Cade is the founder of The New Design Congress, an international research organisation forging a nuanced understanding of technology's role as a social, political and environmental accelerant. He studies, writes, consults and speaks regularly on topics such as digital power structures, privacy, information warfare, resilience, internet economies and the digitisation of cities.
Publications
- Spheres of Identity
Roel Roscam Abbing, Cade Diehm & Benjamin Royer
New Design Congress, 2024 - Self-(De)termination: The Fatal Ambiguity of Digital Identity
Benjamin Royer and Cade Diehm
New Design Congress, 2024 - Identifying the Digital Self
Cade Diehm and Benjamin Royer
New Design Congress, 2024 - Too Late for the Earth, Too Soon for the Stars
Cade Diehm
Ursula Magazine Issue 8, 2023 - Decentralised social media
Roel Roscam Abbing, Cade Diehm and Shahed Warreth
Glossary of decentralised sociotechnical systems, Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, 2023 - The Para-Real: A manifesto
Cade Diehm
New Design Congress and C/O Berlin, 2022 - Making Demands in an Unaccountable Time
Benjamin Royer and Cade Diehm
New Design Congress, 2022 - Memory in Uncertainty: Web preservation in the polycrisis
Cade Diehm and Benjamin Royer
New Design Congress, 2022 - The Coming Game Engine Inflection Point
Cade Diehm
New Design Congress, 2022 - Radical Friends – Decentralised Autonomous Organisations and the Arts
Cade Diehm with Ruth Catlow, Penny Rafferty and contributors
Torque Editions, 2022 - Toward Re-entanglement: a charter for the city and the Earth
Cade Diehm with Bauhaus Erde, Pontifical Academy of Sciences and others
Bauhaus Erde, European Parliament, et. al., 2022 - Remote User Testing for Communities
Cade Diehm
The Human Rights Centered Design Curriculum, 2021 - Backchannel: A relationship-based digital identity system
Karissa Rae McKelvey, Benjamin Royer, Chris Sun (daiyi), Cade Diehm and Peter van Hardenberg
Ink & Switch, 2021 - The Limits to Digital Consent
Cade Diehm, Kelsey Smith, Ame Elliott and Georgia Bullen
New Design Congress and Superbloom Design, 2021 - Aesthetic Flattening
Jaz Hee-jeong Choi and Cade Diehm
ACM Interactions Magazine, 2021 - Smartphone as Lifeline: Designing technology for a changing world
Stephanie Hankey, Cade Diehm, Rose Regina Lawrence and Marek Tuszynski
Tactical Tech, 2020 - This is Fine: Optimism & emergency in the P2P network
Cade Diehm
New Design Congress, 2020 - “Technically” Responsible: The essential, precarious workforce that powers A.I.
Cade Diehm and Caroline Sinders
New Design Congress, 2020 - The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025
Cade Diehm and Ruth Catlow
New Design Congress and Furtherfield, 2020 - Our Artificial Wilderness: Virtual beauty & ecological decay
Cade Diehm and Edward Anthony
New Design Congress, 2020 - Ethical Design? No Thanks!
Cade Diehm
New Design Congress, 2020 - Shrinking Civil Space
Andrea Figari, Cade Diehm, Rose Regina Lawrence et. al
Tactical Tech, 2019 - On Weaponised Design
Cade Diehm
Tactical Tech, 2018
Projects
- The Digital Identity Event Horizon
A New Design Congress major project, due May 2024 - Dana: Research tools for an uncertain world
A New Design Congress major project, details tba, ongoing - The Para-Real: Finding the future in unexpected places
A major research project and exhibition series by New Design Congress, produced with C/O Berlin and others, ongoing - Underscore: an integrated creative infrastructure platform
A major New Design Congress research project, ongoing - Scrpt: Collaborative audio annotation system
A research project between New Design Congress and PEN America, 2021 - The Treaty of Finsbury Park
An exhibition collaboration between New Design Congress and Furtherfield, 2020-2022 - Backchannel: Relationship-based digital identity system
A research project between New Design Congress and Ink & Switch , 2021 - Junkipedia: Mis- and disinformation platform
A threat modelling & design systems consultation by New Design Congress, 2021 - Txt: a small word processor that keeps your work safe with well-documented encryption.
