Research Team
Professor Justin Marshall
Principle Investigator
Justin Marshall is Professor of Craft and Digital Making at the Design School at Northumbria University. For over twenty years he has investigated the integration of digital design and production technologies into craft practices. As an early adopter of digital making technologies in the crafts, his has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Justin is interested in how the materially sensitive and human- centred practice of craft can have value in multidisciplinary research. He has been involved in numerous collaborative projects that bring together diverse teams to investigate areas beyond the normal scope of craft practitioners.
Professor Jayne Wallace
Co-Investigator
Jayne Wallace is Professor of Craft, Digital Creativity and Wellbeing in the School of Design at Northumbria University. As a jeweller and a researcher most of her work has been concerned with the establishment and development of digital jewellery as meaningful forms of object — things that connect us to each other and ourselves in gentle ways across a range of human contexts. She is passionate about the poetic and relational qualities of jewellery; of working with people in creative and dialogical ways; of craft as a methodology in a complex digital culture and of the potential of thinking through making/finding meaning through making.
Professor Jon Rogers
Co-Investigator
Jon is a professor of design at Northumbria University with twenty five years of experience working at the interface between design and emerging technologies. Following a three year fellowship based in Mozilla Berlin (2016-2019) he is focussed on understanding our changing relationship with things as they increasingly become connected to the internet. Jon is involved with a number of interrelated project that includes:
PI on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training programme OpenDoTT; Co-I on an Swiss National Foundation project VA-PEPR; Co-I on URKI funded projects hiCraft, REAPPEAR and the Centre for Digital Citizens, Further work includes collaborating with the design research agency Quicksand and the National Institute of Design in India to explore how we can design for India’s sustainable digital futures relating to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through the recently completed GCRF funded project Decentralising Digital.
He is is an active speaker at events that include Unbox Festival (India), SXSW (USA), ThingsCon (Berlin) and his collaborative work has been shown in the V&A, the Design Museum (London), Ikea Museum (Sweden) and Triennali Milano. Jon was awarded a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Imperial College in 2000 and completed his undergraduate in Electronic Engineering from the university of Hull in 1994. He lives by the sea in Fife, Scotland.
Dr Nick Taylor
Co-Investigator
I am a Senior Lecturer in Human–Computer Interaction in Open Lab at Newcastle University.
My research sits at the intersection of design, technology and society. We attempt to understand the impact of emerging technologies and practices, and imagine, prototype and explore possible preferable futures around those technologies. Previously, I received my PhD from Lancaster University and have lectured in DJCAD at the University of Dundee and at Northumbria University. I am particularly interested in:
- Technology to support neighbourhoods and communities, especially for civic engagement.
- Designing a trusted Internet of Things by embedding values including privacy, openness, decentralisation, inclusion and literacy.
- Making, DIY and craft approaches to technology, particularly to support people in harnessing technology for themselves.
- Participatory methods combing a range of approaches from speculative design to long-term deployments of functioning prototypes ‘in the wild’.
I’m currently working on projects including The Reappearing Computer (REAPPEAR), the Centre for Digital Citizens and OpenDoTT
Dr Philip Heslop
Research Associate
Phil is interested in engaging and empowering populations – especially the digitally marginalised – to understand and utilise the technology that impacts on their lives, in particular with their health and wellness, education and engagement with society. He is interested in working alongside participants, academics and industrial partners to enable, teach and develop technology-enabled experiences that deliver engagement and empowerment across a wide range of platforms, from IOT to web-apps to VR to tangible artefacts.
Phil has a rich and varied history in Human Computer Interaction, Internet of Things, Informatics, Data Visualisation, Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality and Games. He began his career as a games developer focusing on AI and graphics, then moved into academia where he managed Newcastle University’s Virtual Reality facility for more than 10 years and a Fabrication Lab for more than 3 years.
His research career started in Educational Technology, and he was awarded his PhD in 2015. Since then he has worked on a wide range of projects from Educational Technology to Medical Informatics to Internet of Things.
Dr Jayn Verkerk
Research Associate
I am a Research Associate on the hiCraft project towards a healthier IoT through craft. My research investigates the human experience of black-boxed digital technologies through critical making and co-design. Previous research translated online interactions into crafted textile outputs. Investigations into the digital imaginary of the cloud resulted in physical artworks that reflect on the ethics of digital industries and online connection in the context of media histories.
Recent experience includes consultancy at a co-design agency, and teaching at Victoria University of Wellington and Te Auaha in Aotearoa New Zealand. I have a background in graphic design practice and completed my undergrad at Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam.