Prof. Marcos Martins

Superior School of Design, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro

Video, graphic and interaction designer Marcos Martins, is excited to be joining the CHR as a visiting scholar for one year. During this time he will participate in seminars, lectures, research groups and work with faculty members to plan a South-South collaboration between the UWC and the Brazilian institution with which he is affiliated, the Superior School of Design (ESDI) of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. Professor Martins’ academic and artistic interests and activities are diverse. In  his postdoctoral research at Princeton University, in 2018, he investigated possible genealogical traces of today’s social media interfaces. He is co-author of the book Everyday Acts of Design: Learning in a Time of Emergency, published by Bloomsbury in 2022, which looks at educational experimentations during a time of economic and political crisis, when he was vice deputy at ESDI. More recently, he has been creating music videos in partnership with South African composer Philip Miller, including Tu+Tu=Freedom, for an exhibition on Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in 2021; a series of films inspired by the work of composer Reuben T. Caluza, for the The B-side  a musical performance premiered  at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, in 2023; type motion design for the show Nkoli, The Vogue Opera, also at the Market Theatre, in 2023; and Masiphumelele Visits Anne Frank, part of the exhibition Finding Beauty at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in June 2024. Through his research, teaching and artistic activities, Professor Martins advocates for the opening of the field of design to create intersections with other domains such as art, philosophy, psychoanalysis, education and decolonial studies, in order to interrogate the current status of design in the face of challenging and unstable times. He believes that his time at CHR will provide him with fertile ground to explore this further.