Our Experience at Dementia Lab 2025

This theme of 2025’s Dementia Lab Conference was ethics and aesthetics. It took place on 13-14 March 2025, hosted by the University of Aveiro, Portugal. The event was jointly organised by ID+ (Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture), and CINTESIS@RISE (Center for Health Technology and Services Research at the Associate Laboratory RISE – Health Research Network).

Rising Lai presenting on how artefacts enact and participate in the facilitation of daily activity in a dementia care home. The research also proposed a template to help the caregiver to plan meaningful activity with familiar artefacts for the people with dementia. Rising also conducted a workshop titled ‘Personhood, Dignity, and Autonomy: Interdisciplinary Actionable Concepts for Dementia Care’.

Natsumi and Alicia presented their evolving toolkit for examining small worlds within the homes of people with dementia. Both of them are interested in learning more about senses of home, and plan on doing so with cultural probes and co-creative methods. Natsumi and Alicia will both use the toolkits to aid in interviews and creative generation of ideas with people with dementia in their homes. Outcomes of their research will inform design directions for interventions that enhance sense of home and inspire autonomy and initiative through playfulness.