A New Design Congress software prototype, 2020 - Signalbots: Secrets Distribution and Social Graph Protection for Private Groups
A New Design Congress consultation with OTF and Simply Secure, 2020
Media Appearances
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Copium compendium
Geert Lovink, Eurozine, January 2024 -
25 Creative pathways towards better futures
CreaTures, February 2023 -
Festival „C/O Digital“: Den Jump ins Metaverse selbst ausprobieren
Tagesspiegel, December 2022 -
NM56: The Para-Real
New Models, December 2022 -
Why You Want to Pet the Food Delivery Robot
Bon Appétit, October 2022 -
Whole Foods Wants Your Handprints. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Bon Appétit, August 2022 -
How states are turning TikTok influencers into propaganda machines
Dazed, April 2022 -
Les Tiktokeurs au service de l'État : comment la Russie et les USA utilisent des influenceurs pour faire leur propagande
Vanity Fair, April 2022 -
Special Report: Digital Resilience & War
New Models, March 2022 -
Reimagining Digital Infrastructures
REROUTE.FM, September 2021 -
Weaponized Design, security, vulnerability, and caution over the decentralized web
Interdependence, May 2021 -
Apple created the privacy dystopia it wants to save you from
Fast Company, June 2019 -
Data detox for the new year
BBC Click, December 2019 -
Stacks Attack
New Models, December 2018 -
User Agent: If everything is so smooth, then why I am so sad?
Rathenau Instituut, Amsterdam, July 2018 -
Bad news about Pretty Good Privacy
Columbia Journalism Review, May 2018 -
#69: Disappeared
Reply All, 2016
Speaking / Teaching
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Beyond human centered design: digital systems and non-human expertise // Anticipating a Green Panopticon
The Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics Biennial Conference
North Stradbroke Island - October 2024 -
Rethinking the Digital Self
Cognitive Security Institute
Online - August 2024 -
What Comes Next is Nothing
GNOME Mini GUADEC
Berlin, Germany - July 2024 -
On stagnation, hubris and the solidarity of the Para-Real
iMAL BetaCamp: SuperTele
Brussels, Belgium - July 2024 -
There is Pain in the World but Not at This Con: Furry Solidarity and the Para-Real
in collaboration with Andrew 'Ån' Sempere, Lead Systems Design (VRChat)
Furality Umbra
Online - June 2024 -
Finding the future in unexpected places: Weaponised design, digital stagnation and the Para-Real
University of Europe
Berlin, Germany - April 2024 -
Responsible Technology Design Intensive
Gray Area
San Francisco, USA - February 2024 -
Finding the future in unexpected places
Gray Area Festival 2023
San Francisco, USA - October 2023 -
Converging Realities: Navigating the Para-Real in a Digital-Physical World
Artsonje Center
Seoul, South Korea - October 2023 -
Paper presentation: Memory in Uncertainty
RESAW 2023: Exploring the Archived Web During a Highly Transformative Age
Marseille, France - June 2023 -
Paper presentation: Memory in Uncertainty
International Internet Preservation Consortium IIPC Web Archiving Conference
Hilversum, The Netherlands - May 2023 -
Paper presentation: Memory in Uncertainty
IPFS þing
Brussels, Belgium - April 2023 -
The Para-Real, tactical media, and the failures of European tech criticism
INC CONFERENCE In-Between Media: Hybrid Tactics in The Crisis Era
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - March 2023 -
An accessible introduction to collective digital safety
Responsible Technology Design Intensive, Gray Area
Online - January 2023 -
C/O Digital: New Values Fellowship Mentor
Artist mentor for C/O Digital: the new digital programme launched in 2022 by C/O Berlin. With Elys Jones, Geert Lovink and MetaObjects, artists Debbie Ding, Ayoung Kim, Keiken and curated by Barbara Cueto and C/O Berlin
Berlin, Germany - June 2022-January 2023 -
Light, Water, Fog and Reflections in VRChat: A discussion with artist Debbie Ding
A reflection of Debbie Ding's C/O Digital Fellowship and mentorsip, as part of C/O Digital's New Values Festival
Berlin, Germany - December 2022 -
What Are New Values? A Para-Real Manifesto
With Geert Lovink, C/O Berlin's C/O Digital New Values Festival
Berlin, Germany - December 2022 -
What is the Para-Real?
