Dr Patricia Flanagan | UNSW Research

Fields of Research (FoR)

Design

Biography

Dr. Patricia Flanagan is an artist, designer and academic whose work is represented in private and public collections in Australia, Ireland, Germany, Italy and China. Tricia has an extensive international exhibition portfolio including the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien Berlin and was the representative for Oceania at the Tournai Contemporary Textiles Biennial Belgium.

Tricia's...view more

Tricia's work has, at its foundation, a systems thinking approach. Her practice includes, critical and speculative wearables, site-specific sculptural installation, social sculpture and performance installation, often combining hand crafted art and design practices with digital technologies.

Tricia established the Wearables Lab at the Academy of Visual Art at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2009. She currently works as a Lecturer for the University of New South Wales in the School of Art and Design, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture where she is the co-director of the Interactive Media Lab and Lead Researcher Wearables at the Creative Robotics Lab.

My Grants

• New Columbo Plan, Mobilities Grant, Australian Government

• UNSW Art and Design, New staff research award

• Hong Kong Heritage Museum new work commission for Fashion + Paper, Scissors & Rock

• Hong Kong Baptist University New Staff Research Award, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

• Outcomes-Based Teaching and Learning Award, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

• Heinrich Boell Foundation Travel Scholarship

• Travelling Scholarship Award, The University of Newcastle, Australia

• HCR-CMA Landcare Grant for Denman Creek Public Art Project, Denman Australia

• BHP Biliton, Mt Arthur Coal, Community Grant to produce an Education Kit for Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre and launch the publication with an exhibition in February

• Country Arts Support Program, ‘Regional Arts Fund’ Grant, TEATRO EXO, Artist in Residency – Upper Hunter, Denman, Merriwa, Gloucester & Singleton Australia. Awarded by Arts Upper Hunter Regional Arts Development Office

• Australian Postgraduate Scholarship Award

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, (Public Art) University of Newcastle Australia;

Master of Fine Arts, (Public Art and New Artistic Strategies) 1st class, Bauhaus University Weimar Germany;

Bachelor of Fine Arts, (Sculpture) University of Newcastle Australia;

Associate Diploma in Arts (Fashion Production, Custom Clothing) awarded with honours TAFE NSW

My Awards

• Powerhouse, Sydney Museum of Applied Arts and Science - Visiting Research Fellowship

• Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University - Visiting Fellowship

• Max Fabre Foundation Award for Environmental Awareness

• Newton-John Award for Excellence in Creativity and Innovation - Finalist

• Project Anywhere - Parsons New School - Selected participant

• 7th International Contemporary Textile Triennale, Tournai Belgum - Selected to represent Oceania

• Tantrum Theatre, Newcastle Australia - Artist in-residence

• Palais Youth Venue, Newcastle City Council Australia - Artist in-residence

My Research Activities

Tricia investigates hybrid practices emerging at the intersection of digital technologies and traditional art and design practices, specialising in new materials, wearables, and generative design through research projects such as:

• Femufacture in collaboration with the Japan Foundation of Sydney, Sydney Design Festival, and Art Month Sydney

• The Peripatetic Institute for Praxiology and Anthropology

• The Haptic InterFace Project

• Research Creativity – Praxis

Tricia is on the steering committee for the World Craft Council affiliated, Knowledge House of Craft and is the founding member of TTIGOC (Tracing the Intangible Gestures of Craft) a collaboration with Chinese ethnic minority master craftspeople and researchers at GYPEC Guiyang, China.

My Research Supervision

Areas of supervision

Art and Design; Textiles; Wearables; Tangible Embodied HCI; Future Materials; Generative Design; Agile Manufacturing; 

New Materialism; Speculative Critical Design; Posthumanism; Co-Design; Public Art; Design Anthropology;

Craft; Intangible Cultural Heritage; Environmental Humanities

Tricia supervises candidates in the following areas of research:

critical, speculative, generative, experimental creative art, design or craft practice-based research;
research regarding future materials and/or emerging technologies, wearables or crafts-based human-computer interaction;
exploration at the intersection of art/science, post-human and non-human perspectives, or material agency;
investigations into materials and making, traditional craft, tacit knowledge, hybrid materiality;
theories and methodologies in relation to environmentally sustainability, rethinking materials and skills in volatile futures.

If interested in MFA, MPhil or PhD supervision, please review my publications to assess whether your research topic is situated within my field of research.

Currently supervising

Marcelo Zavala-Baez (MFA), Post Digital Aleatory Crafting -Time Stories

Christine Wiltshier (MFA), (mistake) Making; a research inquiry into how mistakes made, whilst hand knitting become a generative rather than an erasing process?