Research in Communication Art & Design is organised thematically around four clusters of interests:

New Hybrids – this area is essentially multi-disciplinary, and is characteristically based on collaborative workshop practice; it links the RCA with a range of specialist institutions and organisations both in the UK and overseas, and has significant potential as a focus for widening access and outreach programmes in the College. Typical of this area of research is the MAP/making project (MAP = Music, Art and Performance), which links the RCA with musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Staff active in this area: Russell Mills

Landscape, Environment and Culture is a cluster of projects which explore both the natural and the artificial environment as a source of meaning and identity; projects exploring landscape-imagery and sound in the context of memory, history and community, and projects which investigate ways in which artists and designers can bring about change regarding environmental, ecological and social issues. Current amongst projects in this cluster is Patrick Keiller’s The Future of Landscape and the Moving Image, funded by the AHRC, which asks to what extent economic, social and political aspects of the global predicament can be witnessed in the landscape of the UK.

Staff active in this area: Patrick Keiller, Jon Wozencroft

Analogue / Digital – projects which explore the interface and overlap between analogue and digital technologies, and look at ways in which traditional ‘craft’ media and processes can be used alongside developments in digital technology; we’re interested in the ‘hybrid’ processes which are emerging from this overlap, with a particular focus on print and publishing, moving image and sound. A typical recent project in this area was Print Digital – an SRIF-funded project which investigated the potential of digital print technology for the production of high-quality limited-edition publishing.

Staff active in this area: Russell Warren-Fisher, Jon Wozencroft

New Narratives – projects which employ the innovative use of word and image to explain or entertain. This area builds on the School’s traditional roots in animation, illustration, graphics and moving image and explores new ways of communicating ideas or telling stories through the relationship between image and text. This area also includes work of a theoretical or contextual nature - books, articles, documentaries, exhibitions - of particular relevance to communications.

Staff active in this area: Andrzej Klimowski, Jeff Willis, David Blamey, Rick Poynor

Moving Image – a cluster of film and video projects, typified by experimental self-authored pieces for projection in cinemas and/or exhibitions. Recent projects include Moving Frame, a SRIF-funded project which centered on film’s traditional ‘basic unit’ on the filmstrip, as well as the frame as edge or limit in projection.

Staff active in this area: Al Rees, Karen Mirza, Nicky Hamlyn

The department’s research strategy aims to engage with a more philosophical approach to understanding the role of communication theory and practice in culture and society, and the ways in which artists and designers work. To this end, research is seen as a conduit for ideas rather than being medium-specific.