Ms Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek
ACADEMIC COURSE ADVISOR Bachelor of Design (VIsual Communication),
Design (SoHCA)
LECTURER,
Design (SoHCA)
Personal
Qualifications
- ADipGA Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts
- CertTERSOL University of New South Wales
- BA (HONS) University of Sydney
UWS Organisational Unit (School / Division)
- Design (SoHCA)
- Design (SoHCA)
Professional Memberships
- AGDA (2008-09-01)
Contact
| Email: | S.Edwards-Vandenhoek@uws.edu.au |
|---|---|
| Extension: | 5539 |
| Mobile: | |
| Location: | BB.G.31 Penrith (Werrington South) |
| Website: |
Biography
Samantha Edwards-Vandenhoek is a graphic designer, photographer and lecturer in visual communication in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. She is the program coordinator of the AGDA award winning fourth year professional design studio ‘Rabbit Hole’.
This studio services a range of internal and external clients, local bodies and community organisations such as TVS, Western Sydney Public Transport Users, RMIT University, The Dept of Music, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre and UWS Equity & Diversity. Down the ‘Rabbit Hole,’ students get the opportunity to work on ‘real life’ industry projects. Students are required to develop, through directed and focused research, a response to a given creative brief from the client as a ‘junior designer.’ A number of briefs are offered each semester and each student is allocated a role, based on their existing expertise and areas of interest in working with specific media and communication fields.
For more information please visit www.commarts.uws.edu.au/rabbithole
In 2011, Samantha was the recipient of the prestigious UWS Vice Chancellors Excellence in Teaching Award for spearheading a situated and engaged learning experience 'down the Rabbit Hole'. Samantha has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree from the University of Sydney and Diploma of Design from Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts. She has extensive industry experience, working as a designer for two of Sydney’s leading branding consultancies – Billy Blue Creative and EKH Design. Samantha has guest lectured at Parsons School of Design in Paris. As a photographer she exhibits her work widely both in Australia and Europe and is represented in Paris by Galerie Emotion.
Samantha has recently submitted her doctoral research in media and communication studies at the University of Western Sydney for examination. Her PhD thesis is entitled Graffiti Archaeography: The poetics of engagement in Sydney’s inner suburbs. This practice-based research engages with the material traces of graffiti and urban art practices from inner Sydney’s recent urban past. It is an endeavour to map, frame, decipher and archive the tensions and dialogues embedded in the differentiated traces of illicit graffiti production to further insights into the relationship between place and cultural practice. For further information please visit www.sydneygraffitiarchive.com.au
This information has been contributed by Ms Edwards-Vandenhoek.
Interests
- Contemporary Archaeology
- Design Advocacy
- Design for Social Change
- Documentary Photography
- Graphic Agitation
- Graphic Design
- Heritage Studies
Awards
- VIce Chancellors Excellence in Teaching Award 2011-11-01
- Vice Chancellors Professional Development Scholarship 2011-11-01
Committees
- School Academic Committee
Teaching
Previous Teaching Areas
- 101883 Professional Design Studio, 2012
Publications
Journal Articles
- Edwards-Vandenhoek, S. and Kerr, R. (2011), 'Reshaping perceptions', Iridescent: Icograda Journal of Design Research, .
Exhibitions
- 2009, 'Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Works on Paper Award'
- 2006, 'Mirror Mirror'
- 2006, 'Shelf Life'
Research
Samantha has just submitted her doctoral thesis for examination. Her PhD thesis is titled Graffiti Achaeography: The poetics of engagement in Sydney’s inner suburbs. This practice-based research project intervenes in the material traces of graffiti writing and urban art practice from inner Sydney’s recent urban past. It is an endeavour to map, frame, decipher and archive the tensions and dialogues in the differentiated and fragmented traces of illicit graffiti production to further insights into the relationship between place and cultural practice.
The research method draws from an expansive interdisciplinary frame that combines and weaves connections between archaeology and photography, what Michael Shanks refers to as archaeography. It is a framework developed to negotiate contemporaneous forms of archaeological intervention with material culture. I consider the photographic analysis of graffiti to be an archaeological matter because as artefacts of the methodological process photographs capture temporal fragments which through reframing make further interventions possible. It is a reflexive approach informed by post structuralism. To map the shifting landscape of graffiti production I have drawn from psychogeography and Debord’s theory of the dérive. For the analytical work I have turned to the concepts of multimodality and intertextuality to afford an effective reading of the differentiated material and semiotic assemblages of graffiti and urban art in situ.
The creation of the Sydney Graffiti Archive as a living repository for the photographs further re-emphasises the value of the recontextualisation of graffiti, as monuments to the past and sites of knowledge in their own right. The significance of this counter archive lies in its powerful reflexive mnemonic that encourages new ways of seeing illicit graffiti texts as it reshapes present relations to the past and subverts conventional notions of cultural heritage.
Conference Papers
2012 The Re/theorisation of Heritage Studies. International Journal of Cultural Heritage / University of Goteburg, Sweden2012 Graffiti Archaeography: The Poetics of Engagement in Sydney’s Inner Suburbs. International Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences / Paris, France
2012 Contemporary Archaeology Workshop / University of Sydney
2011 Shaping Perceptions. AGIDEAS International Design Forum, Melbourne.
2011 Spaces of Alterity: Conceptualising Counter-Hegemonic Sites, Practices and Narratives Dept of Culture, Film, Media / University of Nottingham, UK.
2010 Graffiti as Deictic Practice UTS 5th International Conference on Multimodality / Sydney, Australia
2010 A Multimodal Approach to the Analysis of Graffiti in Situ Intersections and Interventions / University of Western Sydney / HDR research conference
2009 Behind Closed Doors: An analysis of graffiti writings in situ from Sydney’s recent urban past University of London / ‘Writing as Material Practice’ / International Archaeology Conference.
2008 Wayfinding Graffiti in Sydney’s Inner Suburbs Research Matters / University of Western Sydney / College of Arts Conference.
2008 You aren’t here: graffiti, the non place and the creative transformation of space.Appropriating Space / Research Colloquium / Goldsmiths, The University of London.
This information has been contributed by Ms Edwards-Vandenhoek.
Media
| Title: | Sydney Graffiti Archive |
|---|---|
| Description: | PhD Digital Archive |
| Title: | Rabbit Hole |
| Description: | Online Blog |
