NADR25: Utopian or Dystopian Digital Futures |
| Website | https://nadr.nl/yeartheme/utopian-or-dystopian-digital-futures/ |
| Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nadr25 |
| Abstract registration deadline | March 1, 2025 |
| Submission deadline | June 1, 2025 |
| Full article submission deadline | October 1, 2025 |
NADR is the Dutch National platform for Applied Design Research. NADR annualy performs a "knowledge cycle" of which the results are recorded in joint publications. For earlier publications see the NADR website at https://nadr.nl/publicaties/
NADR25 is the 2025 knowledge cycle on the topic of Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence:
Utopian or Dystopian Digital Futures
Authors are invited to submit a text with a length of approximately 1000 words by 6 June 2025 through the easychair system. Please add your text as a pdf. At least one author per contribution will be required to participate in the collective editorial session of 10 June 2025, afternoon, in Utrecht, for the further development of the joint publication. Note: if you have submitted in the first round, please revise your contribution.
Submission Guidelines
All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference.
All submissions must be co-written between design researchers and design practitioners (or, in case of one author, show evidence of both design research and design practice/design research applied in practice).
As a general guidance, please take into account that for any prospective publication (particularly if it is going to be the next volume in the NADR book series) your contribution will have to remain relevant at the time of publication, which could be in late 2026 (a preliminary release in the form of preceedings is planned for fall 2025).
Please note: The sections on subject and tone and treatment have been adapted following the first editorial session of 2 April 2025:
Subject
- Essentials in the evolving relation between Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence – approaches, practices, tools
- Artificial Intelligence, on one hand, offers countless possibilities for design, from pattern discovery over automation of tasks and generation of creative content to hyper-personalization and autonomous agency of inanimate objects. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence requires to be designed and critically used by both design practitioners and researchers – human-centrically, ethically, ecologically, iteratively and systemically.
- What are at this point in time the essential questions emerging from the interaction of design and AI? Can AI be human-centred? Can AI be meaningful in co-design and what are trade-offs?
- What are the societal and cultural implications of mainstream AI, and how could they be prevented? Which reframing and experiments help with that?
Tone and treatment
- The piece should be informative and represent an in depth theoretical or empirical engagement with the subject. The information should be well supported by facts and elaborated in figures as appropriate.
- We would prefer you to use simple business-like English, with short sentences.
- Please avoid any overt marketing of your brand or organization. If at all, these should be mentioned as examples of a point you are making, e.g. illustrating it in the form of case studies.
- Please add a paragraph detailing the contributions by design researchers (mandatory), design practitioners (mandatory), and AI-tools (if used) at the end of your contribution
List of Topics
Instead of a List of Topics, the first working session on Wednesday 2 April 2025 in Utrecht developed the following routes as suggestions for approaching your subject:
- Exploration (e.g. what is creativity anyway?) — Abduction (what could AI be?) — Niche AI (how to move beyond mediocracy/sameness?) — Trade-offs (how to keep identity? how to apply AI in a sustainable, meaningful and ethical way?)
- What can design/designers see, want, need, fear, hope in/from/of AI?
- Role of AI (skills extension, quality control, efficiency, assistance, buddy, analyst, decision maker, helper with complexity) vs. role of the designer (executing control, meriting trust, adding value(s), holding pride, authenticity).
- Or: Take an autoethnographic stance: using systematic self-reflection on personal experiences to understand and describe the evolving relation between Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence
Timeline
Submission of abstracts (max. 300 words): 1 March 2025
Working session: 5 March 2025, 13-17h
Submission of extended abstracts (approx. 1000 words): 6 June 2025
- Working session 10 June 2025 (participation of min. 1 author per submission required)
- in that session we will work on sharpening the message of the overall publication
- discuss possible overlaps and synergies which might result in the suggestion of merging sumissions or splitting them up
- identify relevant gaps regarding the overall treatment of the topic and decide how to address them
Final submission deadline for articles (approx. 3000 words): 1 October 2025
- Publication of precedings at the work conference on 20 October 2025
- Pending funding and negotiations, a NADR 2025 book publication is envisaged for 2026.
Program Committee
- Peter Troxler, Hogeschool Rotterdam
- Anja Overdiek, De Haagse Hogeschool
- Catelijne van Middelkoop,
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to NADR25 <at> easychair.org