I will use this part of the module to develop a phd proposal, therefore all of my research and routes will be directed towards that.
I would like to develop my academic persona as I wish to pursue a phd and work as a researcher within the academy. I am interested in drawing from history, that can be materiality but also from historical social and cultural contexts and examine at the effects on contemporary (visual) culture.
Research: interesting people
Considering I do not want to do that much commercial work, but rather focus on an academic career I have been looking at people that work in a similar way that I would like to.
Shimrit Lee
A writer, curator and educator.
“My research lies at the intersection of visual and cultural studies, postcolonial theory, and critical security studies. I’m interested in how violence is perpetuated, packaged, and sold in contemporary culture, and the role of visual art and performance in decolonizing and building community”
http://www.shimritlee.com/
Dori Tunstall
Design anthropologist and the dean at OCAD University in Toronto.
“I’ve always had a designerly approach, which is about the harmonious relationship between content and form. Yet I am interested in how that dynamic fits into a wider context. This is where my background in anthropology and the work of Black, Indigenous, and POC anthropologists in decolonizing anthropology comes to the fore. It informs my deep interest in and commitment to decolonizing design.”
https://www.deemjournal.com/stories/dori-tunstall
Michelle Millar Fischer
Curator, writer and educator.
“She has long been interested in the confluence of gender and design. She has written widely on care work, mothering, and reproductive labor,”
https://michellemillarfisher.com/About
Amber Winick
“I am a writer, design researcher, and curator focused on our collective conversation around birth, motherhood, and caring for children—surfacing and reckoning with the public conversations, designed objects and systems that define our understandings of these experiences.”
Paulo Tavares
“Paulo Tavares is an architect, researcher and writer based in South America. His work has been featured in exhibitions and publications worldwide, including Harvard Design Magazine, the Oslo Architecture Trienniale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, and the São Paulo Biennial. He is the author of the books Forest Law (2014), Memória da Terra (2018), and Des-Habitat (2019).”
“Tavares’s design and pedagogic practice spans different territories, social geographies, and media.”
Morehshin Allahyari
“a NY based Iranian-Kurdish artist using 3D simulation, video, sculpture, and digital fabrication as tools to re-figure myth and history. Through archival practices and storytelling, her work weaves together complex counternarratives in opposition to the lasting influence of Western technological colonialism in the context of SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa).”
http://www.morehshin.com/
Reflection from research & lecture
https://futuress.org/magazine/anger-is-my-motto/
I read this article on Futuress and found it very interesting. I wrote a reflection on the ideas wall: I thought this article from Futuress provides several nice insights into Tereza Bettinardi’s practice and how she uses her platforms to open up for others. She is inclusive in the way she talks and the way she creates. I found it interesting as it is in large contrast to for example Adrian Talbot in the lecture who limits others through a narrative of what I guess is his internalised privilege. He says for example “first, you’ve got to be a good designer. There’s no point in setting up a design practice if you’re not a good designer, because no one’s going to want your designs.” There is so much to unpack in that saying, and there is so much potential for him to look inwards instead of projecting outwards. While Bettinardi uses her voice to reveal the multitudes of our visual culture and through that lower the threshold for people to get into design and design discourse. She says “My activism is my practice. […] For me, the work is in the micro-politics of daily labor. And it’s a work in progress; it will never be finished. It’s about thinking about one’s reality, and cultivating meaningful relationships with others.”
I wonder what constitutes a good designer according to Talbot? Who decides on that framework? Could it not be possible to start out as a tentative designer, slowly making ones way forward and learning while doing it? However, I think I established in GDE710 that Intro seemed like a workplace built on an ideology that is intended for a very specific group. The lecture contains six white British men and a woman patenting truths on what graphic design is and I guess that is the framework which I am really struggling with from my ideological foundation. I think that is why I am so drawn to a more academic context as the academy (in some places at least) more often pushes towards new narratives, more inclusion and critical reflection on the design discourse.
I think this is interesting as this interview with Bettinardi is set with the title “Anger is my Motto”–yet it is not intimidating. The reason for that is because her anger is aimed upwards, while her initiative and inclusion is aimed downwards.
The western design sphere and its ideologies are built on patriarchal (and other problematic) norms. For example The Bauhaus pedagogy and ideology is built on the notion that people could be perfected, with a focus on men, as women did not have the same possibilities at the Bauhaus. Walter Gropius thought women could only think in two dimensions, while men could think in three (Lupton 2021). The holistic focus of Bauhaus, with their exercises can also be seen in anthroposophy (established by Steiner whom the Bauhaus adored) and relating Bauhaus to Steiner, that exercise can be seen as a way to determine the physical capability of the individual. A way of viewing and categorizing people. So, when people today use their voice to form uncertainty in others I always feel a bit annoyed. No one will ever flourish from a narrative of for example good or bad design.
