PDF - Rebecca Ross

REBECCA ROSS
r.ross@csm.arts.ac.uk
http://rebeccaross.net
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Architectural and Urban History (Cambridge, MA) 2012
M.Sc. with distinction, University College London, Department of Geography (London) 2005
M.F.A., Yale University, School of Art, Department of Graphic Design (New Haven, CT) 2002
B.A. magna cum laude, New York University, Gallatin School (New York) 1999
Academic appointments
MA Course Leader, Central Saint Martins Graphic Communication Design (London) 2014–present
Postdoctoral Fellow, Central Saint Martins Spatial Practices (London) 2013–present
Interaction Design Subject Leader, Central Saint Martins Graphic Communication Design (London) 2011–2014
Interaction Design Tutor, Central Saint Martins Graphic Communication Design (London) 2008–2011
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA) 2006–2007
Visiting Faculty, New York University, Gallatin School (New York) 2002–2004
Adjunct Faculty, New York University, Interactive Telecommunications Program (New York) 2003
Research Scientist, New York University, Center for Advanced Technology (New York) 2002–04
Teaching Assistant, Yale School of Art, Graphic Design Department (New Haven, CT) 2001–02
Current research
I experiment, as a traditional researcher and as a designer, with the ways in which images, media, and data, are actively
intertwined with conditions in neighborhoods and cities. How do we communicate about change in the built environment
and how could we better communicate? How does mass culture relate to the production and application of specialist or
expert knowledge related to the built environment? My approach draws upon fields including visual studies, architectural
and urban studies, and interaction design.
I am currently finalizing a journal article for submission to Grey Room on the history of the London postcode as a
distinctly open interface between communities, machines, and the complexities of urbanization as well as a proposal for a
co-authored book (with B. Campkin and M. Mogilevich), Picturing Place: The Agency of Images in Urban Change, to be
submitted to Reaktion. I also work on a consultancy basis with Camden Council in the area of the design digital provision
of local government services. I recently delivered a practice-led project called London is Changing, which was presented
on digital billboards around Central London during February and March 2015.
Academic publications
Rebecca Ross, “The D Word” (chapter) in Art in Public, ed. Rachel Alliston, forthcoming.
Rebecca Ross and Chi Nguyen, “Authoring the Neighbourhood on Wikipedia” in Cities Methodologies, eds. B. Campkin, R.
Cardoso, G. Duijzings, forthcoming.
Ben Campkin, Mariana Mogilevich, Rebecca Ross, “Picturing Place: The Agency of Images in Urban Change” in Cities
Methodologies, eds. B. Campkin, R. Cardoso, G. Duijzings, forthcoming.
Rebecca Ross, “Exhibition Review: The Last Digital Revolution?” Journal of Communication Design 1 forthcoming.
Rebecca Ross, “Picturing the Profession: The View From Above and the Civic Imaginary in Burnham’s Plans,” Journal of
Planning History 12 (2013): 269-281
Ben Campkin and Rebecca Ross, “Negotiating the City through Google Street View,” in Camera/Constructs: Photography,
Architecture and the Modern City, eds. Andrew Higgott and Timothy Wray (London: Ashgate, 2012): 147–157, ISBN 9781409421450
Rebecca Ross, “Urban Vistas and the Civic Imagination” in Urban Constellations, ed. Matthew Gandy (Berlin: Jovis, 2011):
194-197, ISBN 978-3868591187
Rebecca Ross, “Watch: Summary Data in Spatial Context” ACM SIGGRAPH Sketches & Applications, 2003
Additional publications
Ben Campkin, Mariana Mogilevich and Rebecca Ross “How Images Shape Our Cities” on Guardian Cities (series of 10
articles), December 2014.
Ben Campkin, Clare Melhuish and Rebecca Ross (eds.) Urban Pamphleteer 4: Heritage & Renewal in Doha, November
2014.
