Green Yonder - Sustainable Design Futures

Dr Michael Stead
Michael is Lecturer in Sustainable Design Futures at Lancaster University’s School of
Design and Imagination Design Research Lab. His practice-based research explores the systemic
opportunities and challenges emerging data-driven technologies (including AI and IoT) pose for
achieving climate goals like Net Zero and Circular Economies. Cutting across Design and Computing,
he advances Speculative, More-than-Human and Participatory Design approaches to develop
strategies with communities and industry that support adoption of sustainable and equitable data-
driven technologies and practices. Michael’s funded research projects include EPSRC InterNET
ZERO, AHRC Generation Fix, EPSRC Fixing the Future, EPSRC-ESRC Repair Shop 2049 and
EPSRC Edge of Reality. He leads the Sustainable Regenerative Design Futures research group at
Imagination Design Research Lab.

Violet Owen
Violet is a Senior Research Associate for the EPSRC Fixing the Future: The Right-to-Repair
and Equal IoT project for which she is exploring how Serious Games can be used to encourage social
transitions towards cultures of smart technology repair. Violet is also a Postgraduate Researcher at
Imagination Design Research Lab. Her doctoral research focuses on Creative Evaluation approaches,
and how these can be used to establish the social impact of Social Innovations.

Professor Paul Coulton
Professor of Speculative and Game Design
Research Overview
Paul is the Chair of Speculative and Game Design within Imagination and the School of Design. His practice uses research through design to create experiential futures which deliberately mix a present experience with a speculative future that are concretised by combining immersive scenarios with artefacts produced as design fictions or speculative designs. His work has helped establish a particular form of Speculative Design; Design Fiction, as a research method exploring futures for areas such as the Internet of Things and Artificial intelligence. His current research focusses on more-than-human design to expand design approaches so that they play greater consideration to human and non-human actants within the complex assemblages in which new product and services exist particularly in relation to sustainability and climate change.