Professor Paul Coulton

Professor of Speculative and Game Design

Research Overview

Paul is the Chair of Speculative and Game Design within Imagination and the School of Design. His practice uses research through design to create experiential futures which deliberately mix a present experience with a speculative future that are concretised by combining immersive scenarios with artefacts produced as design fictions or speculative designs. His work has helped establish a particular form of Speculative Design; Design Fiction, as a research method exploring futures for areas such as the Internet of Things and Artificial intelligence. His current research focusses on more-than-human design to expand design approaches so that they play greater consideration to human and non-human actants within the complex assemblages in which new product and services exist particularly in relation to sustainability and climate change.

Re-imagining Alternative Futures of Sustainability Through Design Fiction
01/11/2023 → 01/04/2024
Research

E3: InterNET ZERO: Towards Resource Responsible Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
01/04/2023 → 30/06/2024
Research

E3: Fixing the Future: The Right to Repair and Equal-IoT
01/08/2022 → 31/03/2025
Research

E3: Edge of Reality (ER)
01/04/2022 → 28/02/2023
Research

Trust Me? (I’m an Autonomous Machine)
12/04/2021 → 31/03/2022
Research

FLF: The Next Generations: Design Research in the 21st Century
01/11/2020 → 23/01/2025
Research

E3: AHRC Design Fellowships: Challenges of the Future 2020
01/02/2020 → 30/06/2020
Research

Experiencing the Future Mundane
01/09/2019 → 30/09/2023
Research

PETRAS 2 - Uncanny AI (UncanAI)
01/08/2019 → 01/05/2021
Research

Augmented Humanity: Does the Human Enhance the Machine or the Machine Enhance the Human?
01/01/2019 → 29/10/2019
Research

PETRAS: Extension - demonstrator
01/11/2018 → 30/04/2019
Research

Objects of Immersion
05/02/2018 → 04/08/2018
Research

Cyber Security of the Internet of things
28/02/2016 → 31/08/2019
Research

Design Fiction: The Movie Joe Lindley
01/02/2016 → 31/03/2018
Research

Digital Personhood: Creating and Exploring Digital Empathy
01/10/2013 → 31/03/2016
Research

Taking the Artwork Home
01/05/2013 → 31/01/2017
Research

moBile sociAl netwoRking supporTing local Ethical tRading
29/04/2013 → 31/12/2014
Research

The Creative Exchange
09/01/2012 → 30/06/2017
Research

Citizens Transforming Society: Tools for Change
01/11/2011 → 30/04/2015
Research

Exploratory use of mobile phone technology to assess the impact of traffic related air pollution on children on the journey to school.
01/01/2007 → 31/12/2009
Research

UKRI TAS Hub InterNET ZERO project @ ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

External Examiner MSc in Connected Environments UCL
Examination

PhD Examination @ Royal College of Art
Examination

AHRC Research Funding Review
Expert Opinion

AHRC Research Funding Review
Expert Opinion

PhD Examination @ Edinburgh College of Art
Examination

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel

External Examiner MSc in Connected Environments UCL
Examination

AHRC Research Funding Review
Expert Opinion

PhD Examination @ University of Primorska
Examination

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel

The future is a work in progress Exhibition at the Festival of Futures
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Imagination Now & Next at the Festival of Futures
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Re-imagining Alternative More-than-Human Futures of Sustainability
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel

Re-imagining Alternative Futures of Sustainability Through Design Fiction
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

AHRC Research Funding Review
Expert Opinion

Enhancing the UK Economy through Immersive Technology
Invited talk

Design Futuring: Speculative Design and Design Fiction
Invited talk

External Examiner MSc in Connected Environments UCL
Examination

AHRC Research Funding Review
Expert Opinion

PhD Examination (Internal) @ Lancaster
Examination

AI Futures
Symposium

PhD Examination @ Northumbria School of Design
Examination

Bluedot Festival 2023
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Bath Digital Festival 2023
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Alien Futuring: Speculative Approaches to More-Than-Human Design
Invited talk