Ben Campkin and Rebecca Ross (eds.) Urban Pamphleteer 3: Design & Trust, September 2014
Rebecca Ross, “What design could do,” review of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything, in Blueprint
Magazine, March 2014
Ben Campkin, David Roberts, and Rebecca Ross (eds.) Urban Pamphleteer 2: Regeneration Realities, 2014
Ben Campkin and Rebecca Ross (eds.) Urban Pamphleteer 1: Future & Smart Cities, 2013
Rebecca Ross, “Hand in the machine” in A View on Harvard GSD 3, Stout Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0955573293
Rebecca Ross “Perils of Precision,” in Else / Where: Mapping. eds. Peter Hall and Janet Abrams (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Design Institute, 2006): 184-186, ISBN 978-0972969628
Rebecca Ross “The Okay News,” 306090 06: Shifting Infrastructures, Eds. Martha Merzig, John Riker, and Jermi Sudol
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2004): 138
Peer reviewed conference presentations
“Historicizing the Cloud” at Universal – Specific, ETH Zurich, November 2013
“Architectural Media and the Civic Imaginary” at Digital Atmospheres, Open University. August 2013
“Images & Expertise in the Built Environment” at International Visual Sociology Association, Goldsmiths, July 2013
“The UK postcode as exemplar of hybridly legible locative meta-data” at Media City: Spectacular/Ordinary/Contested,
Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, May 2013
“Looking Closely at the 1929 Graphic Plan” at Society of American City and Regional Planning History, November 2011
“The Plan of Chicago in Visual Context,” at Society of American City and Regional Planning History, October 2009
“Henri Giffard’s Ballon Captif at the 1867 and 1878 Universal Expositions,” at Great Events, Politecnico di Milano, May
2009
“Lowering Cartography,” at Media in Transition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 2007
Invited Talks and Panels
“Neuroplasticity and the web,” Web We Want at the South Bank Centre, May 2015
“London is changing,” Visual Urbanism at the British Library, May 2015
“We need to talk about regeneration,” Royal Institute of British Architects, March 2015
“London postcodes for people and machines,” Living Maps seminar series, November 2014
“Regeneration and Gentrification,” panel at Central Saint Martins Contested Spaces, June 2014
“Picturing the Profession,” New York University, April 2014
“Experiencing Numbers: Design and Data,” at On Think Tanks / WonkComms Data visualisations -where data, technology
and design meet politics, April 2014
“Urban data: From Fetish Object to Social Object,” at LSE Cities, March 2014
“Public culture, code, and tech sector politics,” Peckham Cultural Institute, March 2014
“Regeneration in Kilburn” at Learning from Kilburn (a tiny experimental university), January 2014
“Hybrid Legibility: The London Postcode as Exemplar,” Newcastle Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Department
department seminar, February 2014
“Drawing Machines” in Drawing and Performance, Central Saint Martins, March 2013
“The Agency of Images in Urban Change” in Café Curio: Persuasion at Camden Arts Centre, October 2012
“Doing Visual Studies” at, University of London School of Advanced Studies Visual Culture seminar, January 2009
“All Above” University College London Human Geography Lunchtime Seminar, December 2008
Exhibitions and work reviewed
London is Changing featured in Guardian Cities, Daily Dooh, City Metric, It’s Nice That, Marketing Magazine, City Lab,
Dazed Digital, BuzzFeed, Mashable, Irish Examiner, The Londonist, Boing Boing, Bustle, Curbed, City AM, Scoopnest,
Realtor.com, Creative Review, Advertising Week, Sign.jp, Media Post, Huck Magazine, Digital and Dirt, Folio,
Aftenposten, Rooms, ARD Zündfunk, London 360, BBC London, The Brian Lehrer Show on CUNY TV, 2015
Urban Pamphleteer (with B. Campkin) in Cities Methodologies, 2014
Urban Pamphleteer (with B. Campkin) in Cities Methodologies, 2013
Urban Pamphleteer (with B. Campkin) in the Archizines World Tour (Travelling), 2013-ongoing
Realtime London (with B. Campkin) in Cities Methodologies UCL Urban Laboratory / Slade Research Centre, 2012
Realtime London (with B. Campkin) in One Day in the City exhibited at UCL Cloisters (London), 2012
Picturing Place (with B. Campkin) at Cities Methodologies UCL Urban Laboratory / Slade Research Centre, 2010
Hand in the Machine featured on Manystuff, February 2008
I am __ and __ (with A. Sloat) in What is Graphic Design For? by Alice Twemlow, Rotovision. 2006
I am __ and __ (with A. Sloat) exhibited at The Pink and The Blue, Yale University. February 2004
