3983 research outputs found
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Waste matter: Public art and the (im)materiality of post-colonial memory
Full text linkOver the last century, the idea of progress and industrial capitalism have created a climate emergency through the violent extraction of natural resources. This research focuses on lithium mineral extraction taking place in Portugal and the consequences that these activities have for the environment and local communities. Drawing from Robert Smithson’s notion of ‘ruins-in-reverse’ and ‘abstract geology’, the research takes an interdisciplinary approach by combining geological, archaeological and forensic methods with the act of walking, site writing, object analysis and experimental practice to explore the area where fiction, imagination, and reality blur to reconstruct events through the geological layer and traces left by industrial development in places under extractive colonialism and popular resistance, economic dispute and ecological crisis. The research investigates the relation between waste and spatial justice within the contemporary context of globalisation. Working in sculpture, photography, and public art works, the practice explores the creative and subversive potential of waste to question the intersections between extractive capitalism, colonialism, the Anthropocene, and the climate crisis. Here I suggest that the ways we perceive and relate to waste are informed by the unjust geographies created by colonial legacies that are still present in the city order. The practice also includes the case study ‘Kverndalen in New Light’, in which I concentrate on methods, practices, and possibilities to reinscribe waste with meaning and value in order to propose speculative alternatives for urban regeneration projects in an effort towards material and spatial reconstitution. The practice research draws from a range of theoretical perspectives and scholarly work to enable a conversation between different approaches to waste, unfolding the scope of their research, methodology and knowledge gaps. This travels from Michel de Certeau’s work (1998) on the relationship between objects, memory and forgetting to explore alternative material forms of remembrance that acknowledges the ‘transience’ of power in the process of ruination (Desilvey, 2017), “waste as ‘matter out of place’” (Douglas, 1966), Waste as ‘matter out of time’” (Viney, 2014; Allon, Barcan & Edison-Cogan, 2021; Foucault’s notion of “heterotopias” as ‘spaces of otherness’, Guttormsen’s ‘deep cities’ framework, 2020), “waste value” (Thompson, 2017), and the use of ‘ruin waste’ (Edensor, 2005; DeSilvey, 2017) as an agent for ‘radical change’ (Franklin & Till, 2018); and Hawkins’s ‘waste as thing’ (2018). The research looks at political ecology, decolonial theory, and urban humanities (Bruna’s ‘green extractivism’ (2022); Yusoff’s ‘white geology’ (2018); Vergés ‘racial Capitalocene’ (2019); Cuff’s “immanent speculation practice” (2020); Soja’s “spatial justice” (2010); and Rendell’s ‘critical spatial practice’ (2002). It also looks at contemporary artistic practices, specifically at Robert Smithson’s work on entropy and Susan Schuppli’s notion of ‘material witness’. Ultimately, I argue that waste can be understood as an alternative material form with value that has the potential to inspire social change and enable a more sustainable and inclusive ecological future. The research aims, therefore, to address and redefine the role of the artist in the urban policy-making of cities under transformation and industrial development
Barriers to mainstream adoption of circular packaging in Indonesia
Full text linkAchieving the mainstream adoption of circular packaging is essential for mitigating the environmental impacts of plastic waste. Its widespread adoption, however, remains hindered by significant user barriers. This study investigates the barriers to user adoption of upstream packaging solutions in Indonesia with the aim of reducing plastic packaging waste. Through a mixed-methods approach including case studies, expert workshops, and focus group discussions, nine key barriers were identified and analysed. These include inconvenience, resistance to changing habits and behaviours, higher costs and deposit schemes, contamination and hygiene concerns, wear and tear, functional and performance limitations, a lack of awareness about the environmental impacts, limited availability and variety, and a lack of trust. This research advances the literature by offering a detailed analysis of these barriers, categorising them into sociocultural, economic, contextual, and regulatory aspects. Additionally, barriers specific to Indonesia were identified such as a shift from being served to self-service refilling, some people not having smartphones, poor cellular signals in rural areas, a preference for plastic packaging due to its resale value, and a preference for cash payments due to limited access to credit or bank cards. The findings highlight the need for tailored, multidisciplinary strategies to overcome these barriers and promote the adoption of circular packaging solutions. This research provides valuable insights for researchers studying circular design, businesses seeking to innovate upstream packaging solutions, and policymakers aiming to develop regulations that support the adoption of circular packaging practices
