NATALIA GULBRANSEN-DIAZ

The future demands hope and imagination. I’m passionate about deploying critical, design-led approaches to address complex social challenges, with particular focus on investigating how we can design with/and/for communities envisioning positive futures.

Through practice-led inquiry and real-world collaborations with Australian NPOs, I work to understand the conditions and relationships that enable design to be generative rather than extractive, bridging theory and application to create responsive, situated engagements that contribute to ongoing conversations about design's role in community and public life.

My recently completed PhD, Design with/and/for Value, explored how design can support non-profit organisations in realising their collective ambitions beyond economic measures.

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Publications [Google Scholar]

Research

1. Design with/and/for Value
   
2. Waste to Resilience: Sanitation against Stunting and Climate Vulnerability in Indonesian Informal Coastal Areas [Coming Soon] 
   
3. Computational Creativity in the Classroom: Student-Led Co-Design of Generative AI Pedagogies in Design [Coming Soon]
4. Sonic Street Technologies: Australia
   
5. Broadening Horizons: Using Curiosity to Diversify Behaviour
   
6. Usability Issues in Self-Service Technologies
   
7. COVID-19 Smart IoT Screening System (Pilot) at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network
   
8. Introspect

Sonic Street Technologies: Australia

Index

Research Assistant, 2024–2025
The University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, Goldsmiths (supported by funding from the European Research Council)


[sonic street technologies] [sound and society]
Visit the SST project website: sonic-street-technologies.com  

Read the full article: Futuring a Century of Sound (co-authored by Dr. Clare Cooper)

Sonic Street Technologies is a European Research Council-funded international research project exploring the global phenomenon of sound systems — from Jamaica's reggae sound systems to Brazil's aparelhagem, Colombia's picós, and Australia's free party scene. The project examines how these technologies function as sites of cultural knowledge, resistance, and community building. I joined the Australian component of the project in 2024, contributing primarily to the analysis of a futures-oriented design tool and to coordination across the research team.




MAPPING A CENTURY OF SOUND
The centrepiece of my analytical work was the Sonic Timescape — a design futuring tool developed by Dr. Clare Cooper and deployed at the 8th Global Reggae Conference in Kingston, Jamaica. The physical installation captured insights from over 50 presentations and films, mapping sonic street technology developments across a century from the 1960s to the 2060s. My task was to bring it into a form the wider global research network could access and build on.

I digitised the physical installation into an interactive Miro board, then conducted thematic analysis of the contributions, identifying three major themes across the century of material: Ownership of Sound, Power and Resistance, and Legacy of Sound. Beyond the analysis itself, I developed instructions and documentation for the digital tool so it could be shared with and used by the international SST network — translating a one-off conference installation into a reusable research resource.

WHAT THE ANALYSIS FOUND
The three themes that emerged from the timescape material were deeply interconnected. Ownership of Sound extended well beyond literal ownership of technologies — encompassing accessibility, recognition of overlooked figures (particularly Caribbean feminists), and policy advocacy. Future-oriented questions in this theme circled around consent in sonic spaces, radical genderqueer sonics, and the opportunities and tensions introduced by AI and changing music distribution platforms.

Power and Resistance captured histories of conflict and opposition faced by sound system proponents — stories told not just despite that opposition, but sometimes in direct response to it. Legacy of Sound addressed the intangible but pervasive historical and cultural impact of sound systems and their audiences — a retrospective theme that is, at its core, future-facing, grappling with how that legacy will evolve as audiences and knowledge-sharing practices change.


CO-ORDINATION AND CONTEXT
Alongside the analytical work, I supported project planning and coordination across the Australian research team — managing materials, timelines, and communication during a period when I was also navigating compassionate leave. That context shaped the nature of my contribution: the fieldwork and writing fell to others. What I could offer — careful analysis, clear documentation, and reliable coordination — I tried to do well.

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This work was part of the Sonic Street Technologies: Diaspora, Culture and Knowledge project. Read more about the project at sonic-street-technologies.com

©2026 Natalia Gulbransen-Diaz