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.
studioaki.london
Riccardo is an architect, editor and researcher working at the intersection of migration studies and critical ecologies. Riccardo co-leads together with Helen Brewer the MA City Design studio focused on âmigrantâ circulations and geographies. His work examines the politics of migration, resistance to bordering practices, and concepts of belonging, identity, and citizenship. Riccardo is a PhD student at the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the editor of the book series Research Architecture: Pedagogies, Politics and Practices (Spector Books).
##Alison Bartlett
Alison Bartlett is an architectural designer and researcher whose work takes the form of writing, drawing and material explorations that seek to formalise the political and aesthetic operativity of historical objects. Based in London, she has recently completed her MPhil at the Architectural Association, in which she investigated the production of nationalist identities entombed within architectural artefacts. She continues to pursue these topics as an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art.
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.
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 artist who works within the discourse of photography, landscape, portraiture and moving image. His work has been exhibited at the International Centre of Photography New York, The National Portrait Gallery London, Haus Wien Austria, galeriepcp Paris, Centre of British Photography London, The Saatchi Gallery, Pembroke JCR Gallery Oxford, The Camden Arts Centre, Sherbert Green London, Peckham 24 Photo Festival 2024, The Impression Gallery Bradford, Glass Tank Oxford Brookes University, and the Dulwich picture Gallery in Soulscapes. He is currently associate lecturer in Media Studies at the Royal College of Art and MA Documentary Photography at London College of Communications.
Georgia HablĂŒtzel is co-founder of web-site.info and Diploma Unit Master at the Architectural Association. Her work investigates how image-making influences the perception of subjects, ranging from landscapes and objects to pixels and imagery. With a background in editorial work and publication coordination, Georgia has contributed to monographs, academic journals, and artist books. Her research focuses on the epistemologies of landscape, using legal aesthetics and visual culture to explore preservation protocols, management systems and representation.
Daryan Knoblauch is a chartered architect and designer based between Berlin and London. After gathering years of experience within practice and academia, he launched his eponymous studio in early 2023. Daryan teaches as a Studio Master at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art. His work has been featured widely at Concéntrico, Porto Academy, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Melbourne Design Week, Seoul Architecture Biennale and the German Center for Literature among others. His design, research and writing appeared at arch daily, architectural records, designboom, DOMUS, e-flux, AAfiles, Deutsches Architekten Blatt (DAB) and Tissue Magazine among others.
daryanknoblauch.com
Joshua Leon is an artist, writer and researcher based in London whose practice centres on collapsing archival memory, history and memoir into one another. His practice thinks through historically complicated positions such as the âwandererâ or âdegenerateâ and researches Jewish histories, situating these existential states as methodologies for thinking about artistic production, exhibition making, writing practice, questions of restitution and knowledge production. Leon uses the lament as a critical space to think about the ways site and place store memories, and how writing and exhibition making can enliven them. This approach of embodied memoir allows him to articulate how so-called minor histories of diaspora and their economic contribution play a role within a larger socio-political context of migration, trade, and materiality. His practice spans sound, sculpture, institutional intervention, documents and emptiness to explore the ways in which materials can bear witness and codify language.
Sonia Levy is an artist and research-led filmmaker with a diasporic Berber-Polish background. Her work is marked by site-specific inquiries and interdisciplinary collaborations, critically examining Western expansionist and extractive logics and investigating how these frameworks have historically governed and continue transforming watery worlds. Her practice probes the thresholds that shape and affect the conditions necessary for life to flourish. She is the co-convenor of the collective How Like a Reef. Additionally, she is a member of the Steering Committee at the UN Ocean Decade Coordination Office on Connecting People and the Ocean.
sonialevy.net
Sam Nightingale is an artist-researcher working within environmental media. He works with photography to re-imagine and re-image the spectral-material complexities of settler colonialism, extractivism and their ongoing environmental impact on human and nonhuman worlds. His practice uses experimental 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, 2022/24). Invitations include 'Sites of Scattering' â LĂŒderitz, Namibia; California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. Nightingale is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London (MCCS & The Centre for Research Architecture).
samnightingale.com
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.
