My work couples design and the humanities to investigate sociotechnical problems. I employ design as a means of understanding and explaining relationships beyond the visual. This includes revealing and assessing design’s role in modulating lived experience. My current research details an emerging area of design, DIY infrastructure, in which individuals and small groups are building alternative infrastructural systems and modifying or hacking existing ones. These projects reveal the way that our lives are regulated by the design of technical systems, explore their social components, and highlight the role of design in technological transitions.

In 2013, completed my PhD in Digital Media at Georgia Tech, where I worked under the auspices of the Public Design Workshop, under grants from both the National Science Foundation, and The Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing.

From 2006 – 2008 I was an assistant professor of Graphic Design at Georgia State University. Before joining the GSU faculty I taught in the Graphic Design and Interactive Media Design Departments of the Art Institute of Atlanta and in the Communication Design and Technology Department of Parsons School of Design. In addition to teaching and designing, I served as the director of operations for Reconstruction Report, a project of The Design Trust for Public Space facilitating public input into the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan after the events of 9/11.

In the fall of 2013 I will be a visiting instructor at the University of Tennessee School of Art.

some recent papers and presentations

“DIY Urban Telecom.” Symposium on Urban Informatics: Exploring Smarter Cities. Drexel University, Philadelphia, June, 2013.

“Challenging Infrastructure’s Radical Monopoly: DIY Infrastructure and the scope of design practice”
in Design Issues. Volume 29, Issue 3.

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo
“From Speculative Design to Technological Fluency”
in International Journal of Learning and Media. In press.

DIY Infrastructure and Radical Monopoly
at American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting section on Design, Design Activism, and the Democratic Production of Future Social Natures. New York City. February 2012.

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo. “From Speculative Design to Technological Fluency.” International Journal of Learning and Media. Volume 3, Issue 4.

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo
Non-Anthropocentrism and the Non-Human in Design: Possibilities for Designing New Forms of Engagement with and through Technology
in Foth, M., Forlano, L., Gibbs, M., & Satchell, C. (Eds.) From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen: Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement. MIT Press 2011.

DIY Infrastructure and Local Resilience
at DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media Conference. University of Toronto. November 2010

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo
“Towards a Critical Technological Fluency: The Confluence of Speculative Design and Community Technology Programs.”
DAC ‘09: Proceedings of the 2009 Digital and Arts and Culture Conference (2009): 1-5 (cd-rom).

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo
Smog Is Democratic
in the exhibition Consequential Matters.
Global Health Odyssey Museum, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atlanta, GA. June 15th – September 11th, 2009

Jonathan Lukens and Carl DiSalvo
“Sensing The City Through Machines: Non-Anthropocentric Design and Youth Robotics.”
The Digital Cities workshop at the International Conference on Communities and Technology. Penn State University, 2009