Photography & entrapment
No full textThis research employs the notion of entrapment to outline an embodied and non-representational theory of the photographic, proposed as an alternative to established accounts of the medium. Traps and photography rely on similar strategies, such as mimicry, absenting, and automation, and both generate particular tensions in time. Cameras function as traps that lure light onto sensitive surfaces and digital sensors, where it is absorbed and transformed. Algorithms operate trap-like, processing information through predetermined operations that result in digitally born images. Photographic devices—understood as extending beyond cameras and photographs—embody trap-like relations between humans, non-humans, machines, and environments. At a theoretical level, four conceptual shifts are proposed. The metaphor of the trace is replaced by that of the trap; photography is understood as a gestural nexus of relations rather than as a technology of reproduction; the Western notion of representation is substituted with mimicry, as observed in non-European cultures and non-human species; and the concept of capture is advanced as an alternative to discourses that primarily associate photography with surveillance. Methodologically, the project is grounded in practice. Photographic situations of entrapment are staged, assembling people, apparatuses, and custom-designed objects. These objects act as traps for the camera, enabling photographic gestures to emerge through specific material and discursive operations. Processes are developed in which images circulate across different media, connecting old and new technologies. Through this, photography is framed less as a means of reproducing the world than as a practice of transformation, making the world become unlike itself
Evaluating the effectiveness of analytic rubrics in enhancing self-regulation and collaborative skills among postgraduate design students in a hybrid learning environment
Full text linkInterdisciplinary collaboration is a fundamental aspect of postgraduate design education, fostering innovation and critical problem-solving by integrating diverse perspectives and skill sets. However, students often encounter communication, engagement, and equitable participation challenges, particularly in hybrid learning environments. This study investigates the efficacy of analytic rubrics as a structured self and peer assessment tool in fostering self-regulation, reflective practices, and active engagement in interdisciplinary design teams. The study was conducted over a 16-week hybrid learning unit at the Royal College of Art, involving 30 students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, organised into six collaborative groups. A mixed-methods approach was employed to capture both qualitative and quantitative insights into the impact of analytic rubrics on student engagement and teamwork. Self and peer evaluations, facilitated through an analytic rubric, were conducted at the midpoint of the unit and during critical tutorial sessions preceding the final submission. These evaluations provided a structured framework for students to assess and discuss their engagement, teamwork dynamics, and individual contributions in alignment with the unit’s learning outcomes. During tutorial sessions, student teams engaged in structured, rubric-guided discussions, fostering reflective dialogue on areas for improvement and strategies to enhance collaboration. To further examine the effectiveness of rubric-based assessment, qualitative data was collected through an analysis of students’ reflective statements submitted at the end of the unit. These reflections offered insights into how the rubric functioned as a catalyst for discussions on responsibility, accountability, and role negotiation within interdisciplinary teams. Additionally, quantitative data was obtained from survey questionnaires administered at the beginning and end of the unit to evaluate changes in students’ self-regulated learning behaviours and collaborative effectiveness. This mixed-methods approach enabled a comprehensive analysis of both behavioural and attitudinal shifts associated with the integration of analytic rubrics in the learning process. Findings indicate that structurally applied analytic rubrics enhance self-regulation, accountability, and engagement, serving as a pedagogical intervention that fosters deeper collaboration in hybrid and interdisciplinary settings. Unlike traditional summative rubrics, this study demonstrates how analytic rubrics function as a reflexive tool, actively shaping learning behaviours through structured self and peer assessment. By embedding rubrics as an iterative framework for reflection and dialogue, this research offers an adaptable, evidence-based model for improving student autonomy and collaborative learning in postgraduate education
