Research

My research focuses on the problem of agency, drawing on the most recent advances in semiotics to address the following questions: What is the role of artifacts in relation to human agency? What kind of intentions are involved in the activity of designing? What is specific to humans regarding agency and design? From this question follows a fundamental evolutionary concern: How did the ability to design originate, and how has it evolved?

In the [ Publications ] section, the research outcomes generated thus far from these questions are available.

Research group: MIMAPRO Micro and macro ergonomics in products and processes.

Director of the Researchers Incubator on Semiotics.

Doctoral Dissertations Supervised

Castillo-Beltrán, Paola. Design and Experience: A Multidimensional Relationship Between the Components of Playful-Didactic Experiences and Educational Games. PhD diss., University of Palermo [completed].

Galvis-Centurión, Ramón. Digital Tectonics and Artificial Intelligence: Towards an Expanded Design Model. PhD diss., University of Caldas [in progress].

Joaqui-Galindo, Sandra. A Healthcare Work System Model from an Ergonomic Perspective with a Territorial Approach for Low-Complexity Care in Dispersed Rural Areas. PhD diss., University of Valle [in progress].

Grants and Funding:

94522-Stiftelsen Roy fond ID RFv2020-0325. Lund University, Sweden.

94522-Stiftelsen Roy fond ID RHv2022-0067. Lund University, Sweden.

Research Grant of the Faculty of Arts for Research Incubators 2025-2027 ID 67028. National University of Colombia.

Research Grant of the Faculty of Arts 2015 ID 31510. National University of Colombia.

Research Grant for the use of infrastructure and equipment in the laboratories of the Faculty of Arts 2024 ID 60067. National University of Colombia.

Research Grant for pedagogical innovation and authentic performances of the discipline with high academic value in teaching-learning tasks 2018 (not executed due to Phd commitments).

On going research:

Collective agency and design

This research proposal focuses on the study of collective agency of vulnerable communities with special emphasis on design actions that emerge from the territories and communities themselves. It is derived from the article by Mendoza-Collazos, Ríos and Loschiavo "Colombia-Brazil Dialogues: In search of a Latin American epistemology for design" ; and from the article "Collective Agency: An enhanced capability for joint action" by Mendoza-Collazos.

Image based on Mendoza-Collazos and Zlatev, 2022.

Intersemiotic Translation and GenAI

This research involves developing applications of the intersemiotic translation method (ITM) (Mendoza-Collazos, 2025), which has been proposed as a research-creation method in the arts and design. The method is situated at a critical intersection: the mediation between concept (signified) and form (signifier) through the analysis of meaning structures. Integrating Generative AI is not simply adding a tool; it is introducing a "translating agent" with its own logic for the formal generation process. GenAI represents a paradigm shift: semiotic translation no longer depends exclusively on human abstraction capacity, but rather on the interaction between the designer's intention (prompt) and the model's interpretation.

References

Mendoza-Collazos, Juan (2025). Traslación Semiótica como Método de Investigación-Creación [Intersemiotic Translation as a Research-Creation Method] [to appear]

Design science [on hold]

This research proposal addresses design as a science and design projects as research in their own right. The concern arose from the experience of the SEVEN project. It seeks to avoid the "positivist" stigma of science and validate other forms of knowledge generation based on the design paradigm.

Image taken from the final report of the SEVEN project.

Design, cognition and agency [on going]

This research program addresses the most recent studies in semiotics to investigate the structure of human experience as a key variable in design.

Investigating semiotics in relation to cognition allows us to understand the relevant cognitive processes underlying user experience.

Cognition is critically addressed under the 4E approach, that is, cognition is not a "brained" phenomenon but rather involves the whole body (Embodied), situated in specific circumstances (Embedded), emerging from the relationship with the environment (Enactive) and distributed, negotiated and shared with other minds and with artifacts (Extended).

Image taken from my notes from the doctoral course on fMRI.