“Things Matter” by Bruce Brown of the Royal College of Art, United Kingdom, has been announced as a keynote to be presented at The 2nd Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH2023) and The 2nd Paris Conference on Education (PCE2023).
To participate in the event as an audience member, please register for the conference.
This plenary will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.
Abstract
Things Matter
Material things matter. Without them we would not have the means to reify our abstract thoughts and experiences — to ‘anchor’ them in the physical world. But, in recent years, the ubiquitous presence of material things in our lives (but not their role or value) has come under fire. For many, the legacy of industrial manufacture and marketing has left us with a consumer culture that exploits the resources of our natural world in order to produce disposal goods of little value that soon end up in landfill. Perhaps, in response to this, a new generation of digital natives has sought to democratise the means by which virtual surrogates are produced and distributed — and, in the process, reduce toxic waste and damage to the environment. This presentation will consider the space between these two extremes and the intrinsic value of material things as essential elements in the fabric of our individual and collective lives.
Speaker Biography
Bruce Brown
Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Bruce Brown was educated at the Royal College of Art in London where he is currently Visiting Professor. Until 2016, Bruce was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Professor of Design at the University of Brighton. For twenty years previously he was Dean of the university’s Faculty of Arts & Architecture. In 2018 Bruce was appointed by the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Specialist Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China to Chair the assessment panels for Visual Arts, Design, Creative Media in the Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise 2020. Prior to this he was appointed by the UK Funding Councils to Chair Main Panel D in the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework. Prior to this he chaired Main Panel O in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Bruce served as a member of the Advisory Board of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and has advised international organisations including the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation and the Qatar National Research Fund. Bruce chaired the Portuguese Government’s Fundação para a Ciência ea Tecnologia Research Grants Panel [Arts] and was one of four people invited by the Portuguese Government to conduct an international review entitled Reforming Arts and Culture Higher Education in Portugal. He has served as Trustee and Governor of organisations such as the Art’s Council for England’s South East Arts Board, the Ditchling Museum and Shenkar College of Design and Engineering, Tel Aviv. Bruce is an Editor of Design Issues Research Journal (MIT), an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art and a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
