Laura Forlano ’95
Laura Forlano ’95, a social scientist, design researcher, and writer, recently joined Northeastern University as a professor in the College of Arts, Media, and Design. Her research lies at the nexus of design, technology, and society, and how complex interactions among these areas shape politics, aesthetics, and everyday life.
Forlano, whose work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and Fulbright Program, brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Northeastern from her research and the Critical Futures Lab she created at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her interests range from smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and networked medical devices to the future of work, digital fabrication, and smart textiles. She was a guest speaker in Skidmore’s 2022 Scribner Seminar, “The Ethics of Design,” taught by Katie Hauser, associate professor of art history. In her presentation, Forlano discussed living with emerging technologies as a Type 1 diabetic.
In 2011, Forlano was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which personalized her research as she became an early adopter of emerging insulin-pump technology, with the latest pump automatically adjusting the amount of insulin delivered in real time.
“It brought to life in a new way the complex socio-technical questions and ethics about living and interacting with technology,” says Forlano, who codesigned with Sky Cubacub of Rebirth Garments a swimsuit that accommodates an insulin pump. “Diabetics can be understood as a kind of cyborg — a hybrid of flesh, bones, and blood along with sensors, tubes, and external devices.”
Forlano is now collaborating with interdisciplinary artist Itziar Barrio on a series of robotic sculptures made of concrete and rubber that use data from her insulin pump. The data is drawn from the alerts and alarms that repeatedly woke her in the night during summer 2019.
Forlano, who grew up in Ithaca, created a self-determined major in Asian studies with a minor in studio art at Skidmore. She received her Ph.D. in communications from Columbia University in 2008. Interdisciplinary studies have characterized Forlano’s work, which can be traced back to why she chose Skidmore College over larger, research-based universities for her undergraduate studies.
She says, “Skidmore places an importance on humanities, which enables students to truly understand what it means to be human.”