Goldsmiths - University of London

Matt Ward

Teaching

BA Design, MA Design – Critical Practice, MRes in Design

Areas of supervision

My research student supervision is located in the following broadly defined areas: Design Practice, Critical Practice, Drawing, Design Methods and Processes, Locative Media, Emerging Technologies, Interaction Design, Design Politics.

Research interests

My research focuses on the intersections and tensions between potential and emerging technologies and our social and cultural experiences of everyday life in urban contexts. My work draws upon the theoretical realms of ‘everyday life’ and ‘poststructuralist geographies’ to develop new technological spaces and things.

At the heart of my work is designs ability to encourage social change; I am therefore engaged in the understanding and generating of narratives and fictions of technological futures – with the hope to uncover designs contemporary ‘utopian imagination’.

The development of my practice is with the aim to utilise technologies (RFID, GPS, WIFI and Bluetooth to name a few) to create objects and experiences that question and reveal the potential of new formulations of social space. In the critique and production of new artifacts and discourses my research moves towards an understanding of emerging technological assemblages – the hybridisation of person, place and thing – with the overriding goal to create new artifacts that allow for a space of becoming.
 
As an additional research interest, and one that aligns with much of my teaching practice, is the investigation of drawing as process within design. My research currently investigates drawing as an ideational process, seeking to understand the ‘gaps’ and ‘leaps of faith’ that exist in within the drawing process.

Selected publications

Journal Articles and Papers
Ward, M. & Hall S. (2007) Through a Glass, Darkly: Cultures of The Pint Glass in ‘Things 19/20’,
Journal Article
 
Ward, M. & Galloway, A. (2006) Locative Media as Socialising and Spatialising Practices: Learning from Archaeology in Locative Media Special, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Vol.14 Issue 3.
Cambridge: MIT Press. ISSN No: 1071-4391.
 
Ward, M. (2006) Designing a Critical Utopia: Facts, Futures and Fictions in Scroope: Cambridge
Architectural Journal, No.18 - Synthesis, pp.44-53. ISSN: 0966-1026

Ward, M. & van Kranenberg, R. (2005) ‘RFID: Frequency, standards, adoption and innovation’ JISC Techwatch Report. Commissioned government report on the influences of emerging technologies on higher education. Peer reviewed, published at: www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=techwatch_ic_reports2005_published

Ward, M. ‘The Living City’ in Your Space or Mine published by Diabolical Liberties, 2003.

Conference Papers
Locating Design, Annual Design History Society Conference, London: ‘Questions Concerning the Commodification of Social Space’, 2005

Locating Design, Annual Design History Society Conference, London: ‘Designing Digital
Place’, 2005

Design Engaged, Berlin: ‘Has design lost its way?, 2005

Design Engaged, Amsterdam: ‘Commodification of Social Space’, 2004

Intelligent Media Institute, Research workshop, London: ‘Designing the Internet of Things’, 2003

Auto-ID Center, St. John College, Cambridge: ‘Designing the Internet of Things’, 2003

Invited Lectures / Workshops
‘Drawing the unknown’ Lecture and workshop at The Royal College of Art, 2007

‘Digital Spaces Workshop – Second Life and Beyond’ for Nokia, 2007

‘Maps (and other fictional spaces)’ Lecture at Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain 2007

‘Lost artifacts, found futures’ Workshop at HyperWerk – FHNW, Basel, Switzerland, 2007

‘Re-designing Design History’ Lecture at HyperWerk – FHNW, Basel, Switzerland, 2007

‘Maps (and other fictional spaces)’ Lecture at London Metropolitan University, 2007
 
‘Fluff and nonsense’ Invited lecture at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, 2006

Drawing @ The Design Council – Drawing workshops, 2005

Patents
United States Patent: 6,690,402
Method of interfacing with virtual objects on a map including items with machine-readable tags. Granted 2004. (Co-inventors: Michael Waller and Robin Mackay)

United States Patent: 7,099,927
Downloading and uploading data in information networks. Granted 2006. (Co-inventors: Michael Waller, Rory MacLeod and Richard Cudd)

Professional activities

External Examiner: University of Hertfordshire, BA Product Design & BA Product Design with Marketing (2007 – 2011) Editorial Advisor: Studies in Material Thinking (ISSN: 1177-6234)