate their work. Rather than seeking to develop or promote one specific evaluation method we bring together different stakeholders with a range of skills, knowledge, and expertise to co-produce a bespoke solution that best fits the circumstances. Within this session we provide an introduction to the principles underlying the Evaluation Exchange, define what we mean by ‘co-productive evaluation’ , and outline some tensions of putting the principles to practice. We share the learning from delivering the programme, reflecting on the building capacity and capabilities in evaluation practice, supporting a shift in traditional evaluation practice.
Rick Davies presented his work on "The Most Significant Change" (MSC) technique: Its origins, how it works, and how it has been used 1994-2024." This presentation will describe the context in which MSC was developed and used, initially in a PhD thesis focused on field work conducted in 1994 Bangladesh. It will then explain the 10 steps in the design and use of a MSC process, as described in detail in the 2005 MSC Guide, describe some of the ranges of use of MSC since then, as accessible in the Zotero Online MSC Bibliography and present Rick's own assessment of the uses of the method, in light of its original design intentions.
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Lancaster Evaluation Group Event Series 1
03/06/2024
Today was the first of 4 events run by the Lancaster Evaluation Group. We welcomed Jonathan Schulte and Binda Patel to the first of the Lancaster Evaluation Group's (LEG) hybrid seminar series, discussing "Evolving Approaches and Expectations of Evaluation in Higher Education." It was a great kick-off to what promises to be an amazing series of seminars. I'm very proud to be part of the LEG team.
Jonathan Schulte presented his work on "The troubles of ‘good’ evaluation: Identifying practical tensions between participatory approaches, certainty, and usefulness." In the philosophy of science, a distinction is commonly made between epistemic and non-epistemic aims. Applied to evaluative practice, this paper argues that evaluation has both epistemic and non-epistemic goals: that beyond mere empirical adequacy (epistemic aim) evaluations also aim to produce morally adequate and useful findings (non-epistemic aims). However, in practice, tensions between these aims emerge. Specifically, on the level of method, there are trade-offs between practices considered to further the robustness of findings and those that may seek to reflect on the aims of projects or make findings more actionable. Discussing two examples of this tension, the paper concludes by suggesting that firstly, purely epistemic schemes for the appraisal of evaluative practice are inadequate, and secondly, that reflective tools such as Murray Saunders’ RUFDATA framework are important to surface these tensions and identify approaches adequate to project specific purposes.
Binda Patel presented her work on "An Evolving Approach to Evaluating Educational Programmes." The Sutton Trust has dedicated 25+ years to delivering high-impact programmes to over 50,000 young people. Our approach to evaluation has had to evolve in this time – from the needs of our young people changing, to increased focus on demonstrating impact, to our curiosity to understand ‘what works’. My presentation will cover how our approach has changed over the years, the tough questions we have had to ask ourselves, and how we test and evaluate innovative projects where the outcomes aren’t always clear from the outset.
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MAY 2024
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Fixing the Future at Low Wood
21/05/2024 - 22/05/2024
This week, myself and Mike Stead hosted the Fixing the Future All Hands Event at Low Wood Hotel in Windermere. We had beautiful weather, and plenty of fresh air, which really helped simulate our brains. It was a great chance to catch up with all our project teams from University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham and Edinburgh Napier, make plans for the year ahead.
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Northern Design Festival
18/05/2024
Today I acted as respondent for a panel "Value of Design in the Fight for Climate Change" at the Northern Design Festival. The NDF was created and run by students at Lancaster University. I can honestly say I am beyond impressed by the series of events they've created, managed and facilitated. We have some seriously talented students here!
It was great to take part in the panel today, talking all things climate change.
I then co-facilitated a workshop with Mike Stead and Tom MacPherson-Pope focusing on our education handheld console, Re:Play, which aims to help young people learn and love to repair. It was a great chance for our attendees to explore the kit.
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FiftyFourDegrees Magazine
01/05/2024
I recently coauthored an article for the FiftyFourDegrees Magazine produced for the Lancaster University Management School. Our article 'How Creativity Can Transform Evaluative Practice' explores how creative approaches can help to make evaluations more relevant, impactful and inclusive.
Read the full article here>>> https://doc.your-brochure-online.co.uk/Lancaster-University_FiftyFourDegrees_Issue_20/
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MARCH 2024
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The Future is a work in Progress Exhibition
15/03/2024
The future is a work in progress exhibition has run throughout the Festival of Futures. Tonight we held a special event just for invited attendees and held some intimate presentations of a selection of exhibited work. My contribution to the exhibition was the debut of RepairLand! I started creating RepairLand in October, its gone through many, many iterations, and been shaped, discarded, altered and influenced using a Research-through-Design process. It's great to see V1 finally created and ready for testing, I'm looking forward to the feedback and more opportunities to further refine the concept.
Take a walk through our collaborative exhibition as we share the culmination of five years dedicated pursuit of knowledge, funded through a groundbreaking E3 initiative by Research England in 2019. During this time four centres of design-research excellence across the UK applied their expertise to work at the intersection of design and global challenges:
The Centre for Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol
CFPR is a unique, multidisciplinary research centre that combines knowledge and skills across traditional and digital techniques to reflect, innovate and find creative solutions for the future of print.
CFPR is a unique, multidisciplinary research centre that combines knowledge and skills across traditional and digital techniques to reflect, innovate and find creative solutions for the future of print.
The Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University & Northumbria University (HBBE)
HBBE brings together architects, designers, engineers and bioscientists to work across disciplines and scales to create built environments which are life-sustaining and sustained by life.
HBBE brings together architects, designers, engineers and bioscientists to work across disciplines and scales to create built environments which are life-sustaining and sustained by life.
ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University
ImaginationLancaster provides a uniquely powerful bridge between industry, society and policy. Directly and through collaboration our design-led research contributes to a healthier, more prosperous, and sustainable world.
ImaginationLancaster provides a uniquely powerful bridge between industry, society and policy. Directly and through collaboration our design-led research contributes to a healthier, more prosperous, and sustainable world.
Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam University
Design for life and for living. An interdisciplinary community of researchers across design, healthcare and creative practices working together to address real world issues that impact on health and wellbeing.
Design for life and for living. An interdisciplinary community of researchers across design, healthcare and creative practices working together to address real world issues that impact on health and wellbeing.
This exhibition comprises of artefacts plus printed and audiovisual materials and interactive exhibits to showcase cutting-edge research undertaken by all four centres of research excellence. The research to be exhibited is funded from many UK Research Councils and other funders. Work will be shown under the following themes: Designing for health and wellbeing, Designing for net zero futures, Designing across disciplines and Digital futures.
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Social Design Symposium
14/03/2024
The Social Design symposium was organised by the Social Design Special Interest Group at ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University in the UK. It was a satellite event of the Festival of Futures, which ImaginationLancaster organised between the 8th and 15th of March 2024.
The symposium occurred on Thursday, 14th March, at the Storey building in the heart of Lancaster, UK. The main objective of the symposium was to bring together academics and general practitioners to discuss the future agendas of Social Design. The event started with three-panel discussions in which we explored the creation of social meaning through design, the practices of social design, and the future agendas for social design. The afternoon session brought participants and panellists together in an interactive session to discuss the future agendas for social design.
The symposium occurred on Thursday, 14th March, at the Storey building in the heart of Lancaster, UK. The main objective of the symposium was to bring together academics and general practitioners to discuss the future agendas of Social Design. The event started with three-panel discussions in which we explored the creation of social meaning through design, the practices of social design, and the future agendas for social design. The afternoon session brought participants and panellists together in an interactive session to discuss the future agendas for social design.
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Imagination Now & Next
08/03/2024
It was a great pleasure to be asked to take part in a panel on the opening night of the Festival of Futures. I was joined by fellow panellists Tom MacPherson-Pope and Ana Costa, and respondent Richard Brook to discuss the topic of sustainable futures.
Design research allows us to question prevailing approaches and inspire new ones, demonstrating not just what could be plausible in the near future but why it might be preferable. ImaginationLancaster – Lancaster University’s design and architecture research lab – creates a uniquely powerful sociotechnical bridge between academic disciplines, industry, society, and policy. Directly, and through collaboration, our research contributes to a healthier, more prosperous, and sustainable world.
Read more about the day's events here>>> https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fof2024/imagination-now-and-next/
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Festival of Futures
08/03/2024 - 15/03/2024
This week I've been taking part in lots of events as part of the ImaginationLancaster Festival of Futures. The festival is showcasing the research produced by ImaginationLancaster and its partners through the Beyond Imagination project, which ran from 2020-2024. I joined ImaginationLancaster as a PhD student at the start of this project in August 2020.
Join us as ImaginationLancaster and our partners showcase and explore the transformative power of design research, the difference we have made and how we can collaboratively design for a better tomorrow
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Fan Studies and Design Symposium
01/03/2024
Today I was on a panel at the Fan Studies and Design Symposium, talking about my research on Gamers. My work identifies Gamers as unintended sustainability activists. As fans of videogames, videogame devices often become treasured artefacts, which are cared for and maintained far beyond their protean lifecycles. This means that less consoles are discarded that other household electronic devices. In my panel talk I pose the question, what if we designed other electronic devices, like videogame devices? Would this change e-waste levels?
Fan studies and design are both relatively young disciplines, and ones which are familiar with interdisciplinarity, and with co-production and participation. Many fans take part in activities which might be considered design; from production of creative outputs such as fanvids and fanart, to community-led projects for activism, and creating platforms such as Archive of Our Own.
The purpose of this symposium is to bring together fan studies scholars and design researchers to discuss where new exciting research may emerge at the intersection of these two areas. We invite those who work in fan studies, and those who work in design research, or those who are already working between these areas. This joint expertise is not required, only a curiosity about one or both areas.
The event as great, I was so inspired by the incredibly varied research being conducted regarding fan studies. After the presentations we then made our own fan zines, surrounding topics we discussed during the morning.
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FEBRUARY 2024
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Evaluating Teaching and Learning in HE Forum
28/02/2024
It was a great pleasure to be asked to present our Little Book of Creative Evaluation at University of Warwick's 'Evaluating Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Forum' today, Thank you very much Kerry Dobbins for the invitation and Charlotte Stevens, Dr Jon Rainford, Dr Samantha Child and all the participants for the very interesting presentations and engaging discussion.
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Happy Baptism
17/02/2024
As well as research and I love baking. My bestie asked me to make a cake for her nephews Baptism. Despite preceeding illness, misery and heart ache, I made it! This is easily the biggest cake I've made, and whilst not perfect, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out and I've learned lots for the next one.
