Stuart Foster

Stuart Foster

Lecturer, Ngā Pae Māhutonga Wellington School of Design

Stuart Foster is a designer and researcher specialising in the emerging fields of digital interactive spatial environments and digital fabrication technologies. Foster’s research focuses on emerging technologies through the application of virtual modelling, visualising and sensing technologies to create interactive spatial environments. The founding principles of his research are drawn from architecture, phenomenology of perception and haptic technologies.

  • Expertise

    Interactive design, exhibition design, tangible user interface design, digital fabrication, interior architecture, spatial design, interface theory, scenography. 

     

  • Research Highlights

    Digital Archive (2011) (designer, programmer). Presented at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial.
    An interactive digital work that, through the use of video cameras, motion sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and analogue navigation devices, the audience is able to interact with archive footage of performances along a digital timeline. The archive is populated in real time with media from video cameras activated by movements within the performance structure.

    Micro-Inhabitation (2012) (designer, programmer). Exhibited as part of An Interior Affair: A State of Becoming at Form Gallery, Perth, Australia.
    An interactive, virtual, patterned environment derived from microscopic form and surface, designed in conjunction with textile designer Natalie McLeod. This interactive projected landscape strives to communicate the experience of microscopy, where the miniature becomes gigantic.

    Everything is Okay (2011) (spatial designer, set designer)
    A set design that occupied a 600 square metre warehouse with a multi-dimensional mixture of installation art and performance. It challenged concepts of living in the modern world such as notions of excess and isolation through the use of a mix of shipping containers, discarded industrial implements and interactive digital projections the theatre. The work received a Gold award at 2011 Best Design Awards.

    Chirp (2011) (designer, programmer). Interactive Art Wall, Aotea Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
    An interactive digital screen work that, through the use of camera vision and live feeds from Twitter, heightens an awareness of the changing moods of digital social space and the impact of participatory roles in a globally connected environment. CoLab and The Edge Interactive Art Wall are partners in a new initiative that showcases digital and interactive visual art. 

  • Qualifications

    Trade Cert Joinery (NZQA)
    BDes (Massey University)
    MDes (Massey University)

     

  • Professional Affiliations

    Interrupt Collective (founding member)