Dr David Burns is a Senior Tutor (Research) and Lead, Media Studies, a unit he initiated in 2016. He has two decades of international experience in tertiary education in colleges of architecture, art, and design. From 2009-2016, he was the founding director of Photography and Situated Media at the University of Technology Sydney. He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths, an MSc in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, and a BArch from the University of Tennessee. David is a co-founder of the Fiction Feeling Frame research collective.
David's RCA profile
burns.art
Sarah Akigbogun is a transdisciplinary practitioner, a PhD researcher at the Bartlett School of Architecture, an Architect, filmmaker. She is also trained as an actor. She is interested in the human condition in architecture and cities and in using the tools of a storyteller as a method of exploration. She is founding director at Studio Aki, one of Wallpaperâs Emerging practices of 2021, and of theatre collective Appropri8. A large part of Sarahâs work is Advocacy within architecture she is a former Vice Chair of Women In Architecture UK and founder of The XXAOC (Female Architects of Colour) Project. Sarah was director of the film She Draw-She Builds, around which the current incarnation of WIA was reformed. Her current film for XXAOC, explores the histories and stories of female architects of colour. Her writing includes pieces for the Carnegie Museum of ArtÂŹÂŹ, AJ, Parlour, Inflection Journal V08.
Riccardo Badano is an architect, editor and researcher working at the intersection between migration studies and critical ecologies. As an Embedded Researcher at Het Nieuwe Instituut he collaborated with Formafantasma and Serpentine Galleries for the exhibition Cambio, for which he edited the catalogue (Walther Koenig Books, 2020). Riccardo, together with Helen Brewer, leads the MA City Design Studio (Royal College of Art) focused on âmigrantâ circulations and forms of spatiality. He is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Research Architecture (Goldsmiths, University of London), and part of the book series âCentre for Research Architecture: Pedagogy, Politics, Practicesâ editorial board. The first issue, Border Environments, was published by Spector Books in 2023.
Trained as an architect, Alisonâs research-based artistic practice is focused on the multi-scalar spatial consequencesâthe politics and aestheticsâof historical objects. She is interested in the political operativity of aesthetic carriers; whether they are manifested in territorial markers, urban development or objects of cultural expression. Based in London, her research takes the form of writing, drawing and material explorations that seek to formalize theoretical interests into political and cultural relevance and experience. Alison holds a B. Comm. from Dalhousie University, an M. I. Arch. & M. Arch. from the School of Architecture & Environment, University of Oregon and an M.Phil in Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association, in which she graduated with Distinction. She has held residencies at Domaine de Boisbuchet and participated in the conception and installation of exhibitions including âOtrxs Mundxsâ in Museo Tamayo, âSecond Lifeâ in Ernesto Gomez Gallardoâs Möbius House & âPerceived Realitiesâ at Excavo Gallery.
Ayanna Blair-Ford is a multifaceted creative based in London, adeptly merging her roles as an award-winning set designer/art director, filmmaker, architectural researcher, designer, and playwright. With a foundational background in architectural design, she has worked at practices such as Hawkins/Brown and 59 Productions, as well as with a range of other multidisciplinary artists. Her personal work as a visual artist, sound designer, and musician deeply explores diasporic narratives and themes of identity and belonging. Central to her ethos is the drive to consistently challenge and redefine conventional western methodologies and narratives. As an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ayanna weaves her architectural research into her teaching, underscoring the significance of narrative-driven design and its socio-cultural ramifications. Her innovative approach to narrative design was recognised with the RIBA Wren Insurance scholarship, further cementing her reputation in both the arts and architectural realms.
Ariel Caine is a Jerusalem-born artist and researcher, currently a Postdoctoral fellow at ICI Berlin. His practice centers on the intersection of spatial (three-dimensional) photography, modeling and survey technologies, and their operation within the production of cultural memories and national narratives. Ariel received his PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London where from 2016â21 he was a project coordinator and researcher at the Forensic Architecture Agency. In 2021â22 he received a postdoctoral research grant from Gerda Henkel Stiftung as part of the speculative cameras and post-visual security projects at Tampere University (Finland). Since January 2023, alongside Kineret Lourie, he has co-founded and runs CHEMIST GALLERY, an artist-run space in Lewisham London.
