Ms Samantha Kitchener

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Samantha Kitchener
About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

I am an artist, researcher and lecturer in Transmedia Storytelling for Illustration Animation at Kingston University for BA and MA. My interests centre on dynamic storytelling through interaction design in relation to narrative and memory of social and public spaces. I have experience in live projects that are public-facing as well as facilitation of cultural spaces working with stakeholders, arts councils, and local communities. I am passionate about introducing and supporting three-dimensional capture to illustrative practice by challenging the contemporary immersive and participatory capabilities of emergent technologies.

My practice-based doctoral research (completion March 2024) explores volumetric capture as a methodological approach to understanding visual ethnographies, heritages and marginalised communities through the technological lens.

Academic responsibilities

Lecturer in Illustration Animation (Transmedia Storytelling)

Qualifications

  • BA Graphic Design — Brighton University
  • MA Visual Communication — Royal College of Art

Teaching and learning

I have contributed to postgraduate programs in Higher Education with a focus on practice-based research, visual methodologies, and collaboration. My approach to teaching transmedia storytelling is to encourage a transdisciplinary approach to making and understanding the liminality between technological tools as modes of visual communication, whether a pencil or a digital device, theoretically, they can be understood as one and the same and in this sense are interchangeable. The approach is one of transferability, rather than skill acquisition. My aim in teaching is to foster familiarity and innovation with an accessible approach to advanced technologies that challenge ways of thinking about designing space and interactions within space.

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My doctoral research follows the recent demolition of the former steelworking site Dorman Long which is located in my hometown of Redcar on the North East coast, UK. The transformation of the landscape is captured through multi-authored approaches. In the process of re-making in the digital, volumetric modes of capture and 3D modelling are investigated as tools to augment forgotten landscapes, questioning who heritage belongs to in wider cultural heritage studies and visual communication studies. Key outputs include an interactive virtual environment made of images captured by local communities during the demolition of twelve main heritage assets and a 3D digital assemblage which was developed whilst working closely with former steelworkers. The outcomes directly influenced local and national discussions in regard to the demolition and subsequent eradication of the industrial landscape. The glitches and gaps that are produced by structure from motion algorithms and found footages of these non-places highlight the inconsequential focus on exact representation and scale in digital modes of capture.

Areas of specialism

  • Cultural Heritage
  • Volumetric Capture
  • Interaction Design
  • Community Engagement