Andrea Botero

    • Miestentie 3, Väre

    20022025

    Research activity per year

    Personal profile

    Artistic and research interests

    Especifically, my work engages with the possibilities, and contradictions of participating in design, and designing participation today. I have explored these issues in multiple domains ranging from everyday life to scientific endeavors.

    Through my research, I aim to understand how collectives (broadly speaking) come to understand the design spaces available to them and how designers could infrastructure those spaces better, especially looking to support livable futures. These work draws from and happens at the intersection of participatory design, science and technology studies and transformative creative practice.

    I am Associate Professor (New Frontiers of Design) at the Department of Design where I currently lead INUSE research group, where we work with designer-user relations in socio-technical change. In addition, I am adjunct professor (dosenti) at the Faculty of Architecture and Design of Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá (COL) and Guest Professor at the Centre for Sustainable and Digital Transformation, Aalborg University (DK).

    My research has been funded by the European Union, The Finnish Research council, the Finnish fund for technology development and Aalto Univeristy seed funding programs.

    I am interested in what counts as design and what other practices for world making are there, and which ones we need to call into being. Thus my research and practice not only aims to understand, I also I seek to resist, intervine and demonstrate alternatives. In that vein, my collaborative design practice explores the creation of environments, tools and media that afford more relational and caring interactions among, and between people, collectives and their environment. The OpenForest collective, practices and tools are one example of this.

    Teaching 2024:

    MUO-E8041  Collaborative and participatory techniques for design - Creative sustainability MA program (Fall) at the Department of Design

    MUO-E0020 Intro to MA studies (Fall)- for all MA students of the Department of Design (Together with Prof Pirjo Kääriainen and Prof Marco Steimberg)

    I advice / supervise MA and DA students on a continous basis.

    BACKGROUND

    BA- Industrial Design,Universidad Nacional de Colombia (COL) 

    MA- Product and Strategic Design, Aalto University (FIN)

    DA- Doctor of Arts - New Media, Aalto University (FIN)

    I worked as post-doc at the department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Oulu (FIN).

    As a design practitioner I have worked in several design consultancies and in multiple R&D projects as product owner, interaction designer and design researcher. I do occasional design consultancy gigs via a collective design research studio called Suo&co, that I convene with 3 wonderful friends for more than a decade.

    In my spare time  I do design and multigenerational diversity activism through the board of Ninho ry, a Finnish NGO creating a more diverse and plurilingual children's culture in Finland. I ocassionally collaborate with Utopiabio, a Colombian NGO working around rural connectivity and technology appropiation as well as community development

    Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

    In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

    • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
    • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
    • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
    • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
    • SDG 13 - Climate Action
    • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

    Education/Academic qualification

    Doctoral degree, Arts and Design, Aalto University

    Award Date: 22 Nov 2013

    Master's degree, Arts and Design, Helsinki University of Arts and Design

    Award Date: 18 Jun 1999

    External positions

    Guest Professor, Aalborg University

    1 Mar 2023 → …

    Adjunct Professor, Universidad de los Andes Colombia

    8 Jan 2022 → …

    Partner, Suo&co

    1 Aug 2014 → …

    Keywords

    • Collaborative design
    • co-design
    • Social innovation
    • New media
    • Design
    • Interaction design
    • Transformation
    • Social change
    • Collective Action
    • Participatory design

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    • 1 Similar Profiles

    Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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    • Decolonisation and Participatory Design

      Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Smith, R. C., Van Amstel, F. M. C. & Botero, A., 31 Jan 2025, Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Participatory Design. Smith, R. C., Loi, D., Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Huybrechts, L. & Simonsen, J. (eds.). 1 ed. London: Routledge, p. 111-137 27 p.

      Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

    • Reconciliation Through Digital Textiles

      Perez-Bustos, T., Cortés-Rico, L. & Botero, A., 31 Jan 2025, Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Participatory Design. Smith, R. C., Loi, D., Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Huybrechts, L. & Simonsen, J. (eds.). 1 ed. London: Routledge, p. 247-258 12 p.

      Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

    • 9 Dimensions for evaluating how art and creative practice stimulate societal transformations

      Vervoort, J., Smeenk, T., Zamuruieva, I., Reichelt, L. L., van Veldhoven, M., Rutting, L., Light, A., Houston, L., Wolstenholme, R., Dolejšová, M., Jain, A., Ardern, J., Catlow, R., Vaajakallio, K., Falay von Flittner, Z., Putrle Srdic, J., Lohmann, J., Moossdorff, C., Mattelmäki, T. & Ampatzidou, C. & 6 others, Choi, J.H.-J., Botero, A., Thompson, K. A., Torrens, J., Lane, R. & Mangnus, A. C., Mar 2024, In: Ecology and Society. 29, 1, 18 p., 29.

      Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

      Open Access
      File
      7 Citations (Scopus)
      310 Downloads (Pure)
    • Enacting Entanglement : CreaTures, Socio-Technical Collaboration and Designing a Transformative Ethos

      Light, A., Choi, J.H.-J., Houston, L. & Botero, A., 2024, In: Computer Supported Cooperative Work: CSCW: An International Journal. 33, p. 1223-1259 37 p.

      Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleScientificpeer-review

      Open Access
      File
      4 Citations (Scopus)
    • Evolving PD tools through iteration : Analyzing templates used for multiple participatory renewable energy projects

      Kuu-Park, G., Botero, A. & Kohtala, C., 11 Aug 2024, PDC '24: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2024 : Exploratory Papers and Workshops - Volume 2. D'Andrea, V., de Paula, R. A., Rodil, K., Lamas, D., Goagoses, N., Kambunga, A. P., Tan Yong Wen, D., Del Gaudio, C., Jensen, M. Y., Winschiers-Theophilus, H. & Zaman, T. (eds.). New York: ACM, Vol. 2. p. 45-51 7 p.

      Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference article in proceedingsScientificpeer-review

      Open Access
      File
      21 Downloads (Pure)
    • Creatures Experimental Productions

      Sáez Agurto, F. (Creator), Beavers, I. (Creator), Altarriba Bertran, F. (Creator), Botero, A. (Creator), Buschmann, J. (Creator), Camino, D. (Creator), Chewie (Creator), Choi, J.H.-J. (Creator), Davis, H. (Creator), Seaweed, D. O. (Creator), Dolejšová, M. (Creator), Hanafi, A. (Creator), Heitlinger, S. (Creator), Howse, M. (Creator), Knopp, T. (Creator), L'Huillier, N. (Creator), Light, A. (Creator), Lohmann, J. (Creator), Magic, M. (Creator), Miller, M. (Creator), Mitro, M. (Creator), Mujica, P. (Creator), Patterson, A. G. (Creator), Pokrywka, A. (Creator), Graham Raven, P. (Creator), Rudd, G. (Creator), Schubert, T. (Creator), Smrekar, M. (Creator), Šutić, G. (Creator), Thornton, C. (Creator), Wallis, L. (Creator), Wilde, D. (Creator) & Cathlow, R. (Creator), Zenodo, 2022

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