Biography
Chris is known both for his work in
arts-science-design collaborations and for his leadership of one of the UK's
best known multidisciplinary design programs titled 'Three-Dimensional Design
and Materials Practice," with courses at the University of Brighton,
England from 1993-2009. He is currently involved in a number of US, UK and
European research initiatives including supervising practice-based PhD and
Masters thesis work in art and design, including furniture and industrial
design, graphic design and digital media, architecture and glass. He was
recently invited together with other arts and sciences collaborators to
contribute an installation to the Royal Society of Science 350th anniversary
events on London's South Bank in Summer 2010. Current collaborations continue
with meteorology and data representation (Universities of Brighton and Reading,
UK) visual perception (Institute of Brain Sciences, Brown University) and the
Engineering, Social Justice and Peace network (ESJP).
Chris is currently at Rhode Island School of Design,
where he is senior critic in furniture design, and engagement coordinator
for NSF-funded research. The National Science Foundation presently funds a five-year program to support interdisciplinary teaching and research known as EPSCoR;
the Experimental Program for Competitive Research.
about his teaching, research and creative work
Chris studied Industrial Design Engineering at the
Central School of Art, London, and his Masters degree at the Royal College of
Art in Furniture Design. During his early furniture and interior consultancy
design career he was a member of the UK Crafts Council Index of Selected Makers
and a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers Guild award. For
five years he and UK furniture artist Fred Baier shared studio design
consultancy Baier-Rose Design, and Chris subsequently worked with Pearl Dot
Furniture in London. Chris was invited to manage part of the independent
Parnham Studio Furniture program established by John Makepeace, and later the
multidisciplinary arts and design program at the University of Brighton, where
he continued to broaden the academic connections between research, practice and
the working links with materials science, art-science collaboration and
international cross-border projects. These included one of the first European
exchange MA programs with Eastern Europe, sustainable transportation on the
London-Paris 'Avenue Verte' and the first European design competition for
composite materials with ESCM (European Society for Composite Materials). At
Brighton, in addition to supervising practice-based PhD studies, Chris created teaching
and learning grant-aided projects at the forefront of European developments
focusing upon the internationalization of the curriculum. These included
'Design and Traditional Indian Manufacturing,' and 'Chair Design and
Biomechanics' supported by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
in Design. Two publications reflecting this center's work with the Victoria and
Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art, to which Chris contributed
interviews and activities are; Museums and Design Education; Looking to
Learn, Learning to See (Cook, Reynolds, Speight, Ashgate 2010) and Design
Education; Learning, Teaching and Researching Through Design (P. Lyon,
Gower 2011)
Information about his research and publications
including the 2006 'Five Essays on Design' (with illustrations by George
Hardie) and 'Light and Materiality' can be found at http://cjvrose.com/
quotes
"We know as much as our means of expression,
engagement, our 'art' allows us to know, since we can know only what we have
attempted to share, explain, present or negotiate." (From ‘Five Essays on
Design,’ 2006).
“Light shone directly into our ours means nothing, yet
the same energies deflected to us via everything else that is ‘out there’ will
carry the meanings of that ‘everything’ for us and to ourselves.” (From ‘Light
and Materiality” 2011)
Academic Research/Areas of Interest
Furniture Design
Materials
Drawing, Cognition and Design
Science-Art-Design connections
Sound