Learning by transforming: Widening access to complex circular economy science using experimental design
Full text linkThis paper presents a pilot pedagogical project exploring the potential of experimental design methods to engage students with complex scientific concepts, by focusing on translating these concepts specifically for a public audience. Conducted within the UKRI-funded Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC) at the Royal College of Art, the project tasked design students with designing an experience that can communicate the science of biobased textile recycling, an emerging circular economy process that is complex and typically inaccessible for laypeople. Framed as a process of translation rather than mastery, the project integrated interdisciplinary, multisensory, and speculative design and teaching methods to engage with a range of ways of conceptualizing and communicating complex science to a diverse audience. Students worked closely with scientific researchers, engaging with scientific materials and techniques, including enzymatic recycling and bacterial cellulose production. Through iterative development, the students produced Catalyst, a multisensory installation that employs tactile interaction, visual displays, and soundscapes to create an interactive material simulation of biobased recycling. The study identifies three key pedagogical outcomes with potential for application in wider contexts: enhanced technical comprehension, emotional engagement, and learner agency. We discuss the relationship of multimodal design methods to whole-systems thinking and learning. We propose that interdisciplinary, multisensory methods for enhancing complexity-oriented learning and public engagement, and raise possibilities to scale the model to other contexts that involve communication of complex information, as it may be able to activate new forms of learning and public engagement
Spectral transmissions: Tarmac dreams
No full textSpectral Transmissions slips quietly through the slumbering city streets listening to intense whispered tarmac dreams and the quiet concrete mumbles. "I stood here, and saw before me the unutterable, the unthinkable gulf that yawns profound between two worlds, the world of matter and the world of spirit; I saw the great empty deep stretch dim before me, and in that instant a bridge of light leapt from the earth to the unknown shore, and the abyss was spanned.” – Arthur Machen With thanks to Ben Branangan, Decily Devine ad Xanthe Horne
Mapping heat: Textiles, coal and time
No full textThis presentation explores my ongoing research and work for the 2021 British Textile Biennial, which examines the legacy of coal as both a material and a symbol of power, transformation, and inequity. Through A Portrait of Coal and Coal Seams, I map the intersections of geological, industrial, and personal histories, tracing the heat generated—both literal and metaphorical- to unearth stories of race and class hierarchies. Wherever coal was found, change followed; it left its mark on the land and defined this country—and the world—for decades to come. Coal symbolised time, and unlocking this geological time gave us the power to go fast and create beyond the limitations of man and animals. And so, Coal is the beginning of modern times. The theme of heat runs through my practice, where the slow, labour-intensive nature of hand embroidery mirrors the pressure and friction embedded in these histories. This meticulous process creates space to see, to reflect on time, and to consider the geological and cosmological systems we inhabit. While coal accelerated the world, my act of making is an attempt to slow it down. Using wool and cotton—materials deeply tied to the Industrial Revolution—I create intricate textile maps that weave together family histories with broader narratives of industrial and colonial exploitation. In this presentation, I will explore the symbolic and material “heat” of coal in shaping industrial and cultural landscapes. I will examine how the tactile language of textiles embodies these transformations and discuss the personal and political dimensions of migration, assimilation, and identity—each shaped by the heat of coal. I aim to demonstrate how artistic research can “turn up the heat” on questions of materiality, labour, and global connections
Exhuming Earth: Extraction and resistance in the age of the ‘Green Transition’
No full textThe global push for a ‘green transition’ has led to a dramatic acceleration in the search for mineral deposits and the opening of new extractive frontiers across the world. This is disproportionately impacting the territories of agricultural, traditional and indigenous peoples, exacerbating their long histories of exploitation and marginalization. Building on investigative work developed during the past decade on the Atacama Desert in Chile and in the mountainous region of Barroso, in Portugal, this essay will look at the forms that this new push of the extractive frontier is taking, but more importantly, to the forms of resistance that are emerging in response to it