ABOUT

Dr Sharon Baurley

Reader, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

Dr Sharon Baurley, Reader, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

Sharon BaurleySmart textiles and interactive clothing, design and multi-disciplinary collaboration, co-design and participatory culture, design probes.

Sharon Baurley has conducted doctoral and post-doctoral research at the Royal College of Art, London, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, and John Moores University, Liverpool. Her principal focus was developing new textiles through transferring 3D materials technology from the technical textiles sector to design. She has consulted for Courtaulds Textiles, Gianni Versace (Milan), Marks & Spencer, and Unilever. She has been awarded national and international design awards including the Josef Otten Award for Technical Innovation, and the Ideacomo Award for Printing and Dyeing (Japanese Fashion Foundation). Sharon has lectured in materials and design at Central Saint Martins, RCA, and the Architectural Association, and Musashino Art University, Tokyo, and Nagoya University of Arts (Japan). Sharon is a member of AHRC Peer Review College, and is a member of the commissioning panel for the AHRC initiative 'Beyond Text'. She has conducted peer review for the Leverhulme Trust, the EPSRC, and the Technology Strategy Board. She sits on the Advisory Committee of the Avantex Symposium (Germany), on the Smart Materials and Systems Committee of the Institute of Materials, and on the board of SMART.mat, Materials KTN.

Baurley is concerned with the use of 'design probes' to gain insight into the catalysts and drivers, and potential emergent consumer behaviour for a new genre of clothing where fashion converges with smart materials and digital technology. She is also interested in the use of design as a way of thinking to scope this unknown territory. She experiments with the use of design techniques to facilitate multi-disciplinary working in order to manage knowledge flows between people, to facilitate knowledge creation and sharing, and shared understanding. Since 2003 Baurley has led three funded multi-disciplinary research projects in these areas. Baurley is affiliated to the Research Centre for Fashion, the Body and Material Cultures, and the Textile Futures Research Unit.

Links:

www.smartextiles.co.uk
www.emotionalwardrobe.com
www.designprobes.com

Contact:

Email: s.baurley@csm.arts.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7514 8525

Arts & Humanities Research Council: Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,000 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. Arts and humanities researchers constitute nearly a quarter of all research-active staff in the higher education sector. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. See Arts & Humanities Research Council website.