Bio
An educator, researcher and designer, ginger “all-lower-case” coons studies and intervenes in the intersections of individuality, mass standards, and new (production) technologies. She is interested in the place of the user in the production process, and how individuals take control of the goods they use. She has a multi-disciplinary educational background: a BFA (2009) in design from Concordia University (Montreal), and an MI (2011) and PhD (2016) in information from the University of Toronto, where she was a member of the Critical Making Lab and the Semaphore Research Cluster on Mobile and Pervasive Computing. A founding editor of Libre Graphics magazine (2010-2015), ginger is an active advocate for Free/Libre and Open Source Software in art and design. She is currently a research lecturer in Commercial Practices at WdKA, and a senior researcher in the AI-MAPS consortium.

Research

As a research lecturer, ginger is exploring the role of systems (broadly understood) in the Commercial Practices. How does a systems view influence the education and work of a commercial practitioner? How can the Commercial Practices in specific and the design school more generally use existing understandings of systems (and associated concepts like cybernetics) to develop initiatives and ways of working which are able to create impact in a complex and inter-connected world? This work connects previous postdoctoral work on the use of systems approaches in art and design education, new work on cybernetics and methodology (within the AI-MAPS project), and practical curricular and educational outcomes.