Selected projects and interview in Infiltrate: The front lines of the New York design scene, Eds. Alexander Gelman, Nic
Musolino, and Helen Walters, BIS Publishers, 2003
(In)Security (group exhibition) at Open Ground Brooklyn, April 2003
Witness (project) featured at Digital Arts and Culture (conference and exhibition), Brown University, May 2001
Deconstruction (project) featured in Adbusters, December 2000
Visiting critic engagements
Princeton School of Architecture (Princeton, NJ) 2015
Yale School of Art, Graphic Design (New Haven, CT) 2006, 2007, 2014
University College London, Barlett School of Architecture (London, UK) 2011
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Architecture (Cambridge, MA) 2007
Yale School of Architecture (New Haven, CT) 2003, 2004
Parsons the New School, Interaction Design (New York) 2003
University of the Arts, Product Design (Philadelphia, PA) 2002
Events organized
Open Source Housing Crisis (with S. Bose and S. Scott) at Restless Futures, Central Saint Martins, March 2015
Authoring King’s Cross (with C. Nguyen) at Contested Spaces, Central Saint Martins, June 2014
Elephant & Castle Mini Maker Faire (with B. Stopher, T. Lynch, I. Papadimitriou and M. Barto), June 2013
Picturing the Olympics (with B. Campkin and I. Marrero-Guillamon) at Birkbeck Center for Iberian and Latin American
Visual Studies, June 2012
Internet ßà City (with B. Campkin) at Cities/Methodologies at University College London Urban Laboratory, May 2011
Picturing Place (with B. Campkin and M. Mogilevich) at Harvard Graduate School of Design, September 2010
Institutional and professional service
Internal Member, Central Saint Martins MRes Art Revalidation Panel, 2015
Programme Committee, Research Through Design Conference, 2015
Peer Reviewer, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2012–present
Advisory Board, University College Urban Laboratory, 2008–present
Member, Central Saint Martins College Research Committee, 2012–2014
Acting Research Leader, Central Saint Martins Graphic Communication Design, 2012–2014
Consultancy
London Borough of Camden (2014, in progress) supervising design and development of a web site for the families of
children with disabilities and special needs, £20,000 budget.
London Borough of Camden (2014) commentator on draft of local authority’s digital strategy
London Borough of Camden (2013) supervised to completion the design and development of a web site related to social
and health issues for young people in Camden, £15,000 budget
St. George’s House, Windsor Castle (2013) invited speaker on the theme of “Being Human in the Digital Age”
Universal McCann (2012) invited speaker at creative agency regional (EMA) away day on the theme of locative media
Funding and awards
Arts and Humanities Research Council, Protopublics Workshop – Participant (forthcoming)
Arts and Humanities Research Council, award to host national debate The Book (with S. Calvert and R. Wright), 2015
Restless Futures Disruptive Technologies Programme, Central Saint Martins, to run Open Source Housing Crisis workshop
and produce special issue of Urban Pamphleteer, 2015
Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities Fund, University College London, for development and production of further issues
of Urban Pamphleteer, 2015
Arts and Humanities Research Council, Connected Communities Early Career Researcher Workshop – Participant, 2014
UAL Teaching Award – Nominee, 2014
White Square Teaching Award – Special Recognition, Central Saint Martins Student Union, 2012 and 2013
Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities Fund, University College London, for development and production of first three
issues of Urban Pamphleteer, 2012
Dissertation completion award, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2010–11
PhD student fellowship, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2005–06 and 2006–07
Osher Fellowship, for excellence in art and science, The Exploratorium, 2004
Alice Kimball English Traveling Fellowship, Yale School of Art, 2002
Best Public Art, The New Haven Advocate “Best of New Haven,” 2000
Further professional development
Research as an Academic Practice (London College of Fashion, 2014)
Postgraduate certificate in Learning and Teaching (London College of Fashion, 2010)
In-service training in developing research funding proposals, equality and diversity, dyslexia awareness, fairness in
selection, widening participation, research impact and communication (Central Saint Martins, 2008-2014)
Additional skills
Computer programming for art and design
Reading knowledge of French
References and design portfolio available upon request