Gabriella Demczuk is a Lebanese-American artist, journalist, and spatial researcher whose work focuses on the issues of political ecology, the proprietary modes of abstraction, and colonial/capitalist land practices. Over the last ten years she has been working as a member of the White House press, photographing three presidential administrations, Washington politics, and stories across the U.S. related to immigration and environmental policy for The New York Times, TIME, National Geographic, and various other publications. Recently her political work has been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London as part of the show America in Crisis (2022) and her salt prints of ghost forests were presented at Fotografiska in New York City as part of Maya Linâs Ghost Forest installation at Madison Square Park (2021). She is co-founder of Al-Wahâat, an artist-research collective committed to developing spatial, community, and ecological practices around arid lands and futures. Gabriella holds a graduate degree with distinction from the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London and an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts and Journalism from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Jermaine Francis is a London based photographer/artist, writer whose practice works within the disciplines of publishing, gallery and editorial, primarily in the discourse of the photo document. His work explores the physical, psychological, negotiation of space. He is associate lecturer at the Royal College Art, Central St Martins School of Design, and Visiting Lecturer at London College Centre of Photography, as well as a member of The Contemporaries board at The Photographers Gallery. His work has been exhibited at the International Centre of Photography New York, The National Portrait Gallery London, Hetton Lawn at Haus Wien and Galeriepcp in Paris, Centre of British Photography London, The Saatchi Gallery, Pembrok JCR Gallery, Oxford Photo Festival and part of the Public Knowledge program at Camden Arts Centre. Jermaine has published two books. Something that seems so familiar becomes distant was shortlisted for the Belfast Photo Festival, 2022, and Rhythms from the Metroplex, an investigation of nonlinear narratives and movement in the city and is exhibited as part of Civilisation How we Live now at the Saatchi Gallery. He also co curated âNotes on a Native Son, After Baldwinâ, part of this yearâs 2023 edition of Peckham 24.
Daryan Knoblauch was educated at the Architectural Association in London where he graduated with distinction in 2021. His practice aims to fuse elements of contemporary culture, nature and technology, while using architecture as a medium of communication, devoted to exploring space through build design and research. Space production is hereby understood as a highly collaborative effort in which the practice operates at its best within the Public Realm in close conversation with Artists, Performers, Musicians such as Curators among others. Every project takes pivotal ecological and social questions as its venture point while drawing inspiration from cutting edge design language to address an audience with the most inclusive means possible. Radical Architecture foreseen as a threshold that mediates between high and youth culture. Daryan currently teaches at the Architectural Association in London where he was appointed as a Studio Master right after his graduation in 2021.
daryanknoblauch.com
Instagram
Joshua Leon is a poet, writer, and visual artist. Drawing on Jewish history, his work explores the âall but hiddenâ and lament as spaces of critical engagement; as he describes it, "...slowly working on repairing the broken windows. By inhabiting historically complicated positions such as that of the wanderer and degenerate, his text-led process produces exhibitions and performances that bind memoir and historical research with invitations to witness and conspire. Leon has exhibited internationally at Kunstverein MĂŒnchen, Germany, 2023, PEER Gallery, London, 2022 Barbican, London, 2022 Frac Lorraine, Metz, 2021-2022, FUTURA, Czech Republic, 2021 Madonna del Pozzo, Italy 2021, and Daily Practice, Rotterdam. 2020-2021. In 2024 he will also produce his first institutional solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, London and participate in ItinĂ©raire FantĂŽme at CAPC, Bordeaux.
