Design & Emotion Society (Jonathan Chapman 2006 - Ongoing)

Jonathan is a contributor to the Design & Emotion Society, and presented his research into product life extension (PLE) at this year’s Design & Emotion Society Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden (26th–29th September,  2006). Following the ‘call for papers’ earlier in the year, over 250 abstracts were submitted, of which, 105 were selected following a critical review process. Selected papers included the work of leading thinkers in the converging research fields of product design, cognitive psychology and the social sciences, including Simonetta Carbonaro (Domus Academy), Pieter Desmet (TU Delft) and John Zimmerman  (Carnegie Mellon University).

In his keynote speech, Paul Hekkert (founder of the Design and Emotion Society) assigned our ‘particular emotional responses to objects’ with the sustainability of material consumption itself; an assertion that Chapman later built upon in his presentation entitled, ‘Sustaining Relationships Between People and Things’. Jonathan stated that ‘sustainability is a behavioural issue, and must be addressed through objects, spaces and processes that both motivate and enable positive behavioural change within the user’.

The conference also provided Jonathan with a valuable opportunity to present his PhD ‘work-in-progress’, and receive feedback and criticism from several ‘experts’ in his field. Following the event, a shortlist of 20 papers was selected for publication in a book.