Billy Dixon

Research keywords: Critical Design, Participatory methods, LLM materiality, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Seamful Design

Bio:

Billy is an Interaction Designer and doctoral researcher investigating and interrogating the underlying seams of LLM technologies through artefacts and interactions.

Prior to starting is PhD research he was a researcher at the Institute for Design Informatics, using participatory approaches to probe and critique emerging technologies. This covered areas such as Autonomous Energy Systems, Blockchains and Large Language Models (LLMs); creating prototypes that served as both research tools and public engagement artefacts.

His work has been published in conference journals such as Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), demonstrated at festivals and conferences such as Edinburgh Science Festival and DIS’23 and exhibited at venues such as the Tate Modern and Glasgow Science Centre.

PhD research:

How do narratives of “ethereality” obscure ethical and environmental implications of these systems? And can critical design approaches counter these narratives through tangible materiality?

Billy’s research uses participatory approaches to understand how real people experience LLM technologies in their daily lives. He applies a Research Through Design methodology drawing from Adversarial, Critical, Seamful and Speculative Design methods to think about what LLM futures should look and feel like. Examining how materiality and tangibility can be utilised to encourage criticality of technologies and afford more understandable, accountable and trustworthy models and systems.

Supervisors: Bettina Nissen, Beverley Hood, Larissa Pschetz