Cardiff School of Art & Design>Staff>Aidan Taylor

Aidan Taylor MA

​​e: ​artaylor@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Web: https://cariadresearchgroup.cariadinteractive.com/
https://hug.world/
https://electricnoodlebox.com/

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Specialist Subject Areas

Communities of Repair and Making
Maker Culture
Participatory Design and Research
Physical Computing / HCI
Electronic Engineering

Qualifications

MA. Creative Music Practice
BA(Hons) Creative Sound and Music
ND Music Technology and Popular Music

Biography

Aidan Taylor is Lecturer andResearcherat Cardiff Metropolitan University. He is a designer maker with industrial experience in small signal electronic design for professional audio and has a broad creative practice involving participatory making. Aidan is one of the founders of Newport Makerspace / Creudy Casnewydd and has been researching and participating in the “Maker Movement” for over a decade. He is currently studying for PhD, investigating the social value of making and repair communities in areas experiencing social deprivation in Wales.

Aidan is Technical Director of HUG by LAUGH which is a university spin-out company founded as a result of impactful design research led by Professor Cathy Treadaway. HUG by LAUGH is the design team that created HUG, an award-winning sensory textile device that was developed for people living with advanced dementia and funded by the AHRC, Welsh Government SMART Expertise and the Alzheimer Society Accelerator Programme. There are currently thousands of HUGs being used in care and home settings throughout the UK.

Aidan is a member of the CARIAD research group at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He lectures in Cardiff School of Art and Design, and leads modules in embedded design and repair. 

Current research

  • PhD Study - Making Communities: An investigation into the ways makerspaces bring social value and support wellbeing

Principal Publications, Exhibitions and Awards

Publications

Taylor, A., Treadaway, C., Fennell, J., Davies, M, S. (2020). 'Making HUGs: Crafting well-being benefits through social manufacturing'. Journal of Arts and Communities, Volume 11, Issue 'Stitching Together' Part Two, Dec 2020, p. 35 -49.

Treadaway, C., Fennell, J. Taylor, A. (2020). 'Compassionate Design: A methodology for advanced dementia'. Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Design4Health. Lab4Living. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1st - 3rd July 2020. pp667-673.

Treadaway, C., Taylor, A. & Fennell, J. (2018) 'Compassionate Creativity: co-design for advanced dementia.'  Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC 2018), Bath, January 31 – February 2.

Treadaway, C., Fennell, J., Prytherch, D., Kenning, G., Prior, A., Walters, A. and Taylor, A. (2018) 'Compassionate Design: How to Design for Advanced Dementia – a toolkit for designers', Cardiff: Cardiff Met Press.

Treadaway, C., Fennell, J., Taylor, A. & Kenning, G. (2018) 'Designing for playfulness through compassion: design for advanced dementia.'  Proceedings of the 5th European International Conference on Design4Health, Sheffield, September 4 – 6.

Treadaway, C., Taylor, A. & Fennell, J. (2018) 'Compassionate design for dementia care.' International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation.

Exhibitions

‘LAUGH: A Celebration of Love and Life in Care Homes’, 2018. RSA, London.
‘LAUGH: A Celebration of Love and Life in Care Homes’, 2018. Senedd, Cardiff.