Design · Experience · Technical mediation
Óscar
Villota
Professor and researcher at the Department of Design, Universidad de Caldas, Colombia. I study how design shapes the conditions of experience through technical mediation.
- Position
- Professor, Department of Design
- Institution
- Universidad de Caldas, Colombia
- PhD
- Design and Creation (in progress)
- Topics
- Technical mediation · Experience · Narrative · Friction · Immersion
About my work
I am interested in expanding the relationship between design and experience beyond its predominant approaches, centered on what can be measured, toward a broader spectrum of human experience, with theoretical grounding and projective openness.
My work moves between design theory, philosophy of technology, and creative practice with digital, immersive and analog media. Drawing on postphenomenology and the theory of technical mediation, I study how interfaces, experimental videogames and image devices mediate perception, action and attention, and what critical and projective possibilities those mediations open up for design.
I hold a degree in Visual Design and an MA in Interactive Design and Creation (with honors) from Universidad de Caldas, and a postgraduate degree in Communication Design Theory from Universidad de Buenos Aires. I am recognized by Colombia's Ministry of Science (Minciencias) as a Junior Researcher.
Lines of work
My doctoral research ties the other lines together: all of them ask what technical systems do to experience.
Design and experience through technical mediation
An expansion of the relational framework between design and experience. It builds on the theory of technical mediation and postphenomenology to describe how design shapes the conditions under which something is perceived, done and attended to.
Within that framework, friction works as an operative and projective concept, and as a corpus of analysis: the obstacles, delays and resistances that technical systems introduce into or remove from experience, and what those configurations reveal about whom they serve.
Experience in digital environments
Digital narratives, experimental videogames and criteria for assessing experience beyond usability.
Immersion, narrative and the body
Immersion approached through narrative and embodiment: agency, embodied identity in avatars, and experience in digital media.
AI, technical mediation and cultural impact
AI and generated images read through technical mediation: how they reshape perception, social imaginaries and cultural practices.
Analog devices
Functional reconstruction of the Kinora as material research, in dialogue with the DEMA project.
Articles
Each article links to its official page on the journal's website. Most are published in Spanish.
- 2026
Identidad encarnada y mediación tecnológica en avatares digitales: un análisis desde la experiencia del usuario
Villota-Cuásquer, Ó., López Carmona, J. A., & Valencia-Aristizábal, J.
Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 38(1), 93–106 · Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Read article ↗doi:10.5209/aris.103643 - 2026
Towards a Cosmotechnical AI: Planetary Futures and Artificial Wisdom from Latin American ImaginationEN
Zerené, J., & Villota, Ó.
Leonardo, 59(Supplement), 164–174 · MIT Press
Read article ↗doi:10.1162/leon_a_02673 - 2024
La experiencia como respuesta a las tensiones conceptuales entre narrativa y medios digitales
Villota-Cuásquer, Ó.
Kepes, 20(28), 219–246 · Universidad de Caldas
Read article ↗doi:10.17151/kepes.2023.20.28.8 - 2024
El impacto de los contenidos generados por IA en la comunicación digital y su influencia en la formación de imaginarios sociales
López Carmona, J. A., & Villota-Cuásquer, Ó.
Escribanía, 22(1), 1–14
Read article ↗doi:10.30554/40xbts51 - 2023
Perspectivas del potencial integrador del diseño. Expansión a través de la convergencia
Villota-Cuásquer, Ó., & Aravena Ortiz, S.
RChD: creación y pensamiento, 8 · Universidad de Chile
Read article ↗doi:10.5354/0719-837X.2023.71156 - 2022
Ejercicios de transversalización para una propuesta de didáctica del diseño. Caso taller integrador de diseño visual en tiempos de pandemia
Villota-Cuásquer, Ó., Salguero Mejía, C., Villegas García, M. M., & Valencia García, M. H.
