Dementia Lab Conference 2022

The Dementia Lab Conference 2022 will take place on the 20, 21 and 22 September 2022 and will be hosted by the LUCA School of Arts, Inter-actions Research Group with support by the University of Leuven (KULeuven) Faculty of Arts with keynotes presented by Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson and Relish’s Cormac Stanford.

This edition of the Dementia Lab Conference is done in collaboration with closing conference of the European Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) project Certification-D which has, for the past four years, been exploring for means to certify technological products for People with Dementia and in turn support small to medium businesses in innovation and business growth.

Established in 2016, the Dementia Lab is a growing community that continues to build on a legacy of work done for and with people living with dementia and their surrounding context. Approached from an inclusive, participatory and person-centered perspective, the Dementia Lab Conference allows for focused discussion with like-minded designers, researchers, carers and other professionals operating within this domain. Where in other venues it might be challenging to convey the experience of working with people with dementia, or the urgency of working in this field, the Dementia Lab Conference tries to provide a platform of inclusion. As the number of people with dementia continues to increase world wide, designers, educators and carers are continuously presented with new challenges. As a collective network, we believe that design can help to harness the power of technology, services, environments and engagements to alleviate these challenges, and contribute to the quality of life, care and wellbeing of people living with dementia

The theme of the Dementia Lab Conference 2022 will look at the value of participation within design across three levels:

Personal level: what does participatory practices bring for a person with dementia, what does it bring for the designer; can a design or the design process ameliorate the way people with dementia interact with families, and can design stimulate intergenerational dialogue?

On a product level: what is ‘good’ design for people with dementia; what are the enabling qualities of design; what vision of a person with dementia do you ‘inscribe’ into a design, and how can a design hinder or support a person with dementia view on the world?

On an organisational level: how can a design process or artefact support a care organisation or influence a person with dementia’s ecology (family, partners, friends); how will design be critical or supportive of existing views in society on people with dementia; etc.

We welcome participation from the entire dementia and design spectrum; from carers to design schools to research institutions. Join us!

Get your tickets here.

The 2022 edition of the Dementia Lab Conference introduces a Student Day for the first time. On the 20th of September, the program is specifically tailored to undergraduate and PhD students with the intention to initiate a student community around the common topic of dementia and design. The main goals are to exchange thoughts, inspire fellow students, give and receive feedback on ongoing work, and let new ideas arise.

The Student Day consists of two main parts: A PhD-colloquium and an interdisciplinary workshop for undergraduates. More information about them is below. In the evening all bachelors, masters and PhD-students can meet together to conclude the day’s events.

All students participating in any of the moments of the Student Day should get Student Tickets. The Student Tickets include both the Student Day (including lunch) and access to the Dementia Lab conference.

For students looking to attend, please visit the Conference Location page for more details regarding affordable accommodation.

PhD-Colloquium

No matter in which scientific discipline you are writing your thesis, whether gerontology, social work, design or similar, all interested PhD students are invited for a joint exchange on September 20, 2022. The day will include the opportunity for dialogue in small groups on various topics and the intent is that a broad, interdisciplinary mix of students will give participants a lot of insightful experiences across the various doctoral topics, including the different research methods and approaches used as well as discussing the challenges of doing a PhD. For this purpose, there will be guests from different fields of teaching to moderate the discussion.

The colloquium will be coached by Andrea Teti and Traugott Haas.

Registration

For better coordination, we ask that interested students register separately for this event. There are no additional costs associated with registering. If you are interested, please send us: the topic of your thesis, a short abstract on your work (maximum half a page), a short bio, and topics you would like to discuss: Method selection, PhD processes, Challenging experiences, Future plans (what to do after the doctorate is finished), etc. You are welcome to propose new topics.

Students that want to participate in the PhD Colloquium need to subscribe before 10 August, 2022.

Interested parties should send a mail to: studentday@dementialabconference.com

Interdisciplinary Student Workshop :

The day includes a workshop that is organized for bachelor’s and master’s students from a diverse range of disciplines and areas of interest. Starting from a concrete ‘daily life problem (DLP)’ within the field of dementia, students will work in groups of 3 or 4 students with different backgrounds to develop/create an idea that can contribute to the solution of the DLP. The workshop will take place in a unique location: the MO•KU•LAB Bus which can also be integrated in the design of a developing project. Focus of the workshop is not on the feasibility or concrete outcome of the project, but on interdisciplinary collaboration, creativity, and combining ideas from different points of view and expertise. Preliminary results of the workshop will be presented in the subsequent days of the conference (material conversation) .

The workshops will be coached by Traugott Haas and Anke Coomans, PhD.

Students that want to participate in the workshop need to subscribe before 31 August, 2022 with a short bio and clear indication of your specific field of interest.

Interested parties should send a mail to the Student Day chairs: studentday@dementialabconference.com

Add your event to our listings free of charge – https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/find/advertise/