Teaching Staff

An international cohort of academics, artists and designers

Lecturers from all around the world who are experts in their fields teach our online courses from their native countries, such as Australia, Germany, Dubai, Serbia and South Korea. Some courses also invite international creative professionals who use cross-disciplinary approaches in their practice, to contribute lectures and join student discussions.

	Rick Bennett, Senior Lecturer, Head of COFA Online Australia Since 1998, Rick Bennett has undertaken continuing research investigating online collaborative creativity (OCC) between distanced artists, designers and theorists worldwide. Having established numerous online and global creative projects through a succession of research grants, COFA is now a leading player in online visual communication practice and theory research.
	Simon McIntyre, Lecturer, COFA Online Coordinator Australia Simon McIntyre is the Online Course Coordinator (Postgraduate) at the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has co-operatively pioneered learning and teaching approaches for fully online art and design education since 2003, and has helped establish an internationally recognised quality online learning reputation for the Faculty’s online learning and teaching unit, COFA Online. Simon has since drawn together educators, researchers, and creative professionals to focus on researching the development and design of sustainable and effective online learning programs through the development the COFA Online Course Author Fellowship Program. The program provides cross-disciplinary staff training and support in curriculum development and teaching approaches specifically for the online environment, and has resulted in an 92% rate of student satisfaction with online teaching, and a 91% rate of student satisfaction with COFA Online course design in 2008 (Results from 2008 COFA Online course evaluations). Simon’s research has culminated in the co-development and supervision of the international, fully online Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design program for COFA.
	Ian McArthur, Lecturer (Graphics, Fashion) Australia With over 25 years experience as designer and educationalist Ian has worked in leadership roles in Australia and South East Asia including Program Director of Graphic Design and Multimedia at La Salle DHU International Design College, Dong Hua University, Shanghai, PRChina. In 2000 Ian received the NSW Education Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching which acknowledged his contributions to vocational education.
	Karin Watson (Architecture) Australia Karin is an architect that has studied and worked in London, South Africa and Sydney. She has been teaching at UNSW as a part time tutor and lecturer since 2003 at COFA's School of Design Studies (Design Studio and Environment/Spatial Design), FBEOutThere! (the Faculty of Built Environment's interdisciplinary community engagement and outreach programs) and COFA Online. Karin also coordinates online and special projects for COFA Online, and is currently co-coordinator of the Blended Learning Pilot Study Program. In August 2008, Karin was awarded a citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Karin currently teaches the "Spatial Design: Retail, Exhibition and Hospitality" online course.
	Dr Zoja Bojic (Art History and Theory) Serbia Zoja is the authour of four scholarly books including Stanislav Rapotec, a Barbarogenius in Australian art and Imaginary homelands - the art of Danila Vassilieff (both published 2007), and has been regularly publishing her essays, articles and arts reviews in a variety of Australian and international scholarly, specialised and popular publications. She taught art history at the University of Delhi 1989-1993 and has been teaching at COFA Online since 2005. Her educational qualifications include: PhD Art History, Curatorship and Film Studies (ANU, 2005), BA/MA Art History (University of Belgrade, 1985), BA Literature, BA Classical Philology (both University of Belgrade, 1987).
	Zoë MacDonell (Textiles) Australia Zoë MacDonell is a visual artist. She has received various awards for her work and exhibits regularly on a national and international level. Zoë is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW. Over the last few years Zoë has taught part time at COFA UNSW and University of Technology Sydney. Zoë is the author of this online course 'Textiles: Tradition and Contemporary Technology'.
	Andy Polaine (Interactive Media) Germany In 1994 Andy Polaine co-founded of award-winning new-media agency Antirom in London and has worked with clients such as the BBC, the ABC, Levis Strauss and Co. and The Science Museum. Antirom was born out of an arts background (it was initially funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain) and the self-titled CD-ROM is widely recognised as one of the few classics in the short history of multimedia. Antirom closed its doors in 1999. Andy also spent a spell as a senior producer at Razorfish in London. Tired of the London life, Andy visited Australia in 1999 to travel, lecture and get a tan. Charmed by the lifestyle he moved to Sydney and started the interactive department of visual effects company, Animal Logic. Andy left Animal Logic in 2001 and was a Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media at UNSW's College of Fine Arts and Head of the School of Media Arts until he moved to Germany in 2006. He also works as a freelance designer and writer. He writes a column called Foreign Policy for Desktop magazine and occasionally for other publications such as Creative Review, IdN and Computer Arts. He has lectured, spoken and performed in various countries around the world. His own blog can be found here at Playpen.
	Dr Bonita Ely (Sculpture) Australia Bonita's interest in other cultures began when she was ten years old and began writing to a pen pal in Japan. This opened a door onto a culture that has continued to fascinate her. At present Bonita is working on an installation of video and drawings for an exhibition in Performance Space, Sydney in May. Bonita's own artwork includes photography, video, drawing, painting as well as sculpture, performance and installation. She also enjoys writing, travelling and getting to know people well.
	Jonathan Rez (Graphic Design / Built Environment) Australia Based in Sydney, Jonathan Rez has been working in visual communication over the past 8 years or so. Currently working with an Environmental Graphics Design consultancy focusing on strategy, planning and design of visual information in the built environment. When not playing around with typography, Jonathan is fascinated by the potential of design to create meaningful human experiences in the built environment. At times, the two collide. Jonathan wrote the course Visual Identity in the Built Environment and has been teaching it at COFA, UNSW since 2003.
