Design Research

PhD Proposal

Cherry-Ann Morgan, Research assistant, Design Theory, Global Design

Part of a SNF application for PhD program, “Design Frictions” (awaiting approval) which would explore processes of circulation and transculturalization in design through practice-theory with the aim of destabilizing hegemonic discourses and categories.

In design history and anthropology, non-Western forms of knowledge and design traditions have hardly been considered so far. The dissertation project "Creolization of Design. Mas' as an example of Transmodernism" examines the history and current conditions of transcultural design practices in the Caribbean island of Trinidad and within its diaspora. The starting point is the postcolonial "aesthesis" of Trinidad Carnival, which is emblematic of the cultural creolization of modern visual cultures. The primary goal was to submit a project proposal to the SNF. “Creolization of Design” is one of three projects in the PhD project proposal with each addressing the political, social, and cultural dynamics of the global entanglement of design on different but complementary levels. The project asks, “How has a “creolized” design practice been established in the Caribbean, specifically of Trinidad and Tobago, alongside a “professional” design field still dominated by modernism, and what are its rules of production?”