The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
Carina is a researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). She is co-leading the project Minodu, that is developing innovative approaches to science communication in the field of climate change and adaptation.
Carina used to live and work in West Africa for over six years and has working experience at the United Nations, the European Union, and German bilateral development cooperation. She focuses her work on elaborating alternative approaches to projects in the field of international development, feeding in design approaches, digital solutions, and her extensive experience in setting up participatory processes.
Carina has a broad network with civil society organizations, private and public sector, and especially Afro-European networks. She is, amongst others, a member of African German Young Leaders in Business.