Alex Wilkie BA (Hons), MA (RCA), PhD
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Teaching
My teaching draws on my engagement with both Science and Technology Studies (STS), especially developments in Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and approaches to 'user' participation and involvement in design processes. Broadly speaking, this plays out in relation to theoretical perspectives on assemblages, ontology and process as well as inventive methods drawing on STS, ANT and micro-sociology. I teach on the BA Design programme as well as the MA Design & Environment. I have also taught BA Sociology Researching Society and Culture for a number of years. I am interested in supervising MPhil & PhD degrees related to my research interests.
Areas of supervision
The sociology of science and technology, sociology and design, user-centered design & participatory design, interaction design, qualitative research methods especially related to micro-sociology, inventive research methods, design research methods, media & communications technology, healthcare technology, energy, sustainability & the environment, communities & publics in design and public understanding of science and technology.Grants & awards
|
Date & duration |
Awarding Body & Grant Description |
Project title |
Role |
Value |
| 2010 – 2013 | Energy Research Programme. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) |
Sustainability Invention and Energy Demand Reduction: Co-designing communities and practice | Research Fellow | £974,000 |
|
2006–2010 |
Doctoral Training Award. |
User Assemblages in Design: An Ethnographic Study |
Principle Researcher (Ph.D.) |
£43,000 |
|
2004–2005 |
Whitehead Scholarship. |
User Assemblages in Design: An Ethnographic Study |
Principle Researcher (Ph.D.) |
£3000 |
|
1999–2000 |
Government of Limburg & Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht |
Media and Design Fellowship: Net Archaeologies, Web Geographies, and Active Networking |
Research Assistant |
NLG (Dutch Guilder) 143,000 |
Patents and software
|
Inventors |
Title |
Patent Application Number |
Date of Application |
|
Andreas Raptopoulos Volkmar Klien |
Electronic sound screening system and method of acoustically improving the environment |
US Patent |
23rd November 2004 |
Research interests
My research interests lie at the intersections of STS, the user and material politics. Briefly put, I work around areas such as design as a prospective practice, the politics of technology, object-centered practices, the role of users in participatory forms of design as well as poststructuralist theory. Here, my work deals with developments in ANT, such as the Sociology of Expectations and theories addressing process ontology. I am also engaged in exploring inventive research methods, issue-related design as well as energy practices publics and the environment.
Selected publications
- Wilkie, Alex. (2011). Regimes of Design, Logics of Users. Athenea Digital, 11(1), 317-334.
- Wilkie, Alex, 2010. Prototypes in design: materializing futures. In: Christopher Kelty, Alberto Corsin Jimenez and George E. Marcus, eds. Protoyping Prototyping. Madrid: ARC Studio, pp. 43-50.
- Wilkie, Alex, Gaver, William, Hemment, Drew and Giannachi, Gabriella, 2010. Creative Assemblages: Organisation and Outputs of Practice-Led Research. Leonardo, 43 (1). pp. 98-99. ISSN 0024-094X [Article].
- Wilkie, Alex and Michael, Mike, (2009). Expectation and Mobilisation: Enacting Future Users. Science, Technology & Human Values, 34 (4). pp. 502-522. [Article]
- Marres, Noortje. Wilkie Alex. (1999) Remote/Involved: Highlights from Outer Space. If/Then: Design Implications of New Media. (eds) Abraham, J. Netherlands Design Institute. ISBN-10: 9072007522.
Conferences, seminars and overseas research visits
- Wilkie, A. (2010). Prototyping the Prospects of Obesity. In: Prototyping Cultures: Social Experimentation, Do‐It‐Yourself Science and Beta‐Knowledge. Spanish National Research Council, Madrid 4‐5 November 2010.
- Wilkie, Alex, 2010. Participation, Translation & Accountability. In: Making and Opening: Entangling Design and Social Science, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom. [Conference or Workshop Item]
- Wilkie, Alex, 2010. Enacting Users, Mediating Publics. In: EASST 2010: Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social, Trento, Italy. [Conference or Workshop Item]
- Wilkie, A. & Ward, M. (2009) Made in Criticalland: Designing Matters of Concern. In F. Hackney, J. Glynne & V. Minton (Eds.), Networks of Design: Proceedings of the 2008 Annual International Conference of the Design History Society (UK). Falmouth, United Kingdom: Universal- Publishers. (pp. 118-123) ISBN: 1599429063
- Gaver, William, Boucher, A, Pennington, Sarah, Bowers, J, Beaver, J., Humble, J, Kerridge, Tobie, Villar, Nick and Wilkie, Alex, 2008.Threshold Devices: Looking Out From the Home. In: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Florence, Italy. [Conference or Workshop Item]
- Wilkie, Alex and Michael, Mike, 2007. Colonizing the Spectrum: Demos and the Future Users of Location-Based Technology. In: Negotiating the Future International Seminar, 1/6/2007, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK), Norway. [Conference or Workshop Item] (Unpublished)
Events
Wednesday 9 June 2003. Following the Displacement of Politics on the Web. With Richard Rogers, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam & Govcomorg Foundation, Amsterdam. Noortje Marres, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam. Role: event organizer.