C/O Digital Launch
Berlin, Germany - July 2022 -
Rebuilding the future in unexpected ways: On infrastructure, resilience and hope
Мрія Conference for the vision of the future of Ukraine
Lviv, Ukraine - July 2022 -
Digitisation as a material
Reconstructing the Future Conference
Vatican City - June 2022 -
Figures: In conversation with Adam Greenfield
New Design Congress
Online - May 2022 -
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley in conversation with Cade Diehm
Arbyte On Screen
Online - March 2022 -
Welcome to My Thread Talk: In conversation with Silvio Lorusso
New Design Congress
Online - November 2021 -
The Treaty of Finsbury Park 2025 - In Conversation at IAM Weekend 2021
IAM Internet 2021
Barcelona, Spain - November 2021 -
Privacy and the Pandemic: Solutions Against Surveillance
Orchid's PRIV8
Online - March 2021 -
Dreaming in Platforms: New horizons after open source
Eröffnung der Prototype Fund Demo Week
Berlin, Germany - February 2021 -
Beyond Design Ethics: Cybersecurity methods in User Experience Design
IXDD Budapest 2020
Online - November 2020 -
What is Design Ethics?
MESH Festival
Online - November 2020 -
Prior Art: Building real economic solidarity
Future of the Art Market, UCL London
Online - October 2020 -
This is Fine: A Film About The Loop
Reclaim Futures 2020
Online - September 2020 -
This is Fine: A Film About The Loop
Our Networks
Online - September 2020 -
Introducing Anxiety Games: Accessible tools for empathetic threat modelling
AXIS Usable Tools, Internews
Online - August 2020 -
Organising safely online for mutual aid
New Design Congress
Online - July 2020 -
Surveillance & New Tech
3RRR Melbourne Radio - Byte Into IT
Melbourne, Australia - May 2020 -
New From Where We Are
Furtherfield Podcast
Online - April 2020 -
Design Ethics? No Thanks!
CON.FIG Figma
San Francisco, USA - January 2020 -
Our Artificial Wilderness: Virtual beauty and ecological decay
New Models Presents: SIMSOCIETY
Berlin, Germany - January 2020 -
Will Design Ethics Save Software?
DEVCON, Ethereum Foundation
Osaka, Japan - October 2019 -
Design Ethics? No Thanks!
Ukiyo Conference
Osaka, Japan - October 2019 -
On Weaponised Design
Radical Networks
Berlin, Germany - October 2018
Timeline (pre-New Design Congress)
-
Tactical Tech Lite
An automated infrastructure project that makes Tactical Tech's work accessible to audiences in adversarial situations, in places with poor connectivity, or unusual or difficult to support hardware. Read more about this via the press release. In collaboration with Laurent Dellere, Jacopo Anderlini and Danja Vasiliev.
Berlin, September 2019 -
Weaponised Design: An Investigative Workshop
Debut of a new participatory Weaponised Design workshop, in which participants explore the politics of design by investigating and exploiting publicly available algorithms. Completed in collaboration with Tactical Tech and Kings College Faculty of Digital Humanities.
Open Rights Group Conference, London, July 2019 -
Design Ethics @ Speculative Futures, Berlin
A guest lecture at Speculative Futures on how 'design ethics' threatens to neutralize both the critique of outcomes and to limit the potentials of design speculation to contribute to a radically reimagined world.
Speculative Futures, Berlin, July 2019 -
Web of Trust Introduction to PGP and Key-Signing Party
An arts-tech focused introduction to Web of Trust and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), tracing its origins to the early cypherpunk movement. Supported an introductory PGP key-signing Cryptoparty. With Sarah Friend, Cory Levinson and Sam Hart. Held at Trust.
Web of Trust Berlin, June 2019 -
Something Or Other: LCC Lecture Series
Guest lecture at the London College of Communication on how 'Design Ethics' prevents deep examination of systemic inequalities and power structures.
London College of Communication, London, April 2019 -
Tactical Tech: Organisation Rebrand
Fifteen year rebrand of Tactical Tech – a berlin-based NGO, with a focus on unifying the organisation's aesthetics and capturing the creativity of the organisation's many team members. With Daisy Kidd, Ida Flik and Philipp Dollinger at Tactical Tech.
