PhD Scholarships in digital design, heritage, visualisation and digital humanities | School of Art and Design – ANU

ARC DECRA Project DE190100578
Travelling objects – art and cultural diplomacy

“Travelling objects – art and cultural diplomacy” investigates questions about cross-cultural communication that are raised when many copies of certain art objects—prints or medals—exist in distant lands across the globe. It does so through a study of diplomatic gifts sent from France to other countries in Europe, Asia, and the New World in the early-modern period.

The successful applicant will work with Dr Robert Wellington and members of the ANU Design team to create a database and innovative web-based tool to track the artists, objects, official receptions, travelling embassies, and colonial outposts relating to the movement of prints, medals and other gifted objects across the world.

You will:

• Have a first-class Honours (H1) or equivalent degree in a relevant field
• Be a creative, critical, independent thinker with excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Be available to commence full-time study in Canberra in 2020.

The successful applicant will receive a PhD stipend of $27,596 per annum + up to $5,000 travel stipend per annum.

ARC Linkage Project LP180100704
Transforming the early modern archive: the Emmerson Collection at SLV

In 2015, State Library Victoria received the bequest of the Emmerson Collection: over 5000 early modern rare books and pamphlets, previously held in private hands. Bringing together experts in early modern studies and the digital humanities with specialist library staff, this project aims to investigate what the collection contains, why it is significant and how it can be shared with others. Through original archival research, the project will uncover the contents and scope of the collection, establish its international scholarly significance, and develop new digital resources designed to unlock the value of specialised archives for a wide range of end-users.

The successful applicant will work with Associate Professor Mitchell Whitelaw at ANU, developing rich digital representations of this archival collections. Building on Whitelaw’s work on “generous interfaces”, you will create innovative digital works that combine interaction, visualisation, exploration and scholarly analysis. Research outcomes will include a high profile digital exhibition, bringing the Emmerson Collection and its interpretation to wide public audience. The student will also work in close collaboration with the Digital Communications team at the State Library of Victoria, and participate in workshops and practicums at the SLV.

You will:

• Have a first-class Honours (H1) or equivalent degree in a relevant field, such as design, information studies, literary studies, digital humanities or heritage studies
• Preferably have experience in one or more of the following: digital cultural collections; front-end web development; data visualisation and information design
• Be a creative, critical, independent thinker with excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Be available to commence full-time study in Canberra or Melbourne in 2020.

The successful applicant will receive a PhD stipend of $27,596 per annum + up to $5,000 travel stipend per annum.

PhD Scholarship: Information Design & Visualisation

$35,596 p/a, 3 years

Newly established in the School of Art and Design, ANU Design investigates contemporary digital design practices, with a focus on high impact public engagement through data visualisation, information and interface design. We are interested in approaches including web-based visualisation and interaction, tangible visualisation and data-artefacts, “data art”, participatory and experimental approaches.

We are seeking PhD students to help us advance this work, redesigning cultural and environmental data online. You will join a small, collaborative research team working with an emphasis on creative communication, engagement and impact. ANU Design is Associate Professor Mitchell Whitelaw and Dr Geoff Hinchcliffe with Associate Professor Kath Bode, Dr Beck Davis, Dr Baden Pailthorpe, Dr Anna Raupach and others at the ANU School of Art & Design.

Recent projects include:

• The Corley Explorer for the State Library of Queensland
• My Climate Future 2050 for the Australian Conservation Foundation
• Molonglo Life for ACT Parks and Conservation
• Climate Coaster for ANU Climate Change Institute

We invite candidates to apply for practice-based research projects in the following areas:

• Information Design for Climate Communication – designing and understanding innovative, engaging digital communication around climate change, adaptation and resilience
• Redesigning biodiversity data – taking advantage of the boom in biodiversity data from citizen science, community platforms and researchers to reimagine how we represent, interpret and engage with our living world
• Participatory Archives – designing online platforms facilitating audience contribution and deep engagement with digital cultural collections.
• Machine Learning for enriching collections – deploying emerging ML technologies to assist with tagging and classification of online media collections to support rich visualisation and representation.

You will:

• Have a first-class Honours (H1) or equivalent degree in a relevant field
• Be a creative, critical, independent thinker with excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Be available to commence full-time study in Canberra in 2020.

The successful applicant will be provided with a PhD scholarship as well as a top-up, to a total value of $35,596 per annum + up to $5,000 travel stipend per annum.