I am an artist and Reader in Technological Embodiment and Creative Practice, Director of Research and Unit of Assessment REF Coordinator for Design, at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, working with colleagues from diverse disciplines including Design Informatics, Performance Costume, Film, Graphic Design and Jewellery. My teaching responsibilities include students across the Design, ECA and School of Health and Social Science disciplines from undergraduates, postgraduates, through to PhD candidates.
My research practice interrogates the impact of technology on relationships, the body and human experience, through the creation of practice-based projects and writing. A longstanding research interest is live performance using technology and interdisciplinary collaboration. I have developed projects involving a range of practitioners, including medical researchers, scientists, writers, technologists, dancers, actors and composers.
Outputs include Eidolon, an intimate, site-specific, immersive live performance, VR experience, and monograph, developed at the Scottish Centre for Simulation & Clinical Human Factors (SCSCHF), at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert. The project was funded by the Wellcome Trust (30K), Creative Scotland (£5K) and University of Edinburgh. Eidolon was performed at The World Congress on Biomedical Ethics, Edinburgh Art Festival, the Scottish Centre for Simulation & Clinical Human Factors, Larbert, transimage2018 and at the Clinical Skills & Assessment Centre, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as part of Professional Development courses for Advance Practitioner Nurses, studying at Edinburgh Napier University. Eidolon360, a VR experience created from the performance, has been exhibited at British HCI 2017, TEI2018, xCoAx2018 and talks about the work have been widely presented including SESAM Paris 2017 and Consciousness Reframed, DeTao University, Shanghai.
My research and interests are strongly aligned with EFI’s mission and research. I have already achieved funding through EFI strands, such as the MEmorial project, a performance project exploring how we live with the dead in the digital age, which was supported by an EFI Research Award, It’s all about the feeling, exploring AI, sentiment recognition and performance, supported by a Challenge Investment Fund, under the EFI strand and the project funding I received towards the digitisation of a series of watercolour works created in response to bias in AI and robotics, in preparation for NFTs
I would welcome the opportunity to become a more active member of the EFI community. I feel that I would bring specific skills around critically engaged, creative practice based research to the EFI community and would benefit from the strong cohort of staff working in fields relating to my own research, as well as being able to tap into the opportunities that the Affiliate status affords.
