Month: February 2022

  • What did YOU do in the War (against Covid19)? Engaging a response to the covid pandemic through visual communication.

    What did YOU do in the War (against Covid19)? Engaging a response to the covid pandemic through visual communication.

    It seems we might just, finally, be starting to win our battle against the scourge of covid. In fighting an invisible enemy that has had such a devastatingly tangible impact, it is not surprising that the rhetoric has sometimes carried metaphors of war. COBRA meetings in Whitehall and the Queen urging the country to remain […]

  • Presence in distance education – spaces to belong

    Presence in distance education – spaces to belong

    I promise this is not going to be a philosophical discussion, but a rather practical view on the topic. In a discussion of a new design degree at the OU (we call it ‘BDes’), a group of academics mused about how you are present (or what of you is present) when you are studying at […]

  • Art-Based Research Methods, STE(A)M and Global Challenges

    Art-Based Research Methods, STE(A)M and Global Challenges

    Over the past two weeks, I shared some thoughts about Art Based Research (ABR) methods with students and colleagues. I thought I would also write my reflection here. Personally, I have always been driven toward ABR for my need to think through making and my passion for the arts. But aside from my strictly personal […]

  • Design research snapshot

    Design research snapshot

    The design group is multidisciplinary and engages in a wide range of research, including on sustainability, education, inclusion, systems thinking, arts and activism. Working at a distance, it is difficult to keep track of what everyone is up to, and so, we have monthly meetings to discuss our projects and papers. Do look out for […]

  • Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking

    Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking

    The UK Government recently announced its Levelling Up plan aiming to ‘spread opportunity more equally across the UK’, and to narrow the social and economic disparities that exist across different places. Part of this plan is to give more power to local governments to regenerate their own town and cities. Placemaking is back on the agenda, […]

  • Publication: Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance

    Publication: Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance

    New OU Design Group Publication! Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance Christian Nold and Karolina Sobecka http://oro.open.ac.uk/80368/ ‘Aesthetic strategies for engaging with environmental governance’ – written with @ksobecka. Aesthetic strategies can engage environmental governance to build alternative worlds. http://oro.open.ac.uk/80368/ – in Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies #STS #sciart The sciences and […]