Name: Theo Humphries
School: Cardiff School of Art & Design
e: thumphries@cardiffmet.ac.uk
t: 02920 20 5688
www: theohumphries.com
Social Media: #crapestry
Research Group: Metatechnicity
Memberships: FHEA
Research Interests:
Humour + humour theory
Design (especially critical + speculative)
Entanglement
Craftivism
Publications and Exhibitions:
Read a full list of Theo's recent publications and exhibitions on his CSAD staff page here.
Profile:
Theo Humphries is a designer, artist, and senior lecturer at Cardiff School of Art & Design (CSAD), part of Cardiff Metropolitan University.
In this role Theo has previously directed the History & Theory Department (Constellation) and the Undergraduate Product Design Programmes.
In addition to his commercial experience as a design consultant (3eyes ltd.) Theo holds a BA in Design Futures, and an MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art. He is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Theo works in an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary manner. His academic interests are in humour and irony in design; critical, adversarial, and tactical design; design fictions; and design philosophy. He is currently undertaking a PhD that enquires 'Can the humorous properties of certain design objects be explained by the concept of malentanglement?'.
Theo is a contributing researcher to the Transtechnology Research Groupat Plymouth University, and a researcher in CSAD's Metatechnology Research Group.
Further Information:
Theo's research draws theories of humour, and entanglement (from material cultural studies), into a design conversation. The aim is to explore the value of some alternative modes of analysis, speculation, and realisation, in design. He proceed from the position that design is an activity of volitional entanglement – rather than problem solving (as it is often understood).
Theo has a predisposition for hacking, modding, and upsetting; it drives provocative interventions into material, aesthetic, ideological and theoretical systems. His work is irreverent and parasitic: corroding, bending, parodying, and breaking the rules and traditions of design and — in doing so — drawing attention to both their nature, and their possible futures.
As an artist, Theo is Crapestry (crapestry.co.uk #crapestry).
Theo was a founder trustee of OpenUp, a highly successful charitable company, based in Bristol, UK. OpenUp Music empowers young disabled musicians to build inclusive youth orchestras. They work with these young people to develop accessible musical instruments and repertoire, challenge expectations and raise aspirations. Since 2013 OpenUp have established the UK's first six special school orchestras and in Autumn 2015 they launched the first disabled-led regional youth orchestra and aim to establish the first ever disabled-led national youth orchestra in 2018.
