L.A.G. Kolks
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7 records found
1
Co-evolution in practice
The wolf's disruptive return to the Netherlands
Dutchmen like to pride themselves on having ‘successfully conquered nature’ through engineering, management and design. Currently, however, this triumphant spirit has been dampened by global, regional, and local developments that expose established Dutch notions of malleability and control as fallacies. This paper uses the unsolicited return of wolves to the Netherlands as an explanatory case study to illustrate how in this unfolding controversy problem and solution spaces co-evolve and thus call for all-but-reductionist design and management approaches. Building on the crucial difference between problems (that can be solved) and issues (that can be stabilised), a model is proposed that explicates how problem and solution spaces can nest inside an overarching issue space. After analysing how Dutch citizens and officials respond to uncalled-for circumstances caused by the wolf’s uninvited homecoming, this model is used to argue for co-evolutionary thinking and acting to support harmonious more-than-human cohabitation in the Netherlands and beyond.
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Dutchmen like to pride themselves on having ‘successfully conquered nature’ through engineering, management and design. Currently, however, this triumphant spirit has been dampened by global, regional, and local developments that expose established Dutch notions of malleability and control as fallacies. This paper uses the unsolicited return of wolves to the Netherlands as an explanatory case study to illustrate how in this unfolding controversy problem and solution spaces co-evolve and thus call for all-but-reductionist design and management approaches. Building on the crucial difference between problems (that can be solved) and issues (that can be stabilised), a model is proposed that explicates how problem and solution spaces can nest inside an overarching issue space. After analysing how Dutch citizens and officials respond to uncalled-for circumstances caused by the wolf’s uninvited homecoming, this model is used to argue for co-evolutionary thinking and acting to support harmonious more-than-human cohabitation in the Netherlands and beyond.
User Concerns Regarding Social Robots for Mood Regulation
A Case Study on the “Sunday Blues”
Conference paper
(2026)
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Zhuochao Peng, Jiaxin Xu, Jun Hu, Haian Xue, Laurens A.G. Kolks, Pieter M.A. Desmet
While recent research highlights the potential of social robots to support mood regulation, little is known about how prospective users view their integration into everyday life. To explore this, we conducted an exploratory case study that used a speculative robot concept—Mora—to provoke reflection and facilitate meaningful discussion about using social robots to manage subtle, day-to-day emotional experiences. We focused on the “Sunday Blues,” a common dip in mood that occurs at the end of the weekend, as a relatable context in which to explore individuals’ insights. Using a video prototype and a co-constructing stories method, we engaged 15 participants in imagining interactions with Mora and discussing their expectations, doubts, and concerns. The study surfaced a range of nuanced reflections around the attributes of social robots like empathy, intervention effectiveness, and ethical boundaries, which we translated into design considerations for future research and development in human-robot interaction.
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While recent research highlights the potential of social robots to support mood regulation, little is known about how prospective users view their integration into everyday life. To explore this, we conducted an exploratory case study that used a speculative robot concept—Mora—to provoke reflection and facilitate meaningful discussion about using social robots to manage subtle, day-to-day emotional experiences. We focused on the “Sunday Blues,” a common dip in mood that occurs at the end of the weekend, as a relatable context in which to explore individuals’ insights. Using a video prototype and a co-constructing stories method, we engaged 15 participants in imagining interactions with Mora and discussing their expectations, doubts, and concerns. The study surfaced a range of nuanced reflections around the attributes of social robots like empathy, intervention effectiveness, and ethical boundaries, which we translated into design considerations for future research and development in human-robot interaction.
This article develops a synanthropic design approach. The Port of Rotterdam currently houses one of Europe’s largest colonies of the synanthropic species of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The thriving of this particular colony is entangled with human interventions and economic activities in the larger Dutch Delta. We map the managerial, legal, political, and economic interrelations and dependencies that animate the human and more-than-human contact zone. By including a gull's perspective on the Dutch delta environment, this study aims to support the facilitated coexistence of humans and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the Port of Rotterdam – now and in the future. The synanthropic design interventions and new governance model proposed in this study show how the Port of Rotterdam can be re-imagined as “Land of Gulls and Humans.”
