Dr Fernando Galdon

His design practice experiments with the use of design, art, sociology, science and technology as mediums to reconfigure processes and systems of production to question the social, cultural, ethical and political context in which they operate.

Fernando’s research has been published and presented internationally at conferences at MIT, the University of Cambridge, the University of Manchester, the University of Côte d’Azur, UNISINOS Brazil, CHUV Lausanne, UPV Basque Country, EASD Valencia, Harvard, Politecnico di Milano or the Design Museum in London.

As part of his research, he has coined novel categories to address, problematise, and operationalise contemporary issues in design practise and research such as; Deep products; Object-Oriented-Upcycling; Exology; Synthetic consequential reasoning; Pluripolar knowledges; Biopoiesis: PolyGenetics; Counterism; or Exo-Aesthetics.

Fernando consults internationally for institutions and government on the future of design practice, design education and research.

Art and Humanities Research Council Studentship

This Studentship funded Fernand's MRes work on the Design Programme at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Papers

• Galdon, F., and Hall, A. (2024) Transformational Practices; Aligning Governance and Design., in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.923
• Galdon, F. (2024) Counterism and Trust; From Critical to Tactical Design, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.913
• Hall, A., & Galdon, F. (2023). Transferability vs. repeatability: Consolidating the ontological nature of design research at CUMULUS CAFA 2023, Beijing, China, 22-24 Nov 2023.
• Lee, C. H., Balint, T., Ram C., Bo, K., Manoj, L., Yoonji, C., Haena, Sun, Y., Sommer, B., Galdon, F., and Asadipour, A., (2023). Space-grounded: Developing an antidepressant inhalation device using natural materials to enhance crew well-being at SpaceCHI 3.0 A Conference on Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration, Boston, USA, 22-23 Jun 2023.
• Fantini van Ditmar, D., Galdon, F., Hall, A. & Webster, D., (2023). Design Futures; a new educational framework for design education for the 21st Century at The Future of Design Education: Proceedings of InFuSED23, Bangalore, India, 7 Jan 2023.
• Galdon, F., Hosker, H., Garcia, H., Eliot, W., Tsiganchuk, A., Wang, S., Fantini, D.,and Phillips, R.(2023) Bio-Brutalism; five case studies framing the emergence of new raw aesthetics at the intersection of material regeneration, environmental design, and craft, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.202
• Hall, A., &  Galdon, F. (2023) Transferability: Exploring ontological properties for design knowing at CUMULUS CAFA Beijing 2023, Beijing, China, 22-24 Nov 2023.
• Galdon, F., Fantini van Ditmar, D., and Hall, A. (2023). Deep products: A multi-dimensional taxonomy of subtraction-by-design approaches ARXIU, 1 (2). ISSN 2951-9810 (In Press)
• Galdon, F., and Hall, A. (2022) Deep products via undisciplined stewardship: Towards an environmentally-led design pedagogy for the 21st century, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.455
• Galdon, F. & Hall, A. (2021). (Un)Frayling design research in design education for the 21Cth Conference: The European Academy of Design (EAD2021); Safe Harbours. At: Lancaster, UK. DOI: 10.5151/ead2021-151
• Ferrarello, L., Fiadeiro, R.P., Hall, A., Galdon, F., Anderson, P., Grinyer, C., Stevens, J.,and Hee Lee, C.(2021) Learning remotely through diversity and social awareness: The grand challenge approach to tackle societal issues through diversity and creative thinking, in Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Pan, L., Börekçi, N.A.G.Z., Zhang, Y. (eds.), Learn X Design 2021: Engaging with challenges in design education, 24-26 September, Shandong University of Art & Design, Jinan, China. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.03.210
• Galdon, F., Hall, A. (2020). The right to reparations: a new digital right for repairing trust in the emerging era of highly autonomous systems. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2020) Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Galdon, F., Hall, A. (2020). Synthetic Consequential Reasoning: Facilitating the design of synthetic morality in highly automated systems via a multidimensional-scalar framework. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2020) Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Galdon, F., Hall, A., & Ferrarello, L. (2020). Designing trust in Artificial Intelligence: A comparative study among specifications, principles and levels of control. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies: Future Applications (IHIET-AI 2020) Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Galdon, F., Hall, A. & Wang, S. J. (2019). Prospective design: A future-led mixed-methodology to mitigate unintended consequences. Proceedings of the International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference IASDR2019, The University of Manchester, UK.
• Galdon, F., & Wang, S. J. (2019). From apology to compensation; A multi-level taxonomy of trust reparation for highly automated virtual assistants. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2019) conference August 22-24, 2019, Nice, France.
• Galdon, F., & Wang, S. J. (2019). Addressing accountability in highly autonomous virtual assistants. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2019) conference August 22-24, 2019, Nice, France.
• Galdon, F., & Wang, S. J. (2019). Optimizing user engagement in highly automated virtual assistants to improve energy management and consumption. Proceedings of the Applied Energy Symposium, MIT Media Lab, 22-24 May 2019.
• Galdon, F., & Wang, S. J. (2019). Future development of AI Virtual Assistants (VAs) in Energy management and consumption. Proceedings of the Applied Energy Symposium, MIT Media Lab, 22-24 May 2019.
• Rodgers, P., Galdon, F., Bremner, C. (2020). Design Research-in-the-Moment: Eliciting Evolutive Traces during the Covid-19 Crisis. Design Research Journal 13(3):18 Follow journal
• Galdon, F., Hall, A, Ferrarello, L. (2020). Futuring and trust; A prospective approach to designing trusted futures via a comparative study among design future models. Design Culture Symposium (DCS)
• Galdon, F., Hall, A, Ferrarello, L. (2020). Futuring and trust; A prospective approach to designing trusted futures via a comparative study among design future models. Design Research Journal (accepted, to be published in next issue)
• Galdon, F., Bertelsen, S. E. Jeremy Hulse, J., Hall, A, (2020). Object-Oriented-Upcycling: An object-based approach to the circular economy. Conference Paper. International Upcycling Symposium 2020 Research and Practice
• Galdon, F., Hall, A, Ferrarello, L. (2021). Enhancing abductive reasoning in design and engineering education via probabilistic knowledge: a case study in AI. International conference on engineering and product design education.
• Ferrarello, L, Rute, P.C.F, Hall, A, Galdon, F, Anderson, P, Grinyer, C, Stevens, J, Lee, C,H. (2021). Learning Remotely through Diversity and Social Awareness. The Grand Challenge approach to tackle societal issues through diversity and creative thinking, LearnxDesign.
• Galdon, F., Hall, A. (2021). (Un)Frayling design research in design education for the 21Cth. The 14th EAD Conference; Safe harbours, Lancaster, UK, 11-16 Oct 2021.

