Our People
Dr Kirsty Smith
Senior Lecturer & Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Media & Marketing
<p>An experienced Fashion Photographer with a demonstrated history of working in the photography industry, Kirsty is skilled in Photography, Creative Direction, Production and Adobe Creative Suite. Working within extreme sports and sportswear photographer Kirsty Smith has a strong reputation in both editorial and advertising. Over the past fifteen years, Kirsty has shot for clients including Bespokeasia PR, Nike, DC, Adidas, Vans, Quiksilver, Billabong, Element, WeSC, Etnies, Oakley, Harvey Nichols, Calvin Klein, La Perla, Sands Resort, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The BBC and Vauxhall.</p>
<p>Kirsty is a Senior Lecturer & Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Media & Marketing at Arts University Plymouth. She oversees modules in Fashion Photography and Fashion Film and runs the annual student visits to Fashion Week, including London and Paris.</p>
<p>An art and design professional, Kirsty has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Contemporary Practice focused in Photography from University College Falmouth. In 2024, Kirsty was awarded her PhD in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art, London, exploring the visual narrative of skateboard media.</p>
<p><strong>2019</strong> – London Doctoral Design Centre CDF fund supporting Risk and Resilience in Design Research 2020<br /><strong>2017</strong> – London Doctoral Design Centre AHRC Funded PhD Studentship in Design Research<br /><strong>2014 </strong>– The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation Fellowship<br /><strong>2014</strong> – Research & Innovation Award: 'Hijacking Skateboarding' Falmouth University<br /><strong>2014 </strong>– BAFTA nominated for the Best British Short Film by the EE British Academy Film Awards</p>
<p>Critical autoethnography</p>
<p>Skateboarding<br />
Visual Ethnography<br />
Sensory Ethnography<br />
Autoethnography<br />
Media Theory<br />
Branding Theory<br />
Documentary as Methodology</p>
<p>Born out of conversation, inner personal debate and a chance opportunity to undertake a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, Kirsty’s research is the result of a lifetime working in the photography, skateboard and fashion industries. Her PhD research aims to identify and represent the intersections where cultural relationships and behaviours have contributed to the replicated narrative of skateboarding’s visual past by the couture fashion industries. It aims to analyse and construct a new narrative through documentary film and experimental works that will contribute to current debates in visual ethnography, autoethnography and media anthropology. Examining cultural-based aesthetics, the research aims to generate an insightful in-depth study into the visual experience of skateboarding’s past and present, while analytically interrogating the graphical representation of skateboarding by the fashion industry. </p>
<p><strong>Conferences: </strong><br /><strong>2020</strong> – Organiser of LDoc Risk and Resilience in Design Research 2020 Conference. The conference aims to explore the role of risk-taking and resilience within creativity discussing how risk can act as an incentive rather than a form of demotivation during the design research process.<a href="http://http//ldocconf.co.uk/"> http://ldocconf.co.uk/ </a><br /><strong>2019</strong> – Winner of best paper presentation at the International Fashion and Textile Institutes - Blood, sweat and tears: How did skateboarding's Thrasher t-shirt become the fashionista's magazines, within the frames fashion films and on international catwalks. <a href="https://fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk/ifftipapers/paper-47/">https://fashioninstitute.mmu.ac.uk/ifftipapers/paper-47/ </a></p>
<p><strong>Upcoming: </strong><br />
Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment: Presenting paper in May 2020 exploring the role of media within the design process.<br />
Eleventh International Conference on The Image in Sydney in September 2020 Paper presentation on the fisheye and death lens as tools to explore skateboarding’s visual narrative.</p>
<p><strong>Exhibitions:</strong><br /><strong>2019</strong> – Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation - Innoskate Festival 2019 Curator: Photographic Skateboard Exhibition - Charting the UK skateboard scene through the eyes of those documenting 1990-2015<br /><strong>2018</strong> – London Design Festival 2018: Design Research Evolution <a href="http://ldoc-cdt.ac.uk/ldoc-at-the-london-design-festival/">http://ldoc-cdt.ac.uk/ldoc-at-the-london-design-festival/</a><br /><strong>2016</strong> – Festival Interceltique de Lorient: Cornwall Artist</p>
<p><strong>Case studies: </strong><br /><strong>2016</strong> – Los Angeles, California<br />
Hijacking skateboarding, a photographic research visit examining skateboarding’s innovative, and creative past. Interviews included Mike Carroll, Girl, Geoff Rowley, Vans, Paul Shier, DVS shoes, Pierre-André Senizergues, Sole Technology and Eric Aaron Meza, film director, editor a right-hand man to Spike Jonze.<br /><strong>2017 </strong>– Copenhagen Open<br />
Research visit, observational methods testing and interviews with Jerome Wilson, Boo Johnson and Arto Sarri. <br /><strong>2018</strong> – Los Angeles, California<br />
Teenage fandom a film and interview research visit examining the construction of skateboarding's visual narrative. Interviews included Mike O’Meally, Tobin Yelland, Grant Brittain, Marc Johnson, Giovanni Reda and Mike Burnett.</p>
<p><strong>Partnerships:</strong><br />
PhD funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, LDoc, London Doctoral Design Centre Collaborations Smithsonian - The Lemelson Center of Invention and Innovation</p>
