Activists and designers are building alternative infrastructural systems and mod or hack existing ones. Because of the the contingent nature of our ongoing reliance on infrastructure and the interdependence of infrastructure and other large technical systems, these projects reveal the political significance of large technical systems in new ways. I refer to these projects as DIY Infrastructure, and my PhD research in Georgia Tech’s school of Literature, Communication and Culture documents the salient issues they raise for the study of socio-technical systems.

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, and worked as a project manager for a collaborative studio at Parsons Center for New Design that investigated issues surrounding land mines and unexploded ordnance.

some recent papers and presentations

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

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, forthcoming

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