Environmental Futures

This programme is grounded in the need to generate new alliances and ways of conducting environmental arts research that are able to influence cultural policy, address global questions and contribute to the resilience of shared environments in regional and national contexts.
The next thirty years present environmental challenges and changes that outpace what we have seen so far. Especially in light of the climate emergency, but with respect to wellbeing of ourselves and the natural world more broadly, environmental research must be future-focused and genuinely interdisciplinary, characterised by open, ecological, and often design-led ways of thinking and working.
Programme overview
We are interested in questions concerning the complex functions and dynamics of these living networks, in which the creative industries have a key connective role: in connecting communities and cultures, in generating illuminating experiences of natural systems and our human role in them, by imagining better ways of engaging with our lived world, and pioneering innovative designs for future modes of living.
Central to this is a study of emergent and shifting relationships among the arts, technology and environments, where we look at questions of sustainability and innovation side by side.
Key areas of focus include:
- Living Networks: Climate Humanities, Energy and Informatics
- Shaping Futures: Design for Coastal Industries & Agri-Tech
- Communities Connected: Access to the Arts and Technology
- Against Boundaries: Collaborations in Arts and Sciences
- Future Cornwall: Sustaining Heritage and Coastal Tourism
- Land, Sea and Space: Engaging Extreme Environments
- Bee Friendly: Design Approaches to Agricultural Sustainability
- Blue Mind: Coastal Environments and Mental Health
Research in this programme has produced exciting applications in areas such as agri-tech, aquaculture, tourism and mental health, suited to the nonlinear and uncertain realities in which we now live.
The questions we seek to address are:
- How can innovative design for industry promote regeneration, rather than just ‘sustainability’?
- How do environmental challenges in rural areas compare to those of urban environments, and how can we address them more effectively?
- How can creativity generate meaningful and viable solutions for the climate emergency that have wide scope and reach?
- What is meant by Climate Humanities, and how can we develop it further in light of the climate emergency?
- What unconventional modes of engagement can be developed to shift human behaviours?
- What role will complexity play in future modes of living, and how can we develop human capacity to manage that complexity?
- How can innovative design approaches enable new ways of relating to nonhumans and nonhuman environments, in ways that are productive for industry and society?
- How can we preserve elements of rural and traditional environmental practises in a time of rapid change – and in what ways will these practises inform future ways of living and working?
Programme lead

Dr Huw Lewis-Jones
Dr Huw Lewis-Jones is an Associate Professor of Environment and Culture at Falmouth. As an environmental historian and expedition leader, Huw is interested in capturing the natural world. His research and professional outputs focus on the environmental humanities and animal history. Huw is an award-winning author, photo editor, art director and curator, as well as being a passionate advocate for conservation and sustainability.
View profileProjects
Some of the projects within this programme include:

Architecture Making Community
Architecture Making Community is a programme of research and live-projects that challenge the way we...

Lobster Grower & Lobster Grower 2
Lobster Grower is a consortium led project, working to establish a low-carbon method of rearing lobs...

University of the Village
University of the Village sought to harness superfast broadband to enable a new approach to online l...

South West Creative Technology Network
The South West Creative Technology Network drives both blue-sky thinking and real-world developments...

Bee Brick
Bee Brick is an innovative product, offering the dual function of being a construction material that...

Of This Parish
The idea of a ‘Parish’ – a common device used to delineate territory while also defining a sac...

Learning & Teaching
Equipping our students with the knowledge to make sustainable choices and changes when they graduate...
PhD & MPhil researchers
PhD and MPhil researchers aligning with the Environmental Futures programme include:
Name | Thesis title |
Daniel O’Carroll | Writing the New Heritage: A Bakhtinian challenge to storytelling the Authorized Heritage Discourse |
Jerry Padfield | Broadening Participation in Community Radio: Investigating Methods for Inclusion and Well-being |
Jane Moss | What is the Potential of Digital Media as a Resource in Co-authorship of a Community Novel? |
Research opportunities
Alignment criteria
We welcome applications for PhD or MPhil that align to any of the research questions listed above, or other question(s) related to the ways the arts and creative industries can and will be used to shape environmental futures.
How to apply
Applicants may apply by submitting a project idea of their own or by responding to one of our Falmouth Doctoral Project briefs.
Research Repository
Falmouth University’s Research Repository (FURR) hosts, preserves and provides open access to our publicly available collection of University produced research materials, for the benefit of staff students, the wider field and general public.
Latest news

2019 Projects
Browse through projects and articles associated with this programme produced in 2019.

AMATA Students Commissioned to Create Historic Performance Piece
04 June 2019
Falmouth’s Academy of Music & Theatre Arts has been commissioned by The Box, Plymouth, to crea...

Spilling the Beans: A Collaborative Student Web Series
05 June 2019
Students from across departments have been collaborating on an exciting digital television project: ...

Acting Residency for Student
31 January 2020
Third Year Acting student Robert Bogdanov-Schein has been accepted on a specialist co-habitation res...

Enhancement Week gives AMATA students access to industry expertise
27 January 2022
Accent classes with a renowned coach, accredited unarmed combat sessions and intensive dance worksho...