Kepes, 19(25), 257–293 · Universidad de Caldas
Read article ↗doi:10.17151/kepes.2022.19.25.10
Conference talks · selection
- Oct 2026 · Medellín
Más allá del uso: fricción como recurso estético y críticoUpcoming
Talk and workshop · Second Colombian RAD Biennial of Research-Creation in Design
- Jul 2026 · Buenos Aires
Divulgadores independientes en plataformas algorítmicas y redes sociales: nuevos mediadores del conocimiento científico
International Design Week in Palermo 2026, Universidad de Palermo · with Daniela Tejada Vargas
- 2025 · Manizales
Rupturas de la transparencia: fricción y reflexión en la experiencia digital
11th Colloquium on Design and Creation, Universidad de Caldas
- 2025 · Manizales
Avatares como catalizadores de economías virtuales: valor de signo y de cambio en interacciones en entornos digitales
21st International Academic Forum, International Image Festival
- 2024 · Barcelona
Percepción de la realidad a través de imágenes generadas por IA. Un análisis desde la actualización cultural y la cosmotécnica
28th SIGraDi Conference, UIC Barcelona · with J. A. López Carmona
- 2023 · Punta del Este
Construcción y experiencia del espacio físico-digital
27th SIGraDi Conference, FADU/UDELAR · with J. A. López Carmona
- 2023 · Buenos Aires
Perspectivas del diseño en la era de la inteligencia artificial. Un nuevo panorama para pensar la educación en diseño
14th Design Education Conference, Universidad de Palermo
- 2022 · Lanús
La audición encarnada del cine. Una revisión de enfoques fenomenológicos para pensar el sonido en el audiovisual narrativo
Thinking from Sound V seminar, Universidad Nacional de Lanús
- 2021–2022 · Seoul
Una breve revisión histórica de la comunicación visual en Colombia
Keynote lecture, Design History, Seoul National University
Projects and work
Research-creation with prototypes, immersive environments and artifacts.
- 2025 —
Experience design in immersive digital narratives and experimental videogames: an approach from the theory of technical mediation
Derived from the doctoral research: analysis of works, user studies and prototypes toward a theory of experience design grounded in technical mediation.
- 2024 — 2025
Virtual environments as co-creation spaces
Design and implementation of an immersive space (dome) for interdisciplinary projects.
- 2023 — 2024
Co-creation spaces for mixed and immersive realities
Audiovisual interaction prototypes and the study of audience participation.
- 2022 — 2023
3D recital and concert simulator
Instrumental practice in virtual reality as training against stage fright.
- 2020 — 2022
Performance prototypes for telematic environments
Interfaces for remote collaboration between artists and performers, informed by third-wave HCI.
Works
- 2026
La fricción del Kinora. Una mirada focalizada
Functional replica of a 19th-century domestic moving-image viewer, built with 3D printing and laser cutting, in dialogue with the DEMA project (Open University of the Netherlands). Exhibited at CAUCE Circuito Interactivo.
Supported by the Makerspace of the Centro de Ciencias, Universidad de Caldas · Model adjustments, 3D printing and assembly: Alejandro Velásquez and Daniel Castillo · Printing, binding and reel assembly: Dagoberto Serna (Medellín). - 2023
Tele Espacios Activos X
Work by Mario Valencia · My role: visual design and live mixing of the projections · International Image Festival, Manizales
- 2022
Lumina
Work by Mario Valencia · My role: visual design and live mixing of the projections · International Image Festival, Manizales
Teaching and service
Undergraduate and graduate teaching at Universidad de Caldas since 2020; previously at Universidad del Valle and Universidad del Cauca.
Courses
- Interactive DesignMA
- Interface Typology Studio
- Interface Lab
- Interaction Analysis
- Design and Technology
- Digital Image Theory
- Audiovisual Image Theory
- Narrative Design
- Transmedia Production
- Sound Segment
Peer review and honors
- Junior Researcher, Minciencias
- Peer reviewer for Kepes, RChD: creación y pensamiento and Revista Colombiana de Pensamiento Estético e Historia del Arte
- Juror for Crea Digital, Colombian Ministry of Culture (extended reality and transmedia)
- Master's thesis examiner at Universidad de Caldas and ITM
- Master's thesis awarded with honors (laureada), Universidad de Caldas (2022)
- Special mention, International Image Festival (2010)
For research collaborations, academic invitations, juries, or conversations about design, technology and experience.
- oscar.villota@ucaldas.edu.co
- Institution
- Department of Design · Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia
- ORCID
- 0000-0002-7604-5577