Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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PAPERS: Design Philosophy: Amplifying the Unheard (Session 1) Location: Appleton Tower, LT4 Zoom link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-4-edinburgh Session Chair: Fernando Del Caro Secomandi, Delft University of Technology Session Chair: Daniel Portugal, State University of Rio de Janeiro | |
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Opening portals to the posthuman: A pedagogical framework for materializing philosophy University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign This paper critiques dominant design pedagogies for their alignment with positivist and modernist paradigms, which limit design’s capacity for serious philosophical inquiry. It argues that Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) pedagogy offers an alternative philosophy, functioning as a powerful method for fomenting critical engagement by enabling students to materialize abstract concepts. Drawing on a case study from an undergraduate course on human-robot-cyborg relations, the paper employs the metaphor of 'portals' to analyse three thematic case studies. Each portal opens onto a distinct philosophical debate: the nature of reality and the self, the biopolitics of the body, and the networked subject. The analysis of student work and reflections indicates how the pedagogical framework enabled students to independently enter into dialogue with these complex themes. The paper concludes by presenting a model for 'portal-making,' positioning design education as a critical practice for exploring the ethical and ontological dimensions of a posthuman condition. View Paper: https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1505
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