Tactical Tech, Berlin, May 2019 -
Phantasms of Decentralization? Conversations about Commoning with Coming Media
Participation in "a speculative conversation about a more radical commoning using recent and forthcoming information technologies, including the entanglement of technologies with alternative forms of living together from different scales and levels, such as networking (goods, communication), decision making, predicting/modelling, automation driven post-scarcity economies, tracking, and negotiating situated value."
Transmediale, Berlin, January 2019 -
Society as User: Collaboration with Android's Future User Experience team
Co-led a research project into the changing worlds of users and smartphone reliance. Completed with Stephanie Hankey, Marek Tuszynski and Rose-Regina Lawrence.
Tactical Studios x Google, Berlin and Palo Alto, 2018-2019 -
The Data Detox Kit
Project lead for an influential 8 day project that raises public awareness of surveillance capitalism, helps people critically analyse the role of data collection in their lives, and aids them in limiting or removing themselves from these surveillance systems.
Tactical Tech, Berlin, 2018-2019 -
DACIDA Talks: On Weaponised Design
A livestream talk for DACIDA, an online community that gathers creative, open-minded fellows with the goal of exploring, sharing experiences and starting a dialogue about what it means to be an artist in the 21st century. Organised by the NGO "Gradska Gerila" with the support of the Goethe-Institut Belgrade.
Berlin, November 2018 -
Radical Networks
A longer talk about Weaponised Design at Radical Networks – a festival and a conference designed to foster critical discussions around policy, DIY networking and the future of the Internet.
Spektrum, Berlin, October 2018 -
Hyper Island
Guest lecture at Hyper Island's Stockholm campus about weaponised design, and the greater politics of infrastructure.
Hyper Island, Stockholm, September 2018 -
Ghost in the Machine
A talk on Weaponised Design alongside complementary talks on Live Action Role Play by Susan Ploetz, and artificial intelligence ethics by Joshua Johnson.
Trust, Berlin, July 2018 -
XYZ
Design direction for a the XYZ project, a space to publish practical tools to navigate digital security and privacy from a gender perspective, in collaboration with Semanur Karaman.
Gender & Tech Institute / Tactical Tech, Berlin, March 2018 -
Efficiency and Madness Postgraduate Semester
Co-developed and lectured the winter 2017/2018 semester of Universität Potsdam's Designschule post-graduate programme. With Stephanie Hankey, Marek Tuszynski and Varoon Bashyakarla.
Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, September 2017 – February 2018 -
SpiderOak.com
Creative direction for SpiderOak and its suite of products. A two year focus on design research within an information security context, covering the entire company's communications, strategy and products. In collaboration with photographer Ward Roberts, and, for a time, Isobar Chicago, SpiderOak's design team mixed information security, aesthetics and design to develop new approaches of authenticating and communicating securely.
SpiderOak, Chicago, New York, Kansas City, July 2015 – January 2017 -
Semaphor.app
Led design on an end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform. Tested a series of aesthetic and user experience concepts informed by ongoing user research and learnings from Kloak, an earlier project.
SpiderOak, Chicago & Kansas City, June 2016 -
Encryptr.app
Redesign and rebrand of a light-weight open source synced password manager after its acqusition by SpiderOak.
SpiderOak, Chicago & Kansas City, December 2015 -
Kloak.app
A white-list first microblogging social media app, highly private and designed with a novel form of inter-personal verification between users. Developed in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, specifically researching asynchronous key exchange.
SpiderOak, Chicago & Kansas City, September 2015 -
Signal
Five month volunteer design research project on the secure messaging app Signal. This prototype led to me contributing to the push to complete Signal in Hawaii in 2014.
Open Whisper Systems, Melbourne & Kauai, September 2013 - January 2014 -
CoinJar
Creative Director at an early Australian-based Fintech startup.
CoinJar, Melbourne, December 2013 - July 2014 -
Metaverse Makeovers
Design & branding for a cyberpunk Shanghai/Melbourne-based augmented reality fashion label.
Metaverse Makeovers, Shanghai, Busan, & Melbourne, January 2013 - December 2023 -
Deloitte Digital
Junior designer at a multi-national white collar meat processing plant.
Deloitte Australia, Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, 2011 - 2012