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This article develops a synanthropic design approach. The Port of Rotterdam currently houses one of Europe’s largest colonies of the synanthropic species of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The thriving of this particular colony is entangled with human interventions and economic activities in the larger Dutch Delta. We map the managerial, legal, political, and economic interrelations and dependencies that animate the human and more-than-human contact zone. By including a gull's perspective on the Dutch delta environment, this study aims to support the facilitated coexistence of humans and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the Port of Rotterdam – now and in the future. The synanthropic design interventions and new governance model proposed in this study show how the Port of Rotterdam can be re-imagined as “Land of Gulls and Humans.”
Devices of Articulation
Who Ever Said They Have to Be Smart?
In this article, I argue to expand the application of the concept “devices of articulation”—a term signifying those artifacts that are purposefully created to articulate public issues: controversial phenomena that are too important not to be considered by designers but are not necessarily solvable by political or scientific means. Whereas problems might be fixed, issues can only be temporarily stabilized. I, therefore, investigate how two design projects—Smogware and the Rain Project—forge new relations, meanings, and consequences among elements that are typically understood to be unrelated, to support public engagement with the issue of environmental pollution.
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In this article, I argue to expand the application of the concept “devices of articulation”—a term signifying those artifacts that are purposefully created to articulate public issues: controversial phenomena that are too important not to be considered by designers but are not necessarily solvable by political or scientific means. Whereas problems might be fixed, issues can only be temporarily stabilized. I, therefore, investigate how two design projects—Smogware and the Rain Project—forge new relations, meanings, and consequences among elements that are typically understood to be unrelated, to support public engagement with the issue of environmental pollution.
Change Agents
Designers Interpreting ‘the Social’ and ‘Social’ Interpretations of Design
Book chapter
(2023)
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Laurens Kolks
Designers are a positive breed, and many scholars studying the extensive field of design and its professional history – including some involved with Cumulus Antwerp 2023 – seem to agree that designers can contribute to positive ‘societal impact.’ In this paper I investigate how these optimistic views of designers’ alleged ‘social agency’ are actually constituted, by describing how – over time – different notions of design have been mobilized in relation to various understandings of ‘the social.’ In current times of complex, layered, and interrelated crises especially, designers and design theorists need to get their vocabulary straight in order to specify what design can actually do – as well as what it can’t. I therefore argue that to articulate relevant and meaningful roles design might play concerning various problematic entanglements, it is essential to differentiate problems that can be fixed, from issues that can merely be stabilized (Marres, 2007), and approach both phenomena precisely for what they are. Moreover, by acknowledging that both problems and issues are not a given but rather need to be constructed, ‘designerly agency’ in relation to ‘societal change’ can be understood as consisting of both the framing, setting and solving of problems, as well as the articulation of issues, through the creation of objects, environments, services and systems.
...
Designers are a positive breed, and many scholars studying the extensive field of design and its professional history – including some involved with Cumulus Antwerp 2023 – seem to agree that designers can contribute to positive ‘societal impact.’ In this paper I investigate how these optimistic views of designers’ alleged ‘social agency’ are actually constituted, by describing how – over time – different notions of design have been mobilized in relation to various understandings of ‘the social.’ In current times of complex, layered, and interrelated crises especially, designers and design theorists need to get their vocabulary straight in order to specify what design can actually do – as well as what it can’t. I therefore argue that to articulate relevant and meaningful roles design might play concerning various problematic entanglements, it is essential to differentiate problems that can be fixed, from issues that can merely be stabilized (Marres, 2007), and approach both phenomena precisely for what they are. Moreover, by acknowledging that both problems and issues are not a given but rather need to be constructed, ‘designerly agency’ in relation to ‘societal change’ can be understood as consisting of both the framing, setting and solving of problems, as well as the articulation of issues, through the creation of objects, environments, services and systems.