Design A* Research Collaboration - DARC
The research environment consists of researchers including the specializations interaction design, art, design, user-centered design, participatory design, artificial intelligence, 3D, virtual reality (VR), e-democracy, social media, mobility, co-creation, health, technology and learning. Orientations and applications vary over time and relate to the development in society, this whilst the discipline of design both persists and holds us together. We perform research within the combination of information technology, society, and people, i.e. in the subject of informatics.
The mission of DARC is to advance knowledge within the fields of digital design and informatics. We address a breadth of designerly and societal challenges through the following lenses.
Design, through which — across a space from digital design practice to the designed digital artifact — we explore the domains of experimental, critical, and commercial design. This through conducting design and design research into and through the education and professional practice of the digital designer, thus creating designerly knowledge about the making and theory of digital design.
A* – The A in the acronym DARC is open for adaptation based on the research group's needs developments and who in the research environment may use the letter, for example A for Art, Architecture, AI or Action. The fluidity of this letter is intentional, whereas the other letters in the acronym identify what we have in common.
Research of the real and ultimate particular is our main approach when inquiring about design phenomena and what ought to be brought to existence in a world in an Anthropocene world in which most things are designed by humans rather than naturally existing. In this view our research approach also leads to critique of the designs that work as viable wholes and those that do not.
Collaboration as an essential part of design, involving many parties, and affecting even more. As such, our design projects aim to include as many stakeholders as possible, the challenge being taking "design leaps" where we use techniques to allow participation in the exploration of what is possible. We design by designing the design process through collaboration.
Publications and projects
Find DARCs publications and project in Kristianstad University's research portal.