Chapters

• Galdon, F. (2024). The polygenetic designer In: Bremner, Jonathan Craig, Rodgers, Paul and Innella, Giovanni, (eds.) Design for the Unthinkable World: Strange Ecology and Unwelcome Change. Design Research for Change . Routledge, New York, pp. 69-87. ISBN 9781003370680
• Rodgers, P., Bremner, C., Galdon, F. (2024). The Usefulness of Imperfect Design”. In book: Design and Covid-19: From Reaction to Resilience. Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishers, London.
• Galdon, F., Hall, A. (2019). The ontological nature of design; prospecting new futures through probabilistic knowledge. Design Research for Change Symposium. Design Museum, London. ISBN 978-1-86220-369-3
• Galdon, F., & Wang, S. J. (2019). Designing trust in highly automated virtual assistants: A taxonomy of levels of autonomy. Artificial Intelligence in Industry 4.0: A collection of innovative research case-studies. International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence Technologies IAIT. Cambridge, UK.
• Rodgers, P. A., Bremner, C., Galdon, F. (2022). The Usefulness of Imperfect Design. In: Design and Covid-19: From Reaction to ResiliencePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishers, London.

Books

• Galdon, F., Rodgers, P., & Bremner, C. (2024). Chronicles of Care: A Design History of the COVID-19 Virus. Publisher: Vernon Press. ISBN: 978-1-64889-718-4
• Rodgers, P., Galdon, F., Bremner, C. (2020). A Design History of the Covid-19 Virus. Publisher: Lancaster University. ISBN: 978-1-86220-390-7

Rerports

• Hall, A, (2021). Design For Safety Grand Challenge Report. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19588.65923

Cases

• Craft, B., & Dare, E. (2012). Physical Computing, Handcranked Press, August 2012. Publication by project: Digital Brownie by Fernando Galdon and Catherine M. Weir.
• McConnon, N. et al., (2013). Digital Revolution. Eds. Barbican International Enterprises, London. Publication by project: Digital Brownie by Fernando Galdon and Catherine M. Weir

Workshops

• 2018 – Designing trust in AI
• 2018 – The future of virtual assistants on sustainability
• 2020 – Prospective design
• 2021 – Decolonising trust in UI
• 2021 – What is design?
• 2022 –Designing Trust
• 2022 – Futures
• 2023 – READ Spain – Future of design education

Projects

• ‘A design history of COVID-19’, a research-on-the-moment initiative supported by the AHRC Research for change initiative.
• IMPACT, a collaboration module between the RCA, ICL, and Westminster City Council approaching smart cities from a human-centred perspective.
• He is part of the inaugural International Upcycling Research Network (UKRI AHRC Research Network Project; (AH/W007134/1))

Conferences

• (2024) The Design Research Society Conference DRS2024, MIT, Harvard, Northeaster University, Boston, USA
• (2023) The International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference IASDR2023, Politecnico di Milano, IT
• (2022) The Design Research Society Conference DRS2022, The University of Banque Country, SP
• (2021) 23rd International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, Denmark
• (2021) The European Academy of Design EAD2021; Safe Harbours. Lancaster, UK
• (2021) The Design Research Society Conference DRS2021, LEARNXDESIGN 2021: VISUAL PAPERS, China
• (2020) Design Culture Symposium (DCS), Brazil.
• (2019) The International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence Technologies. The University of Cambridge, UK.
• (2019) The 1st International Conference on Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies, The University of Côte d'Azur, Nice, FR.
• (2019) Applied Energy Symposium AEAB2019, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA.
• (2019) The International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference IASDR2019, The University of Manchester, UK

Member

• (2023 – Ongoing) Educational Development Board at READ Spain.

Peer reviewer

• (2024) DRS2024 Boston, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern
• (2023) IADRS2023 Milan, Politecnico di Milano