Cardiff School of Art & Design

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Staff profile / Dr Stephen Thompson

BaHons MA(rca) PhD(plym) FRSA

Stephen researches ‘speculative-life-systems’ and is a Deputy Dean / Director of Learning and Teaching of Cardiff School of Art & Design (UWIC).

Stephen started his career working for a number of design consultancies in Britain and Germany before establishing his own design practice and eventually moving into a career as an academic. Formerly an industrial designer, Stephen is now more widely recognised in his field as a far-sighted and provocative thinker. He draws a wide range of academic ideas into a creative field of ‘speculative-life-systems’. His PhD thesis, (Artefacts, Technicity and Humanisation : industrial design and the problem of anoetic technologies.) extends many of the experimental ideas he has brought to design from his time at the Royal College of Art.

More practical and applied than philosophy but more creative and questioning than engineering, the study of speculative-life-systems explores how it might be possible to actually live a real life as a posthuman. Artists and designers sometimes find it difficult to converse with those who specialise in the full technicalities of philosophy or science, nevertheless speculative-life-systems is an exciting territory to occupy because it offers a glimpse of how the world might be and also helps to explain why our world doesn’t always work in a way we would like it to. A special kind of conversation is required which must test and combine ideas in a synergistic way in order to act as a kind of lamp others might follow. In the 19th Century the task was to build everyday life in a new machine age, our challenge is to find a way to live with new kinds of unbounded biotechnological possibilities. In order to do this we need to understand what is really important.

Stephen's current project ‘semi-i-infinite’ is a series of speculative thought experiments exploring how ideas of cell signalling, bio-morphogenesis might make possible a practical and creative form of distributed consciousness.

Stephen is a co-convenor of MeAT research at UWIC, a member of the Design Enhanced Human Futures theme within the Wales Institute of Research in Art and Design. Stephen works in collaboration with the Transtechnology Research Network at the University of Plymouth. At CSAD he supervises nine PhD students and teaches a speculative-life-systems approach to undergraduate and postgraduate designers.

THOMPSON, S. 2010. Joey a Mechanical Boy. The Transtechnology Reader. Plymouth.
THOMPSON, S. 2010. MeAT Research. Leonardo Electronic Almanac.
THOMPSON, S. 2008. Artefacts, Technicity and Humanisation: industrial design and the problem of anoetic technologies. Doctoral Thesis. Plymouth. University of Plymouth.(2008)

Journal Articles

THOMPSON, S. 2009. Joey: A design scenario for an ordinary life in the future. Technoetic Arts, Vol. 7. 1. July, 2009.
THOMPSON, S. 2008. Thesis Abstract No. 419. LABS : Leonardo ABstracts Service. Online: http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu/SearchDetails.aspx?UID=420

(2007).
THOMPSON, S. ‘Mind the Gap: technology as soma’ in Journal of Human Centred Systems, Vol, 2, No. 4, October 2007, Springer, London.

Conference Contributions

THOMPSON, S. 2010. Engineering the Soma: A Posthuman Design Perspective. Zoontechnics. Cardiff. May 2010.
GLEN, N., HEAD, A., and THOMPSON, S. 2009. A ‘Hybrid Space’ for Peer Review: Can Facebook inspire new ways of thinking? ECEL 2009. University of Bari.
THOMPSON, S., and VINES, J. 2009. Enacted experience and Interaction Design: New perspectives. In: Ramduny-Ellis, D,. Dix, A., Hare, J., and Gill, S. 2009. Physicality 2009 - towards a less-GUI interface. Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Physicality. British HCI 2009. Cambridge Sept. 2009. NEIL, S., THOMPSON, S. and MORGAN, A. 2009. Defining research within the intersection of external work and academic life. WIRAD 1st National Symposium for Emerging Art & Design Researchers. Cardiff, April, 2009.
HUMPHRIES, T., MORGAN, A. and THOMPSON, S. 2009. Can humour be plausibly talked about as if it were, or had some similarity to, a technology?. WIRAD’s 1st National Symposium for Emerging Art & Design Researchers. Cardiff, April 2009
THOMPSON, S. 2009. ‘A research degree by practice, surely not?’ WIRAD 1st National Symposium for Emerging Art & Design Researchers. Cardiff, April, 2009.

2008 Physicality Workshop, DIS Conference, (Programme Committee Member and Reviewer).
2007 Tangible and Embedded Interaction Conference, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (Programme Committee Member and Reviewer).
2007 2nd Workshop on Physicality, University of Lancaster, (Programme Committee Member and Reviewer).
2006 2nd SPED/PDR Symposium, UWIC, (Organiser).
2006 Joint CSAD/PDR/UWN seminar on joint research strategy, (Organiser).
2005 Human Oriented Informatics & Telematics Conference, (Reviewer).
2004 2nd International Appliance Design Conference, Hewlett Packard, Bristol, (Reviewer).

Conference Papers / Presentations

(2007), Vines, J. and Thompson, S. Aging Futures: Towards an inclusive cognitive interaction design, Research Paper, Include 2007, Royal College of Art.
(2006) Thompson, S. ‘Semi-infinite Bodies’ in Science in the Dock, ESPRC Science Week. March 2006, Terracina Gallery, Exeter.
(2005) Thompson, S. Semi-infinite Bodies: towards a critical language of the unapparent, Wearable Futures 2005, UWN.

Membership of Professional Bodies

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Member of the Design Research Society
Member of the Design Philosophy Society

Gaynor Kavanagh At Cardiff School of Art & Design, we believe in being at the top of our game and that includes being able to deliver programmes that really make a difference. We give our students every opportunity to explore all kinds of creative and professional possibilities, in an environment that recognises the importance of taking risks and seizing the initiative. We are interested in ideas and how these are examined through practice.