Marina Turlai
About the researcher
I am a product designer, researcher and educator. I am interested in interdisciplinary projects on the border between art, craft, design and social innovation. I explore the emotional side of the design process and the relationship between the designer and materials.
Research interests
- Regenerative design
- Design pedagogy
- Material education
- Design for social innovation
- Sustainable transition
- Design craft
- New materialism
- Relational ontology
- Phenomenology
PhD abstract
Thesis title
Relational-Material Design Practices: a contemporary embodied approach to transforming design practices for environmental justice
Abstract
Under the influence of the modern socio-economic model, the field of industrial and product design has had a strong negative impact on the environment, largely due to its extractive approach to resources. Resource considerations in the design process are mainly rational and do not take into account bodily experience with material. This is especially relevant in light of the increasing mechanization of product creation, dematerialization of the design process and the resource depletion.
Currently within product and industrial design practices the relationship between the designer’s body and material is insufficiently theorised. In turn, a deficit in embodied material knowledge precipitates design decisions which inadequately address the intrinsic properties and behaviours of the material. This PhD proposes to fill this gap by shifting product and industrial design practices from an anthropocentric lens to a non-human, material-centred lens using higher education as the primary site of investigation. By combining the theories of New Materialism, diverse design practice frameworks, and embodied research methodologies, this PhD seeks to create a series of Relational Material Design Practices (RMDPs) to support designers in cultivating a more interactive, empathic, and materially attuned approach to design.
The PhD project aims to explore how Relational Material Design Practices (RMDPs) can cultivate embodied, material-centred approaches that shift product and industrial design practices towards more regenerative and eco-just design solutions.
This research will use the qualitative research methodologies of: Interpretive Phenomenology (IP) and Participatory Action Research (PAR).
The IP will help explore designers’ lived experiences with materials and evaluate their existing material relationships. This involves both natural and man-made materials, exploring their history, agency and interrelations. The data collected through IP, supplemented by theoretical research, will form the basis for the PAR, which will then help co-create and implement the RMDPs with research participants.
Qualifications
| Year | Qualification | Awarding body |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | MA Ecological Design Thinking | Schumacher College (accredited by University of Plymouth) |
| 2013-2016 | BA (Hons) Product Design | British Higher School of Art and Design Moscow (accredited by University of Hertfordshire) |
Honours & awards
|
Year |
Description |
|---|---|
|
2021 |
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Fellowship reference PR226299) University of Hertfordshire |
Professional engagements
- Berestaproject, co-founder, designer
- Curation of the joint research project between BHSAD Moscow and Business Development Center of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Arctic region
- Exchange of best practices in the field of social innovation (in collaboration with MitOst and SOL Center), Berlin
- Facilitation for «Northern Crafts ID» (international project to increase the role of craftsmen in the cross-border economic development of the Republic of Karelia and Finland), Karelia