Action plan
This practical guide to planning an academic or research career could be a good start. In it was a Research Career Development Action Plan that I thought I could fill in. For the purpose of this assignment I will focus on my local university as it makes the research more focused.
MY TARGET CAREER IS….
Research professor. As for now I feel like I would like to work with a heavier focus on research than teaching, that might change as time pass.
HOW WILL I ACHIEVE THIS?
Going from a masters to apply for a phd and from there to a researcher within academia.
THE UNIVERSITIES/ORGANISATIONS I’M INTERESTED IN WORKING IN ARE…
Linnaeus University. Since I have a lot of contacts and I have been working there, it is where I live etc. It is a practicality but I am also open for other universities.
Malmö University
Gothenburg University
Linköping University
Reading University. Very expensive fees, but offers PhD by distance.
WHAT ACTION CAN I COMPLETE TODAY?
Contact the Department of Media and Journalism on Linnaeus university.
Contact their research leader.
WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR IN A PHD?
A department where I can develop and find others with similar interests. A research subject that can work as a backbone for my research profile. This comes from having read a lot of different texts of Arturo Escobar who writes a range of variety’s of his main research subject, but from different perspectives that always provide new insight. This is a very interesting approach and I would like to take a broader approach in my phd where I can work out more defined texts/research in complementary articles/texts and further research after my finished phd.
WHAT ACTION CAN I COMPLETE TODAY?
Find appropriate research groups at Linnaeus University.
WHAT FUNDING SOURCES ARE OPEN TO ME?
The forms of financial support for Swedish doctoral students are:
- doctoral student employment
- other employment at the university
- education grants
- scholarships
- employment outside the university: medical employment, company doctoral student or other employment outside the university
- other support (other support includes the doctoral students who have their own support, study grants or for which there is no information on study funding).
Source: UKÄ
HOW WILL I GAIN WORK EXPERIENCE WHILE STUDYING?
WHAT NETWORKS CAN I JOIN?
Keep working with the Linnaeus University and try to strengthen my connection with the dept. of Media and Journalism, but also try and expand to other universities. I should find a journal where I could possibly have the opportunity to be published.
WHAT PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS CAN I JOIN?
http://further-reading.club/
http://designandculture.org/
https://www.designresearchsociety.org/cpages/sig-pluriversal-design
WHO COULD SUPERVISE MY POSTGRADUATE DISSERTATION?
https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/mahmoudkeshavarz
https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/staff/dr-robyn-cook
Johan Höglund is at Linnaeus University, he is a very appropriate candidate for supervising my project. He is in charge of the research group: Aesthetics of Empire.
Kristoffer Holt-, even though our research interests differ, he is the research leader at the department of Media and Journalism and can serve as a helpful contact in terms of finding the right person to connect with.
POSSIBILITIES
Good connections within the academic sphere where I live.
More than twelve years of teaching as a guest lecturer at bachelor level at two different departments at the Linnaeus University.
Strengthen connections within my current studies.
CHALLENGES
Unsure if my work in this masters is sufficient for the kind of phd I wish to undertake. Might possibly have to take another more theoretically oriented master. Malmö University has one called “Communication for Development” that could make for a nice complement to my interests. But at the same time I am not thrilled about the idea of spending two more years doing another masters.
How to write a proposal
There is so much research to do for writing a proposal, and I am currently not even sure what I want to spend 4 years researching about. I think I will have to define a broader subject and then narrow it down as I go.
I have been looking at proposals to ensure I fit everything in that is supposed to be there.
I found some proposals here and a recommendation on contents for a proposal, this is how I have decided to structure my own proposal:
- Title
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Notion of original research
- Aims & objectives
- Research methods
- Analysis
- Timeline
- References and bibliography
Workshop challenge
Since beginning this course I have been able to identify a way I most often work. I clearly separate the research and outcome in which the research only stays in a phase where the intersection of past and present is examined through the lens of theory most often postcolonial feminism, but sometimes post develop ment, anthropology and more. It is most often only in the outcome that the possible futures are discussed and materialised.
Final outcome
I would like to be a graphic designer, researcher and writer intersecting past and present to envision possible futures. My ambition is to use research in graphic design as a lens to look beyond and below, dissecting hegemonic narratives to examine alternate ones.
My work proposes inclusive feminist approaches deriving from primarily postcolonial feminist theory and post development theory.
References
LUPTON, E, Kafei, F, & Tobias, J 2021, Extra Bold, Princeton Architectural Press, Hudson, NY.