Sarah Britten-Jones

MFA Ceramic Art, New York State College of Ceramics, 2007; PGCE, Post-compulsory Education University of Greenwich, 2012; BA (Hons) Ceramics with Glass, Bucks New University

Lecturer in Design

School of Arts

Role

As a Lecturer in design on the UAL Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, I teach students a variety of projects involving materials and spatial awareness. I try to encourage students to develop a level of material literacy and an awareness of how a breadth of materials might be used in conveying meaning in creative projects. I am interested in the evolving importance and application of design methods, and in helping students to develop empathy with users. 

Teaching and supervision

Courses

As a Lecturer in design and a teaching fellow at Oxford Brookes since 2017, I teach Foundation Diploma in Art and design students. I previously taught as a 3D Lecturer at Thames Valley University (now University of West London) and Activate Learning, 2008 - 2017 and as an Adjunct Lecturer, Instructor of Merit, and Graduate Teaching Assistant at Alfred University, New York, 2005 - 2008. My teaching specialisms include cermaics, sculpture, fine art, 3D design, spatial design, service design, performance, drawing and contextual studies across levels 3-6.

Research

My creative practice is concerned with using design methods to facilitate institutional self awareness and continuous improvement. Previous work responded to site and material, using performance, appropriation and collaboration to creatively examine, reveal, and imagine alternative institutional structures.

Research grants and awards

Full Tuition MFA Fellowship, Alfred University New York, 2005; International Study Scholarship, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University, 1999

Research projects

I am currently studying at the Royal College of Art (RCA) as a PhD/MPhil Candidate. The title of my research is, Designing the learning university. See my RCA Research Student page for more information.

Transforming individual learning into organisational learning is a challenge for the university. With an abundance of intelligent, highly qualified employees, the university doesn’t always harness its own intelligence and apply its expertise in learning, to itself. Could this be because the characteristics that define the university (its structure, narratives, systems and people) prevent it from learning? Learning requires us to accept that we do not know, and as the place with the knowledge, the university is unable to do this and maintain its identity. This creates a problem for the future sustainability and effectiveness of the university. Traditional change management practices rely on a centralised approach, yet research suggests the most effective change management happens through polycentric rather than monocentric change processes. A move away from a patriarchal, hierarchal organisational structure, towards a more inclusive, emergent approach would recognise and utilise the value of the collective intelligence of the organisation. Service design methods can be used to collectively imagine, test and create a learning service for the university.

Professional information

Conferences

The artist in the boardroom, Performance Art Philosophy, Amsterdam, 2019; Redesign the university in an hour (conference workshop), BTLC, Oxford, 2019; Exploring the space between learner and institutional anxieties (with Louise Williams), BTLC, Oxford, 2018; Designing the learning university, Design Research Conference, RCA, London, December 2017, December 2018. And June 2019; Artist action research within decision-making spaces, Contemporary Art Research Unit (CARU) Oxford, December 2017; Useless, Artspeak, OHOS project space, Reading, 2012

Exhibitions

Triangulations, OHOS Gallery, Reading, 2019; Work in Progress (WIP), RCA, London, 2019; The Failure Institute, Activate Learning, Oxford, 2015-2017; Dog Show, The Radiant Gallery, Plymouth, 2016; Engage, South Hill Park, Bracknell, 2016; Places, The Cohen Gallery, New York, 2015; Seven Counties Open, OVADA, Oxford, 2015; Vernacular Habitation, Folkestone Triennial Fringe, 2014; New Grounds, REME Museum, Arborfield, 2014; Constellation, Whitley Arts Festival, Reading, 2013; Bomb and Shield, Performance Art Bergen, Norway, 2013; Boundaries and Beyond, Gallery@49, Bracknell, 2012; Insight, New Greenham Arts, Newbury, 2012; Figure Ground on LV21 Lightship, Gillingham, 2011; Open, Salisbury Arts Centre, 2010; Parcel Fever, Nuit Blanche, Reading, 2010; Journeys Between Hand and Eye, Thames Valley University, 2009; Observations, Reorsa, Bracknell, 2008; Reorsa Project 3, Wokingham, 2008; 13th Annual International Women's Exhibition, Soho20, New York, 2007; Southern Tier Biennial, Olean Public Library, New York, 2007; Three Months Work, Schien Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, New York, 2007; What the Papers Say, Turner Gallery, New York, 2006; Alfred Mugs, Scholes Library, New York, 2006; Ceramic Art London, Henry Moore Gallery, RCA, London, 2005; Joy of Kitsch, Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Carmarthen, 2003; National Eisteddfod of Wales, North Wales, 2000

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