Professor Mario Minichiello

I went to art school to explore an irrepressible instinct to explain the world visually. I studied design because I wanted to help change that world for the better. Design and visual communication provides solutions to problems, promotes clarity of thinking and encourages creative ideas. In this way we are developing the human capacity to meet the challenges of our future. The chance to influence how people in any society think and behave, even for a brief moment, is a positive intervention in a world that is increasingly concerned with mindless celebrity, consumerism and self-interest. We have to strive to make life better and not merely make ourselves financially richer. My current role at the University of Newcastle is to lead my highly professional team of design staff to deliver world class research and the best student experience in order to prepare our graduates for their chosen careers.

Research Expertise
As a Professor at the University of Newcastle it is my personal responsibility to be an engaging and eloquent advocate for the core values of my discipline at both national and international forums. I am particularly focused on the role of design research and development in relation to climate change, economic betterment and human behaviour. I am also committed to developing a better understanding of the role of drawing as both a language for art and design practice, and as a means of thinking and researching social and personal issues. Examples of the application of this kind of thinking can be seen in the project with Birmingham Children’s Hospital conducted with Professor D Kelly and her team and in the recent Ikon Lunar debates. The purpose of my work is to remediate experience and ideas allowing the viewer to think beyond their normal confines. The activities within visual communication as a discipline have to have social agency as well as economic impact. While my research activities have developed from my practice as an artist and designer. I believe that design as a means of thinking can be universally applied and that it traverses all disciplines within a University – that at its core it captures the interdisciplinary ethos of my school and attracts many international partners and friends. Therefore my work in this field is intended to be an authoritative source of reference, instruction and critical thinking, while remaining politically provocative and intellectually disruptive. This approach has allowed me to make a significant contribution to the discipline of art and design. Which has been achieved through practice based and practice led research resulting in academic papers, international conferences, as well as exhibitions, publications and mass media broadcasts. 

Administrative Expertise
- Head of School (Birmingham City Uni UK) - Academic Director (Loughborough University UK) - Member of University Governing body (Academic Director University School of Art & Design Loughborough University ) - Research review board (Common Ground Publishing) - Quality assurance in HE learning and teaching (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education UK)

Collaborations
My approach: Visual Communication Design is an agent of change (1); it’s true impact on human behaviour can be revealed using a range of practice based and lead qualitative and quantitative analytical methods. In undertaking this kind of research I wish to reveal new insights that would enable us to advance the understanding of design from the perspective of social responsibility and business efficiency. In investigating visual communication design as an innovative and creative practice it is possible to quantify its potential to transform societies and enhance human well-being. Inspired by Victor Papanek’s critical and cross-cultural approach to design culture, this inclusive approach to design challenges the purely commercial imperative of product culture. As designer and educator Victor Papanek stated, ‘the only important thing about design is how it relates to people’ I work with Prof Kelly and the clinical team where I am visiting Professor in Design at Birmingham Children’s Hospital UK, this started in 2008 when I helped to develop the first design interventions to ensure informed consent for very young children facing large scale surgery. I have published a number of peer reviewed papers in this new field. In the UK I have been award two ARB/C grants - As academic director at Loughborough I set up and helped gain funding from the EC for the Animation academy and the online drawing journal 'Tracy'. As Head of School at BIAD BCU I lead the applications for funding and research for practice lead and based research projects with industry through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme. BIAD become the leader in KTP applications over my period as HOS. I oversaw the work of the school spinout company 'Open Advantage' which developed Design and IT for a Range of SME's in the UK using open source software. This work resulted in the 'Birmingham made me' standing conference with British manufacturing industry, this had a profoundly positive impact on industry and business in Birmingham and in the midlands.  In summary: my research approach has been to investigate Visual communication in: • Examining the mechanisms underlying human vision and visual language-and the impact on individuals learning abilities • Studying the cultural evolution of visual languages under the influence of cognitive constraints • Investigating through design the human ability to cooperate with one another • Probing the psychological design and visual communications mechanisms underlying disorders related to body image • Developing art and graphics in environments as part of recovery and pre-medical preparations. • Understanding how different behavioural norms emerge in different social contexts through co-design and way finding. Understanding disruption and provocation through practice  and by understanding advertising and life style communication has constructed the social environment. • Understanding the impact of practice and the repositioning of Art and Design into wider social and intellectual paradigms. • Developing symmetry in Visual Communication Design • The application of cutting edge design and information technology to disrupt anti social groups (child exploitation, abuse of women, racism and conflict management). • Developing impactful Reportage art that has political intent, such as the  'Art of conflict' work and the investigations for BBC and Guardian news services.