Craft Futures
The Craft Futures research group in the School of Design at the University of Northumbria explores the future of our relationship with technology, things and each other, through the lens of craft. We use craft as a set of practices, as a way of thinking and are led methodologically by its core values. We are living at a time when the predicted 20thC vision of the future digital society can be seen as flawed. The promise of the world that the internet would bring is a stark and, at times, bleak contrast to the reality of life now and the near futures we can see developing at speed. Craft gives us the philosophical and practical tools to resist both this pace and associated outcomes and to make more hopeful alternatives.
We are a collection of academics and PhD students in the school of design who are world leaders and future leaders in this field with a strong record of recent and current funded research projects – the creation of this research group would enable us to present this work in the school under one cohesive banner and to seek further funding backed by this clear articulation of the group, its ethos and achievements.
Design Feminisms Research Group
The Design Feminisms Research Group is an inclusive feminist research group at Northumbria University’s School of Design. We explore meanings and implications of ‘feminisms’ in design, and how this political orientation and theoretical framework impacts our research, teaching, and practice.
Ultimately, we think with and through design to understand and build pluralist socially just futures, starting from the margins. We do this by generating impactful research and building an inclusive, interdisciplinary, and welcoming community for diverse researchers across disciplines at Northumbria’s School of Design.
Connected Experience Lab (CXL)
The Connected Experiences Lab (CXL) at the Northumbria School of Design is creating the future of connected experiences, using cutting-edge technologies and innovative research methods to achieve real-world impact together with external partners.
CXL works with different organisations and companies to perform ground-breaking application-oriented research across many domains in both work and leisure. This includes taking advantage of new opportunities in immersive environments, artificial intelligence, rapid manufacturing, sensing and actuation, in order to design and deploy user-oriented interfaces and interactive artifacts.