Design Research

Malmö University is an innovative, urban and international institute of higher education, located in the city centre of Malmö. Malmö University is characterized by global engagement, community involvement, and a multidisciplinary, challenge based approach to education, research and collaboration.

At the School of Arts and Communication (K3), we work with interdisciplinary education and research in media, culture and design. We combine traditional scientific and academic theory with artistic methods and practical elements.

Sara Gottschalk

If the 20s will be the “decade of change”, and how action will be taken to create a sustainable robust society, is still to be seen. Without doubt there are plenty of ideas of what direction we shall take. These ideas are pointing into different directions and not seldomly they are in conflict with each other. I have a particular interest in how design can play a role to make these colliding ideas and competing interests can come visible and what is being prioritized when looking for solutions. In my research I look into how ideas for (especially environmental) sustainability plays out in designs for home and housing - a matter that is of interest to all of us, as individuals and to society as a whole.

Per Linde, PhD in Interaction design

Smart cities research – Performing urbanity

Discourses on political participation, urban studies, innovation and ICT development are becoming more and more entangled. Within the context of urbanity much falls into the realm of "smart cities" implementing digital technologies as to improve urban life. But we can also understand the combination of ICTs and networked communities to form a social capital where participation is located in everyday material practices and that these are connected with other modalities of action such as innovation or democratization.This talk introduces a critical take on the notion of Smart cities research.

Alicia Smedberg

A city is a collection of innumerable public spheres, both physical and social, that are constantly evolving. As a doctoral candidate in Participatory Design Alicia’s work centres around how marginalised voices can be both included and excluded from these publics through the process of designing. In this short talk she will introduce the concept of “infrastructuring”, and muse briefly over its political implications.

Marika Hedemyr

How to Experience a Place with Mixed Reality

Marika Hedemyr, artist and choreographer creating mixed reality walks, will discuss how performativity and embodiment are integral parts of Augmented and Mixed Reality experiences for public spaces. These digital technologies can be used to experience a location anew, and Hedemyr will share the potential and pitfalls by highlighting design issues and current research questions developed in her ongoing PhD project.

Emilia Bergmark

will present ’A Home’ an artistic research project that looks upon how the modern home has been commodified, how property websites have become the contemporary tool for daydreaming in, and speculated that Carl Larsson might have been the first modern lifestyle blogger. The project is developed at the Risk Lab at Malmö University and Bergmark have invited researcher and writer Miranda Cox to write a text for the project. Emilia Bergmark is an artist and graphic designer who teach at K3 MAU.   

Webite link https://emiliabergmark.com/

Maliheh Ghajargar

Designing Human-AI Tangible and Explainable Interactions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in everyday objects in home and work environments, and it is changing not only how end users interact with computers and computing objects, but also the nature and modalities of those interactions. As these systems automate perceptions, pattern recognitions, interpretations, and judgments formerly made by humans, they raise questions of transparency, privacy, fairness, and trust.

One approach to addressing such concerns is Explainable AI (XAI), which seeks to reveal the how and why of AI decisions to user. My research contributes to the area XAI from a Tangible and Embodied Interaction perspective.

My research aims to explore and design new ways of interaction between users and ML models, to improve the user experience, and by that the accuracy of the model. It is carried out in collaboration with IoTaP research center at Malmö University.

My research interest is in social learning, observation and imitation – and how the design of learning processes and learning materials can take advantage of the social interplay between learners. I have a PhD in cognitive science and a background as a visual artist – and my research draws on both of these. I am also very interested in using video for capturing and analyzing designed artefacts in use. Weblink: www.symmetry.one 

We all live in a world surrounded by materials - the scent of fresh wood, the soft silk cloth and the sound of metal. We experience materials through our senses and interpret them through our memories and earlier experiences. We have become used to plastic in the last 100yrs, and it has changed our expectations on materials. Plastic is ok to use and dispose but leather and wood we take care of and appritiate through a lifetime. How can we change our relationship with materials, so it becomes sustainable? What do we consider as material resources? Today we can create new materials from food waste, seaweed, and residue from agriculture. My research focuses on how we, as designers, can contribute to sustainable and reflective material practices.