Dr Mhamad Safa is a London-based sound artist and architect whose work explores the intersection of multi-scalar spatial conditions and their sonic make-ups. His practice addresses the aural legacies of traditional subcultures, occultism, armed conflicts, shock and the aftermath of violence. He graduated from the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths University in 2019 and received his PhD from the University of Westminster in 2024. He is an Associate Lecturer in Architecture and Media Studies at the Royal College of Art in London.
mhamadsafa.com
Linn Phyllis Seeger (she/her) is an artist working with moving image and online media. Her work and writing have appeared at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2021); Foam Amsterdam (2022); ICA London (2022); Kuenstlerhaus Wien (2022); Dazed (2024); Autre Magazine (2022); and others. Her two artist books were published by Skinnerboox (2020; 2022). Recently, Linn Phyllis Seeger was an Artist in Residence at the Con/Crit/Tec residency hosted by CAD+SR in SĂŁo Paulo (2023), and the Derek Jarman Lab (2023). She was selected as Foam Talent (2022), and the winner of the Lucy Art Residency in Greece (2021).
linn-phyllis-seeger.com
MarĂa Montero Sierra is an art historian and curator who is currently head of program of TBA21âAcademy. Under the initiative of the Academy, she is developing Fishing Fly, a research project on the relationships between marine and human ecosystems from the prism of eating. Her curatorial projects include âLiquid Intelligenceâ a co-curated group show at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (2023), âBecoming Fresh and Salty Drops (of water)â a festival at Ocean Space, Venice (2022), âFrequency Singular Plural,â a cycle of performances at CentroCentro, Madrid (2019) and âEn los cantos nos diluimosâ at Sala de Arte Joven de la Comunidad de Madrid (2017), along with other collaborations, including âJoan Jonas: Moving Off the Landâ at Tate Modern (2018) and TBA21âAcademyâs The Current II (2018-20) and The Current III (2021â25). Montero Sierra graduated from the department of art history at the Complutense University of Madrid, in 2006, and obtained her MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, in 2013.
Dr Kelly Spanou is an architectural practitioner based between Athens and London. Her work is situated at the intersection of architecture and curation. She works as an Associate Lecturer at the RCA, and she runs her architectural studio in Athens. She has an academic 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 curatorial strategies drawing upon contemporary discourse on social and cultural reparations. Her work has been disseminated in venues such as RA Lates, Open House Athens, Camera Austria, Venice Architecture Biennale, London Design Festival, Sonar+D Festival.
Freya Spencer-Wood is a designer and researcher working at the intersection of spatial politics, environmental justice, queer identity and set design. She is an Associate Lecturer on architecture courses at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins. Freya was a Design Researcher in Residence at the Design Museum this year and has worked at a range of architecture and design practices including AOC, JA Projects, V&A design studio and We Made That. She graduated from TU Delft in 2019 with a Masters of Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences with distinction, where she was awarded the Best Graduate of Architecture 2019.
freyaspencer-wood.com
Lennaart van Oldenborgh is a documentary film editor, researcher and producer-director. For his PhD he is making an essay film about the specific audiovisual record of the siege of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993-94). 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, 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).
Joshua Woolford is a transdisciplinary artist working between performance, painting, sculpture, sound, video, and installation. Their work is rooted in cultural research, drawing from literature, music, and art, as well as their own personal experiences of being a member of the queer Black Afro-Caribbean diaspora living in England. Notable exhibitions include live performances at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, as well as exhibiting and performing in multiple institutions across London, including HOME by Ronan Mckenzie, Soho House, Somerset House, Black Cultural Archives, the V&A, Gucci flagship store, Camden Art Centre and Tate Britain.
Sarah Akigbogun (2022, 23, 24)
Riccardo Badano (2022, 23, 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, 23, 24)
Georgia HablĂŒtzel (2024)
Gabriella Hirst (2020-22)
Daryan Knoblauch (2023, 24)
Mustapha Jundi (2020-22)
Helene Kazan (2018-19)
Keren Kuenberg (2020-22)
Kenzie Larsen (2018)
Joshua Leon (2023, 24)
Sonia Levy (2022, 23, 24)
Thandi Loewenson (2022)
Lilly Markaki (2023)
Matteo Mastrandrea (2016)
Marie Munk (2018)
Sam Nightingale (2021, 22, 23, 24)
Bahar Noorizadeh (2019-21)
Mirna Pedalo (2019, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
Hanna Rullman (2021-22)
Mhamad Safa (2021, 22, 23, 24)
Linn Phyllis Seeger (2021, 22, 23, 24)
Maria Montero Sierra (2024)
Kelly Spanou (2017, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
Freya Spencer-Wood (2023, 24)
Lennaart van Oldenborgh (2023, 24)
Rosa Whiteley (2022-23)
Tania Lopez Winkler (2019)
Joshua Woolford (2024)