David Rousell

David Rousell is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Education at RMIT University, where he is a core member of the Creative Agency Lab. Prior to joining RMIT David was Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he coordinated the Manifold Lab for Biosocial Studies in the Education and Social Research Institute.

David’s research combines his work in affect studies, digital ethnography, and posthumanism with his professional background as an environmental artist, designer, and arts educator. He is invested in an ecological rethinking of the politics and ethics of digital life through critical and creative engagements with sensory technologies and media.

His recent projects have focused on immersive re-imaginings of local places and institutions in response to the onset of climate change, mass extinction, and ubiquitous digital mediation at planetary scale. Through intensive collaborations with children and young people as co-artists and co-researchers, David’s research has led to significant exhibitions and installations in universities, galleries, museums, libraries, and community art spaces.

David’s collaborations with colleagues in the computer sciences and creative industries are also leading to the co-development of innovative digital systems and applications. These include the CoAST platform, which enhances collaborative readings of digital texts through machine learning; M-Care, a series of mixed reality modules that foster ethical encounters with health and social care environments; and Climate Action Adventure!, an app co-designed with young people to support youth climate activism, learning, and creativity.

David is currently completing two monographs, Immersive Cartography: A speculative adventure into research-creation (Routledge) and Climate Change Imaginaries: Encountering the Anthropocene with children and young people (Springer, co-authored w/ Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles). Links to David’s creative research projects can be found at www.localalternatives.org; www.statesandterritories.org; www.climatechangeandme.com.au.

Labs

Method Lab 

DERC's flagship space for testing innovative methods for studying data, digital culture, and disruptive tech.

Future Ecologies and Media Lab

engaging with the critical role of digital media in navigating environmental and social transitions

Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday

Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday examines the role of everyday life practices and homes as increasingly central hubs of digital engagement and smart infrastructure.

Creativity, Learning, Digital Arts, and Design

Creativity, Learning, Digital Arts, and Design positions research participants as ‘creative agents’ and authors of their own experience.

Digital Inclusion, Mobility, and Activism

The research program examines the challenges and potentials of digital participation as this relates to access and inclusion, connectivity, networks and political activism, gig or micro work, and mobility and migration.

Publications

Immersive Cartography and Post-Qualitative Inquiry: A Speculative Adventure in Research-Creation

Immersive Cartography and Post-Qualitative Inquiry introduces immersive cartography as a transdisciplinary approach to social inquiry in an age of climate change and technological transformation. Drawing together innovative theories and practices...