Sonia Levy's research-based practice uses filmmaking as a device for site-based inquiries and interdisciplinary collaborations, fostering multiple perspectives to consider new worlds. Her work queries western expansionist and extractivist logics while tending to critical forms of engagement with more-than-human worlds. She is the 2022 recipient of the S+T+ARTS4Water's 'The Future of High Waters' residency hosted by TBA21 in Venice, and she was the 2021 commissioned artist at Radar Loughborough and Aarhus University's Ecological Globalization Research Group.
Dr Lilly Markaki is a cultural theorist and curator moving between London and Athens. Adopting an interdisciplinary, transversal theoretical approach, their research investigates material and speculative aesthetic practices, placing particular emphasis on questions that relate to artâs world-making (and unworlding) capacities. Lilly holds a PhD in Media Arts from Royal Holloway, University of London, and an MLitt and B.A. in Art History from the University of Glasgow. Among other things, they currently work as Researcher and Programme Curator for DEMO Moving Image Experimental Politics, and sustain an experimental radio practice as a resident of Movement Radio.
Sam Nightingale is an artist-researcher working within environmental media. He works with creative methodologies to re-imagine and re-image the spectral-material complexities of settler colonialism, extractivism and their ongoing environmental, ethical, and political impact on human and nonhuman worlds. His practice uses experimental forms of photography and speculative fieldwork to explore the geopolitical interface between history, ecology and the image. Nightingale is the co-editor of the book Fieldwork for Future Ecologies: Radical Practice for Art and Art-based Research (Onomatopee, 2022). Invitations include 'Sites of Scattering' â LĂŒderitz, Namibia; Ecology of Senses - Bioart Society, Finland; California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. Nightingale is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London (Media, Communication & Cultural Studies & The Centre for Research Architecture).
Lennaart van Oldenborgh is a documentary film editor, researcher and producer-director with a background in film theory and fine arts. For his a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, he is making an essay film about the specific audiovisual record of the siege of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993-94), its implications for the historicisation of that event, and its meaning for the ongoing divisions in the town. Lennaart edited the 2018 Specialist Factual BAFTA winning documentary âBasquiat: Rage to Richesâ for BBC Studios, and co-directed the feature-length documentary film âBitter Lemonsâ with Adnan Hadzi, about the post-conflict situation in Cyprus, which premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival in 2014. He published âPerforming the Realâ, in âThe State of the Realâ, (2007, I.B.Taurus), and âHaunted Archives: Presence and Absence in the Audio-visual Record of Conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovinaâ in Frames Cinema Journal (issue 19, 2022).
Dr Mirna Pedalo is a London-based architectural practitioner, researcher and scholar interested in the intersection of architecture, urban development and finance in post-conflict societies, particularly in the Western Balkans. Trained as an architect, Mirna holds MAs in Architecture and Visual Cultures from the University of Westminster, and a PhD from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2019, Mirna was a recipient of the RIBA Presidentâs Award for Research in the Cities and Community category, and is one of the founding members of DocomomoBH. She works as an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, University of Westminster and Oxford Brookes University.
Mhamad Safa is a sound artist, architect, and researcher, based between London and Beirut. His work focuses on multi-scalar spatial conditions and their sonic make-ups. He explores their intersections with aural legacies of traditional and subcultural practices as well as environments of conflict and violence. He graduated from the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University and is currently a PhD candidate in International Law at the University of Westminster. Safa had shown individual and collaborative artwork and performances at the Bergen Assembly 2022 (Norway), Goteborg Biennial 2021 (Sweden), Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2019 and Alserkal Arts Foundation (UAE), Sursock Museum and Goethe Institute (Lebanon), Showroom Gallery and The Institute of Contemporary Arts (United Kingdom), among others.
