Design
Research

Research Groups

Design research at the University of Newcastle is conducted within the following research groups:

Design, Information and Human Communication group

This research group is engaged in the generation of new media objects and forms and the analysis of the processes that generate those objects and forms. They explore the technical possibilities of automating areas of media production and focus on the poetics, dramaturgics and aesthetics of human communication while allowing for the development of alternative research methodologies. Their research explores the making and analysis of mediated artefacts within an investigation of the practice of media production in its social and cultural contexts.

Current research topics include:

  • Aesthetics, Poetics and Ethics of Design Communication
  • Media Production
  • Creative Practice as Research
  • Multimedia, Design Learning and Communication Tools in Education
  • Comedy and Discontinuous Narratives
  • Construction of Meanings in Public Relations
  • Design and Foot Fetishism. Creativity and Cultural Production
  • Graphic Imagery in Marketing Wine
  • Technology and Education. Cultural Identity, Representation and Interpretation
  • Video art, Digital intermedia and the World Wide Web
  • Political Ecology, Media and Politics. Media and Communication

Wildlife Representation group

The Wildlife Representation group aims to enhance the national significance and international reputation of current research in the documentation and visual recording of the natural world. From a traditional theoretical and practical base, research in the area is establishing this art form in a contemporary conceptual, theoretical and experiential context.

Current research topics include:

  • Visualising the Dreamtime - bringing the Dreamtime alive through words and pictures
  • Exploring connections within and beyond the biblical manuscripts of the five Jewish Festival Scrolls – illuminating them using Australian wildlife motifs
  • Adapting advanced manufacturing technology used in engineering for use by artists producing sculpture
  • Is there method in the madness? The development of an innovative fieldwork methodology that can be applied to contemporary natural history illustration

Publications

Information about individual publications is available through staff web profiles.