In addition to electing its new chairs, the DRS International Advisory Council has also elected new members to the Executive Board. Laura Forlano, Dan Lockton and Paul Hekkert will be joining the board while Peter Lloyd steps down as Chair to join the Board as Treasurer, and Anna Vallgårda and Rebecca Cain become Chairs of the International Advisory Council and the Executive Board, respective.
Read more below from the new members of the Executive Board about what they are looking forward to achieving in their roles.
Having served as Chair of the past three years and overseen the governance transition of the DRS, it is important that new leadership takes the Society forward in a more distributed way. My aim is to provide support to the new Chair to ensure the financial sustainability of the Society in meeting its strategic objectives. - Peter Lloyd, TU Delft
I'm honoured to be elected to the DRS's executive board, after two years on the international advisory council collaborating with some wonderful people. I intend to use the role—as well as supporting my colleagues—to explore two main possibilities for the DRS. One is around the more practical aspects of design research: the projects, prototypes, experiences, and so on which are central to the work of many in our community, from research through design, to workshops, to craft and making, of technologies and tools but also events, exhibitions, and encounters. I want to investigate (with participation of the DRS membership, and other members of the IAC and EB who are also interested in these kinds of questions) how we can better represent and provide a higher profile venue for this kind of work within the DRS conferences, and a durable (and citeable) home in the new Digital Library. The second area I would like to work on is around how the DRS could itself become a project collaborator or participant, for example in funding applications around developing design research expertise networks and capabilities internationally. I believe we could participate in networks and projects (and collaborate with other organisations) in a strategic way, securing funding which would perhaps enable researchers who have fewer opportunities for funding design research (for example in countries where this is less available, or simply due to the precarity of academic careers) to gain access to new opportunities, with the support of the DRS. I'm looking forward to starting to develop these themes. - Dan Lockton, Eindhoven University of Technology
I’m thrilled to join the DRS Executive Board in order to continue the strong trajectory that the community has launched in recent years. I will focus on the intersections between DRS & other like-minded, interdisciplinary communities in the social sciences and humanities in particular, those communities that already have activities focused on showcasing design and creative practice. I will also support the DRS digital library in terms of exploring ways of publishing prototypes, projects and creative works in addition to traditional papers. I will seek to broaden membership in DRS in North & South America.
- Laura Forlano, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
After serving DRS for two years as chair of the Advisory Council, I am honored to join the executive board. I look forward to further define the fundamentals of design research and reach out to all international design organizations to jointly bring our field to a next level.
- Paul Hekkert, TU Delft