Research

Media Technology’s research is interdisciplinary, bringing together technical and design perspectives with an understanding how humans interact with digital artifacts and the societal implications of interactive media. Our research has four main themes:

Participatory and norm-critical design

In this area, research focuses on participatory design processes in which users co-create change. Research includes analyses of how interactive media affect urban environments, how digitalisation can contribute to sustainable development, and the challenges and opportunities that can arise at the interface between technological development, culture and social structure, along with critical reflections on sustainability and social justice. An important strand in this theme explores how design can interrogate and reshape norms, placing a strong focus on norm-critical and feminist design, such as the analysis of how digital platforms – through #MeToo and similar movements – contribute to renegotiating power structures. Combining theoretical frameworks with practical design methodologies creates new ways of understanding how digital media can work as tools for social change and inclusion.

Design and creative practices

This theme encompasses research on, and through, design and design explorations. Research also explores how both traditional and digital design practices can evolve and be understood in new ways, for example by studying maker practices, traditional craft practices and children’s creative activities. A current focus is the examination of creative processes that involve co-creation and co-programming with generative AI, exploring issues such as agency, creativity and control using post-humanist perspectives. Research within this theme has contributed to new understandings of literacy in relation to materials and processes, as well as of design as identity formation. Another dimension of this research concerns the relationship between digital and physical materials, and how a focus on bodily and physical interaction can contribute to new insights into hybrid experiences and experience design.

Games and storytelling

Game design research is conducted within this theme, focusing on how interactive digital narratives can be constructed and experienced. It examines both the technical and creative dimensions of games and storytelling. One area within this theme concerns the study of gameplay and player experiences, examining narrative structure, game mechanics and how narrative techniques can be integrated to create engaging and immersive experiences. The use of alternative narratives and empirical methods to measure prosocial impacts is a challenge to traditional narrative techniques. Another strand explores the relationship between business models, design ecosystems and game design, for example in adult games. Overall, this theme contributes to the development of innovative models for how games and interactive digital narratives can both provide entertainment and encourage critical reflection on digital culture.

Media technology and learning

This theme examines the digitalisation of schools and how interactive media are reshaping and changing educational activities and environments. One strand of this research aims to develop models for the integration of technological solutions and teaching to support learning and pedagogical processes. The theme also includes research that discusses the link between theoretical knowledge and practical application, investigating how digital tools can be integrated into educational environments, how academic identity is shaped in practice-oriented contexts, and how theoretical reflection can become an integral part of design and development processes.