Professor Craig Martin
Small Group Project 2022-26
For and Against Change: Temporalities of Disruption in the Expanded Field of Design
With Giovanni Marmont
Originally a key handmaiden of capitalist growth, the field of design has long sought to expand its remit beyond that of commerce. Indeed, designers have increasingly been claiming more ambitious roles in imagining and enacting social arrangements alternative to those that design traditionally helped to materialise. Yet, the drive for design-led change risks becoming overly homogenised, as if the range of different approaches were all gesturing in a similar direction. That direction is a conveniently vague or perhaps too capacious a notion of designing for change.
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Biography
Professor Craig Martin is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design Studies at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. With a background in arts practice, social and cultural theory, and a PhD in human geography, his research as a cultural geographer and design theorist deals with the social, cultural and spatial complexity of design, and how this is manifest in a range of social practices. His interdisciplinary research focuses on three substantive themes: informal design, social complexity, and mobilities. His research has been published in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals and edited books, and his sole-authored book Shipping Container was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2016 as part of their Object Lessons series. His latest book, Deviant Design: the Ad Hoc, the Illicit, the Controversial, again with Bloomsbury Academic, is forthcoming.
He joined the University of Edinburgh in July 2013 as Senior Lecturer in Design Cultures before taking up a Readership in August 2018. At Edinburgh he has served as ECA's Deputy Director for Postgraduate Studies (2013–2016), the School of Design's PhD Coordinator (2013–2015), and from June 2017 to January 2018 as acting Head of the School of Design. Since 2017 he has been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and from 2016 to 2018 was the University of Edinburgh's representative on Panel B of the AHRC-funded Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities. In 2019–20 he was Lead on the AHRC Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities Discipline+ Catalyst for Creative Arts and Design, and Chair of the Creative Arts and Design panel within the Doctoral Training Partnership. Since 2020 he has served as Deputy Director of SGSAH with oversight of all doctoral training activities related to the Discipline+ Catalysts and related initiatives. He is an Associate Editor of Design and Culture journal.
He joined the University of Edinburgh in July 2013 as Senior Lecturer in Design Cultures before taking up a Readership in August 2018. At Edinburgh he has served as ECA's Deputy Director for Postgraduate Studies (2013–2016), the School of Design's PhD Coordinator (2013–2015), and from June 2017 to January 2018 as acting Head of the School of Design. Since 2017 he has been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and from 2016 to 2018 was the University of Edinburgh's representative on Panel B of the AHRC-funded Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities. In 2019–20 he was Lead on the AHRC Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities Discipline+ Catalyst for Creative Arts and Design, and Chair of the Creative Arts and Design panel within the Doctoral Training Partnership. Since 2020 he has served as Deputy Director of SGSAH with oversight of all doctoral training activities related to the Discipline+ Catalysts and related initiatives. He is an Associate Editor of Design and Culture journal.
Biographical details correct as of 20.04.26