Reflecting this commitment and unique areas of expertise and research competence within the College, a number of key research priorities were identified for 2012-2016:
Research Priorities
The core remit of NCAD is the education of practitioners across art, design, education and critical thinking. This commitment to actual practice and its critical contexts is central to the research ethos of the College.
User-first Design
at NCAD is engaged across a number of domains - e.g. human–computer interaction, industrial design, service design, universal design and multi-modal design - developing practical innovative and creative solutions to user needs.
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Contemporary Practices in Art and Design
is a complex, multi-disciplinary research strand that serves to support and make visible the creative and critical practice of NCAD researchers engaged in and with contemporary practice in art, design and craft.
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Creative and Critical Pedagogies
at NCAD is concerned centrally with how art and design processes engage with the domain of education. By engaging in critical theoretical and practical research in the field of education, NCAD aspires to have an impact not just on art education but also on art practice and on educational policy and practices in general.
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Irish Design History and Material Culture
addresses the production of authored designed objects, systems and spaces in Ireland; it further addresses the consumption of design and material culture as a site of meaning. As well as nativist production and consumption, deterritorialised networks of exchange are explored.
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Design Sustainability
at NCAD is focused upon the question of how man-made materials can become part of an ecological cycle. The science of Industrial Ecology is very much an emerging one and in the area of consumer waste it is as much about economics and people’s attitudes as it is about the science of materials.
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