Sarah Pennington

Staff details

Position

Senior Lecturer in Design

Sarah's research explores the implications care and feminist technoscience for speculative design research.

Sarah is a design researcher with over two decades of experience. She specialises in practice-based design research and feminist design practices, and at the convergence of design and the social sciences. From 2000 to 2015, she was a Research Fellow at the Interaction Research Studio, first at the Royal College of Art and later at Goldsmiths, working on projects funded by the EPSRC and EU. This studio is renowned for its inventive research approaches, such as Cultural Probes, and its collaboration with participants in deploying working speculative prototypes. The design outcomes from these projects have been widely exhibited, including at FACT, Liverpool, the V&A, and Tate Britain.

In 2022, Sarah completed her AHRC Design Star doctorate. Her PhD explores the question of care in design, with empirical case studies that examine a shift from a focus on 'concern' to 'care' in speculative practice. She can supervise PhD students whose research aligns with her interests.

Academic qualifications

PhD in Design (Goldsmiths) 2022
MA Curating Contemporary Design (Kingston University) 2014
BA Fine Art Photography (Glasgow School of Art) 1995

Publications and research outputs

Design

Design: Datacatcher Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David ; Hauenstein, Mark ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John ; Pike, James; Beitra, Robin; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2017. Design: Datacatcher.
The Temperature Tape Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David ; Hauenstein, Mark ; Bowers, John ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Boehner, Kirsten . 2011. The Temperature Tape.
The Light Collector Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David ; Hauenstein, Mark ; Bowers, John ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Boehner, Kirsten . 2011. The Light Collector.

Show/Exhibition

Datacatcher: At The New Observatory Exhibition, FACT Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David; Hauenstein, Mark; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John; Pike, James; Beitra, Robin; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2017. Datacatcher: At The New Observatory Exhibition, FACT. In: "The New Observatory", Foundation for Art and Creative, Technology (FACT), United Kingdom, 19 June - 1 October 2017.
Datacatcher: Digital Design Weekend, V&A Museum Boucher, Andy ; Cameron, David; Gaver, William ; Hauenstein, Mark; Jarvis, Nadine ; Ovalle, Liliana ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2015. Datacatcher: Digital Design Weekend, V&A Museum. In: "Digital Design Weekend", V&A Museum, London, United Kingdom, 26 - 27 Sept 2015.
The Prayer Companion Boucher, Andy ; Cameron, David; Gaver, William ; Hauenstein, Mark; Jarvis, Nadine ; Ovalle, Liliana ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2015. The Prayer Companion. In: "Big Bang Data", Somerset House, London, United Kingdom, 3 Dec 2015 - 20 Mar 2016.

Book

The Curious Home Beaver, Jacob; Boucher, Andy ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2007. The Curious Home. London: Goldmiths University of London. ISBN 1904158811

Conference or Workshop Item

Poster for Design for more-than-human futures: Towards post-anthropocentric worlding Wilkie, Alex ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2023. 'Poster for Design for more-than-human futures: Towards post-anthropocentric worlding'. In: Design for more-than-human futures: Towards post-anthropocentric worlding. Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 18 October 2023.
Inventive care-politics in Design Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2023. 'Inventive care-politics in Design'. In: More-than human aesthetics & Inventive care politics in design. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain 6 July 2023.
Which Worlds Are Held Together With Care? Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2019. 'Which Worlds Are Held Together With Care?'. In: Who Cares? 8th Biannual Nordic Design Research Society (Nordes) Conference. Aalto University, Finland 2–4 June 2019.

Taking care of issues of concern: Feminist Possibilities and speculative design Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2018. 'Taking care of issues of concern: Feminist Possibilities and speculative design'. In: Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018 (DRS2018: Catalyst). Limerick, Ireland 25 - 28 June 2018.
Datacatcher: Radical New Cross Walking Tour Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David; Hauenstein, Mark; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John; Pike, James; Beitra, Robin; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2015. 'Datacatcher: Radical New Cross Walking Tour'. In: Radical New Cross. New Cross, United Kingdom.
Data Tour Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Cameron, David; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2015. 'Data Tour'. In: Research Through Design 2015. Cambridge, United Kingdom 25-27 March 2015.
Designing With Environmental Data Kerridge, Tobie ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Cameron, David ; Bowers, John ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Boucher, Andy ; and Gaver, William . 2014. 'Designing With Environmental Data'. In: Designing With Environmental Data. Umea, Sweden June 16-19 2014.
Threshold devices: looking out from the home Gaver, William ; Wilkie, Alex ; Boucher, Andy ; Law, Andy ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John ; Beaver, Jacob ; Humble, Jan; Kerridge, Tobie ; and Villar, Nicholas. 2008. 'Threshold devices: looking out from the home'. In: Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI 2008). Florence, United Kingdom April 04 - 09, 2009.
The History Tablecloth: Illuminating Domestic Activity Gaver, William ; Bowers, John ; Boucher, Andy ; Law, Andy; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Villar, Nicholas. 2006. 'The History Tablecloth: Illuminating Domestic Activity'. In: DIS 2006. State College, Pennsylvania, United States.
The drift table: designing for ludic engagement Gaver, William ; Bowers, John ; Boucher, Andy ; Gellerson, Hans; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Schmidt, Albrecht; Steed, Anthony; Villar, Nicholas; and Walker, Brendan. 2004. 'The drift table: designing for ludic engagement'. In: CHI 2004: Connect. Vienna, Austria.

Article

Indoor Weather Stations: Investigating a Ludic Approach to Environmental HCI Through Batch Prototyping Gaver, William ; Bowers, John ; Boucher, Andy ; Cameron, David ; Hauenstein, Mark ; Jarvis, Nadine ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2013. Indoor Weather Stations: Investigating a Ludic Approach to Environmental HCI Through Batch Prototyping. CHI 2013 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 3451-3460.
Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Walker, Brendan. 2004. Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty. Interactions - Funology, 11(5), pp. 53-56. ISSN 1072-5520

Book Section

Antarctica SE3: A Conversation on Designing with Care Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Margolies, Eleanor. 2019. Antarctica SE3: A Conversation on Designing with Care. In: Kate Fletcher; Louise St. Pierre and Mathilda Tham, eds. Design and Nature: A Partnership. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 186-193. ISBN 9780815362739

Edited Book

Take Me To Your River (Book) Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; and Kerridge, Tobie , eds. 2023. Take Me To Your River (Book). London: Goldsmiths, University of London.

Film/Video

Datacatcher Vimeo Channel Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David ; Hauenstein, Mark ; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John; Pike, James; Beitra, Robin; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2017. Datacatcher Vimeo Channel.

Project

Take Me To Your River (Project) Kerridge, Tobie ; and Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2023. Take Me To Your River (Project).
Project: Datacatcher Gaver, William ; Boucher, Andy ; Jarvis, Nadine ; Cameron, David; Hauenstein, Mark; Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo ; Bowers, John; Pike, James; Beitra, Robin; and Ovalle, Liliana . 2017. Project: Datacatcher.

Thesis

Care-politics in design: Towards an inventive feminist research practice Pennington, Sarah ORCID logo . 2022. Care-politics in design: Towards an inventive feminist research practice. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London