I’m an Assistant Professor in the Digital Media program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I study the products and processes of interaction design. My research draws together the humanities, science and technology studies, and design to increase public engagement with technology and analyze the social and political uses of digital media.
Research Interests
Participation, Political Design, Sustainability, Public Design, Civic Media, Small-Scale Agriculture and Alternative Food Systems, Information Design for Food, Sensing Technologies and Practices, Information Visualization and Maps
My first book, Adversarial Design, is part of the Design Thinking / Design Theory series on MIT Press.
In this book I examine the ways that technology design can provoke and engage the political. I explore the political qualities and potentials of design by examining a series of projects that span design and art, engineering and computer science, agitprop and consumer products. I view these projects– which include computational visualizations of networks of power and influence, therapy robots that shape sociability, and everyday objects embedded with microchips that enable users to circumvent surveillance–through the lens of agonism, a political theory that emphasizes contention and dissensus as foundational to democracy. Through my analysis I aim to provide design criticism with a new approach for thinking about the relationship between forms of political expression, computation as a medium, and the processes and products of design.
Recent/Upcoming Travel and Events
November 14-16, Parsons School of Design, NY, NY
October 17-21, Social Studies of Science / EASST, Copenhagen, Denmark
October 4-6, Design Extravaganza, Austin, TX
September 11- 15, Design Research Society Conference Planning Meeting, Umea, Sweden
August 22 – 24, Values in Design Workshop, Irvine, CA.
Teaching
LMC 6650: Project Studio: Civic Media, Food Systems, and Interaction Design
Seminar: Mondays 1-3pm (required)
Open Studio: Mondays 3-4pm (optional, but strongly recommended)
Course Location: Public Design Workshop, 317-C TSRB
Project Studio Description
This project studio will investigate the design and use of civic media. Specifically, we will explore participatory and collaborative approaches to interaction and information design in the context of contemporary food cultures. Subjects will include: collective practices and methods in design, the computational representation of food data, the design of software and services for the exchange of food information, and the role of design in food politics.
This project studio combines design research and practice. Activities will include reading across the disciplines of design, human-computer interaction, and science and technology studies; the analysis of existing products and services; design ethnography; and the design and production of digital media products and services. Students from any discipline are welcome to enroll.