Caravan from the Future
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

PhD Examination (internal) @ Lancaster
Examination

ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Alien Futuring: shifting perspective from a one-world-world to a world of many worlds
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

TEA Talks
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Digital Design Weekend @V&A for London Design Festival
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

British Science Festival 2022
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

ISF DSTL Stories4Policy: Speculative Futures for Engaging with Risk and Uncertainty
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

ISF DSTL Stories4Policy conference: Experiential Futures - Exhibits Panel Discussion
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Ethical Dilemma Cafe as part of Mozilla Festival 2022
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Ghosts in the Smart Home
Oral presentation

PhD Examination (internal) @ Lancaster
Examination

PhD Examination (internal) @ Lancaster
Examination

Seeing the spaces in between: Philosophical perspectives for exploring spatial configurations in games
Oral presentation

AI: more than human
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Sustainable Things: Design for More-Than Human Centred Worlds
Invited talk

Designing More-Than-Human Futures
Invited talk

Defuturing Futures through More-Than-Human Centred Design
Invited talk

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (Swiss Design Symposia)
Other

more-than-human centred design: ghosts in the machine
Invited talk

PhD Examination (internal) @ Lancaster
Examination

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 6 UCL)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 5 UCL)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 4 UCL)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (Imperial College & Blackburn Fab Lab)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 3)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 2)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (open call 1)
Other

Think/Do/Repeat
Invited talk

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop V2 (more -than-human design class)
Other

The ESRC Festival of Social Science
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Machine Learning and place-making 2020
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Uncanny Ai Iconography Workshops
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (Open Call 4)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (Open Call 3)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (Open Call 2)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (Open Call 1)
Other

PhD Examination @ Delft
Examination

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (LICA)
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop
Other

Uncanny AI Iconography Workshop (Beyond Imagination)
Other

ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Prototyping Alternate Presents and Plausible Futures for IOT using Design Fiction
Invited talk

moving towards more-than human centred design
Invited talk

more-than-human centred design: reimagining design for the internet of things
Invited talk

TIPS by Design – Building a Community of UK TIPS Researchers – 2018
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Living Room of the Future
Invited talk

more than human centred design: considering other things
Invited talk

Becoming Immersed in the Future Mundane
Invited talk

Adoption in the Internet of Things
Invited talk

Design Futures and the IoT
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Exploring Futures through Game Worlds
Invited talk

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Design Futures through Design Fiction
Invited talk

Mozilla Festival 2016
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Light Up Lancaster
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

BBC R&D
Business Engagement

The N8 Research Partnership (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Speculative Game Design
Invited talk

AHRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Digital Design Weekend at V&A
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

A Rhetorical Approach to Gameful Design
Invited talk

Mobilities & Design Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Social TV and the Second Screen
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Social Media
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Panel Speaker on Designing for Young People
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Social Media and Gamification
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Mobile Augmented Reality: Looking Beyond the Hype
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Moving Beyond Points and Badges to Using Games as a Lens for UX Design
Invited talk

Role of Social Media in Mass Particpation TV
Invited talk

Social Media
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Rest In Pixels
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Gesture Based Computing
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Gamification: Brilliant or Bullshit?
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Augmented Reality: Beyond the Hype
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Gamification: Will it Yeild and Epic Win?
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Mobile Games as Social Information Appliances or Meme Generators
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

MobiKUI 2008 International Workshop on Mobile and Kinetic User Interfaces
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Innovation Prize in FlashLite Developer Challenge
Prize (including medals and awards)

NFC Innovation Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

Bronze Award in ACE 2011 Game Competition
Prize (including medals and awards)

Nokia Champion
National/international honour

ACM Best Provocation/Work in Progress Paper Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Imagination Lancaster
  • More than Human
  • School of Design