Making Sense of Space

Dr Iryna Kuksa holds a permanent Senior Research Fellowship in art and design at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Educated at Oxford, LSE and Warwick, she has extensive research expertise in industrial design, digital and social media, and digital humanities. Her influential book Making Sense of Space: The Design and Experience of Virtual Spaces as a Tool for Communication (Chandos, 2014) redefined the use of digital spaces for communication and creative practice. Her innovative approach to understanding the role of design in social media and consumer culture, led to the launch of a new research field of design for personalisation (Design for Personalisation, Routledge, 2017). Iryna's research on 3D visualisation and digital design as a tool for education has been recognised by the prestigious award of Harry Ransom Fellowship. Her 3D reconstruction of 1921 Norman Bel Geddes' set design for Dante's The Divine Comedy has been part of the first exhibition of Bel Geddes' industrial and theatre designs 'I Have Seen The Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America' in Austin, USA. In 2019-2020, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and acts as a guest reviewer for the Master in Design Engineering program. Iryna leads a major ECR development initiative; co-leads the Design Research Centre and is a Board member of the Creative and Virtual Technologies Lab at NTU. In 2021, she was elected to the National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online College of Peer Reviewers.Mark Childs is a Senior Research Fellow at Coventry University, UK, where he develops and researches online synchronous learning experiences and virtual collaborations, with 15 years experience in this field and work on over 30 educational technology projects. He holds a PhD on learners' experience of presence in virtual worlds, and his research interests include virtual collaboration; digital identity; embodiment; and telepresence. Mark also works as an independent educational consultant, conducting evaluation and writing on behalf of funding agencies, universities, private sector technology companies, and museums.