Research
Doctoral Research


Funded Research

2009-2012
'Doing kinship with pictures and objects: a laboratory of private and public practices of art'
Arts and Science Collaborative Project (WWTF)
Principal Partner: Univ. Prof. Alison J. Clarke PhD. MA (RCA)

2008-present
'Centre of Critical Design Research: The Victor Papanek Archive and Library'
Infrastructure Programme (BMWF)
Principal Applicant: Univ. Prof. Alison J. Clarke PhD. MA (RCA)

2003-2006
'Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior'
RCA, London (AHRC)
Principal Investigator: Univ. Prof. Alison J. Clarke PhD. MA (RCA)

2002-2005
'CFA - Contemporary Fashion Archive'
Unit-F, Central Sait Martin's College of Art and Design, London


Doctoral Research Students
Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Alison J. Clarke PhD. MA (RCA)

Robert Gassner, Arch BA(Hons) MAA Email
 (Doctoral Scholarship, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts)
Inhabitation as a Conduit in Buildings' Histories
Future inhabitants are often absent from the processes of designing and planning dwellings. Also when initial scenarios of inhabitation draw upon client-architect discussions, their validity is put to test over time. Generally, most buildings survive the protagonists of initial phases of design and construction and go on to encompass many generations and situations of occupancy. This thesis explores these asymmetrical relations in a study of notions and processes of inhabitation as used within architecural practice and as performed when dwelling.

Bei Li, MA Email
When the Moon Meets the Cake:
Gift Consumption in the Transition of Chinese Society
Through exploration of representative contemporary Chinese cultural materials, specifically the moon-cake and its consumption as a gift, this thesis explores the dynamics of making and identifying the ‘Chinese’ from the ‘Western’, the ‘traditional’ from the ‘modern’, in contemporary Chinese culture. Using analysis of graphic design, material culture and practices of contemporary urban Chinese life, the research considers the transition marked by a “modern socialism with Chinese characters” that began in 1978, and the role of design in negotiating the ‘foreign’ and the ‘local’ in this era of globalization.

Elisabeth Petermann, Mag.Des.Ind. (University of Arts, Linz) Email
Design through foresight
Using ethnographical methodology and corporate access this dissertation project explores future orientated reseach in design.

Heng Zhi, Mag.Des.Ind. (University of Applied Arts Vienna)
Redefining Design - Reflective Design Activities in Contemporary China
China's creative energy seems driven by the inseparable forces of affluence and the desire for recognition; ever more accelerated mass production, high-speed construction of spectacular architecture on a huge scale and the speculation of artists in auctions and galleries. Diving undernearth the widespread understanding of this creative process, this research explores the reflective design activities developing in the contemporary Chinese metropolis as an exploration of the process of (anti-)homogenization in a significant emerging culture.

Laura McGuire, MA (University of Texas, USA)
Beyond Space: Frederick Kiesler 1922-1945

Ufaq Inaam, BFA(Hons.), MFA (Graphic Design), M.Phil.(Art History)
Doctoral Scholarship University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, Email
Designing the Local: Material and Popular Visual Culture in Pakistan
From devotional and calligraphic posters to hyper-real popular film advertisements, the streets of Lahore are filled with the exuberance of ephemeral, non-professional graphic design; skills handed down from one generation to the next in an informal economy of design. This doctoral research project examines the competing styles and traditions within the ubiquitous graphics consumed in everyday life in a Pakstani city. While the historiography of visual culture in South Asia has tanded to emphasise the arts of India, this thesis questions the cross over of traditions, and the relevance of the local in the making of vernacular, non-professional design.


Completed Doctorates

Martina Grünewald, Dr. phil. BBA, MA, Promotio sub auspiciis
Doing Design, Practising Thrift - Material Culture and the Social Construction of Value at Auctions in Vienna
External Examiner: Prof. Harvey Molotch, New York University, USA

Kathrina Dankl, Dr. phil. DI (FH)
Very Experienced People: An Ethnography of Design, the Elderly and Style
External Examiner: Prof. Jeremy Myerson, Director Helen Hamlyn Centre RCA, UK

Özlem Savas, M.Sc., Ph.D., Ass. Prof. Design and Communication, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
Taste Diaspora: The Aesthetic and Material Practice of Belonging
External Examiner: Prof. John Storey, University of Sunderland, UKDI

Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Sandra Dittenberger, New Design University, St. Pölten
Lived Mobility - The Experience of Personal Mobility
External Examiner: Prof. Ina Wagner, Technical University Vienna

Univ.Ass. Mag. Dr. Anna Weiß, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
Hyper-Domesticity: Gender and the Contemporary Interior
External Examiner: Edelbert Köb, Director MUMOK