mhamadsafa.com
Linn Phyllis Seeger is a cloud-based artist and PhD Candidate at the Royal College of Art in London. In large-scale screenshot architectures and episodic moving image works, she explores the circulation and retention of mourning rituals online, and the collective (unpaid) labor of history-writing through the (shit) post. Selected as FOAM Talent (Amsterdam, NL), and as the winner of the Lucy Art Residency (Kavala, GR), Linn Phyllis Seegerâs work has been exhibited and screened in the UK and abroad, including Deutsche Boerse Photography Foundation (Frankfurt, DE), FOAM (Amsterdam, NL), ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, UK), Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Biennale Architettura di Venezia (Venice, IT), Fondation Vincent van Gogh (Arles, FR), Kuenstlerhaus (Vienna, AT), and others. Linn Phyllis Seegerâs two artist books, âYou I Everything Elseâ (2020) and â0N0Eâ (2022), were published by Italian publisher Skinnerboox.
Freya Spencer-Wood is a designer and researcher working at the intersections of (public) set design, queer identity and the politics of landscape. Her practice is interdisciplinary - she regularly collaborates with artists and designers and has previously worked at the V&A design studio, We Made That, East and JA Projects on a wide range of exhibition, public realm, community engagement, urban strategy and policy-making projects. Freya holds a Masters of Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences with distinction from TU Delft where she was awarded the Best Graduate of Architecture 2019 for her thesis âFragile Statesâ, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Glasgow School of Art.
Kelly is an architectural practitioner and researcher. Her work is situated at the intersection of the architecture, restoration, and exhibition design. She has an academic and professional background in Architecture (M.Sc.,N.T.U.A) and in Information Experience Design (MA, RCA) and she holds a practice-based PhD (RCA, funded by AHRC) that investigates museumsâ display environments drawing upon contemporary discourse on social and cultural reparations. Originally from Greece, Kelly is currently living between London and Athens. Her work has been disseminated in venues such as RA Lates, Camera Austria, Venice Architecture Biennale, London Design Festival, Sonar+D Festival.
Rosa Whiteley is an artist and researcher based in London, with a background in architecture and spatial design. Rosa engages in long-term collaborations to develop a variety of projects with artists, designers, scientists and craftspeople. Her practice explores the intersection between architecture, ecology, pollution studies and atmospheric politics. Operating between visual arts, performance, site-specific installation and material explorations, her work examines more-than-human communications within toxic and polluted spaces. Rosa has worked within Cooking Sections since 2019, delivering long-term projects that use food as a lens and tool to observe landscapes in transformation. Rosa is also the Director of Research and Materials at CLIMAVORE CIC in the Isle of Skye, developing new building materials from waste seashells, to support the creation of new economic models for coastal communities in Scotland.
Sarah Akigbogun (2022-24)
Riccardo Badano (2022-24)
Alison Bartlett (2023-24)
Ayanna Blair-Ford (2023-24)
Ariel Caine (2019, 20, 23)
Ibiye Camp (2020)
Mark Campbell (2022)
Kamil Dalkir (2016-20)
Matthew Darmour-Paul (2020)
Gabriella Demczuk (2023-24)
Ifor Duncan (2019, 21)
Jermaine Francis (2022-24)
Georgia HablĂŒtzel (2024)
Gabriella Hirst (2020-22)
Daryan Knoblauch (2023)
Mustapha Jundi (2020-22)
Helene Kazan (2018-19)
Keren Kuenberg (2020-22)
Kenzie Larsen (2018)
Joshua Leon (2023-24)
Sonia Levy (2022-24)
Thandi Loewenson (2022)
Lilly Markaki (2023)
Matteo Mastrandrea (2016)
Marie Munk (2018)
Sam Nightingale (2021-24)
Bahar Noorizadeh (2019-21)
Mirna Pedalo (2019-24)
Hanna Rullman (2021-22)
Mhamad Safa (2021-24)
Linn Phyllis Seeger (2021-24)
Maria Montero Sierra (2024)
Kelly Spanou (2017-24)
Freya Spencer-Wood (2023-24)
Lennaart van Oldenborgh (2023-24)
Rosa Whiteley (2022-23)
Tania Lopez Winkler (2019)
Joshua Woolford (2024)