	Kim Dong Jun (Graphic design & visual communication) South Korea Kim has developed a keen interest in visual culture in print media associated with various kinds of contemporary visual cultural theory since BA(hons)and M.Des programme. Kim's research interests centre on semiotics in visual culture with visual grammar,visual rhetoric and visual communication theory and its practice in the print media; cultural studies and design movements.
	Associate Professor Emma Robertson (Creative Thinking, Design) Australia Emma was born in Scotland, but went to school in Guyana and Baghdad, before studying design at Glasgow School of Art. After her honours degree she went to Manchester to complete an MA, specialising in textile design. Emma worked as a designer in the Swiss firm Jakob Schlaepfer in St Gallen, producing fabrics for the fashion/couture industry in Europe. Emma won and worked on several large scale architectural textile installations in the UK, including the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, and the boardroom for Coats Patons world headquarters. Emma is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Design Studies, and her passions are drawing and creative thinking processes.She wrote a chapter in the book The Creative Edge on the Top Ten Inhibiters in Creative Thinking (2007). Her work is in six Public Collections in four countries, including the Hospital Trust for Scotland. In 2008 she was the Artist in Residence at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. Her work has been recently selected for the JADA, the International Biennial of Drawing (prizewinner), and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing.
	Britta Campion (Photography / Visual Sociology) Australia Britta is an editorial photographer who has worked across a broad range of publications in Sydney. She is currently a staff photographer at News Limited. Her pictures have been published in mX, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Australian, Courier Newspapers and The International Herald Tribune, as well as a range of magazines. She holds a Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Visual Communication from UTS and an MFA from UNSW, researching the potential of photography as a method of visual sociology. Having first picked up a camera at the age of 8, photography quickly became her passion in life. The medium's ability to reveal insights into what it means to be alive in our world remains a constant intrigue to her.
	Dr Paula Dawson (Drawing / Holography) Italy Mostly Paula is known for making the world’s largest laser transmission holograms which are of large interior architectural spaces. Her PhD in fine arts is also on the topic of large laser holograms however her undergraduate study was in more traditional media such as drawing, painting and sculpture. Over the past eight years Paula has been teaching drawing to students from undergraduate to PhD level at COFA. Drawing forms an important component of the previsualisiation her holograms. In the last couple of years Paula has been making cast bronze mirrors similar to the ones made in ancient Roman times. These works feature embossed holograms in the mirror so when you look into the mirror you see yourself and also a hologram image. Her most recent art work uses a hologram of a drawing made to create a light field around a figure. If you would like to see this and other works go to www.pauladawson.com.au.
	Charles Santoso (Graphic Design, Illustration) Australia Charles have been working extensively in the areas of Illustration, Concept Art (trading card games, comics, concept development for games, children books) and Graphic Design (websites, book covers, CD covers, booklets, brochures, logos, posters, icons) over the last few years. Charles is currently working at Animal Logic as a conceptual artist for feature films and commericals. Prior to Animal Logic, Charles joined The Omnium Project as a designer and have completed works ranging from websites, book covers, CD covers, booklets, brochures, logos and posters, to designing icons for interfaces.
	Yiorgos Zafiriou (Visual / Performance Artist) Australia Yiorgos' creative interest is in the interplay between the materiality of the body and its relationship to the art object. His Visual Art and Design experience spans twenty years with Performance Art as a mainstay of his production. With a solid exhibition practice, driven by Performance, he's known as a conscientious maker with studio production of art objects that relate to his performance work. He has established a firm connection between the art object; photography, video, assemblage, drawing, printmaking and 3D objects and performance. His background in Design Studies has been the focus of his teaching over the last decade. Having established a successful Graphic Design studio in the late 90s he moved to working with student Designers in Design History/Theory, Design Process, Typography, Digital Imaging and Computer Graphic Skills from 2000.
	Bruce Carnie (Textiles, Design Manangement) Australia Bruce has worked as a design practioner in the textile field for over twenty five years. Working for a diverse group of clients in both the clothing and home wares/interior sectors. Bruce has designed textiles for a wide variety of consumer sectors including, such international brands as, Donna Karen, Armani, John Kaldor, Speedo, Sheridan Australia, K-Mart and Target. Bruce has a successful Design Consultancy, specialising in textile design solutions for interiors, spanning historic houses to digital textile solutions for conteporary interior spaces. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of NSW, Bruce is researching the area of Design Management for the Digital Textile Print Industry. His research case study sites are in Australia, The Netherlands,Thailand and the U.K. Bruce is currently awaiting the resuls of the submission of his PhD thesis.
	Pierre Mol (Archaeology) Australia At one time or another Pierre has worked as a lecturer, writer, researcher and theorist completing, meanwhile, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies at both the University of NSW, COFA, and the University of Sydney’s departments of Archaeology and Philosophy. He gained his PhD in Art Theory in 2002. With strengths in both the practical, theoretical and historical disciplines of the Visual Arts, He also work as a fine artist and has successfully entered numerous art competitions throughout Australia and has produced commissions for clients all over the world, including the largest mural projects in the southern hemisphere for the Sultan of Brunei. Currently researching 3D visual treatments of ancient sites in Crete and illustrating a graphic novel.
	Steve Weymouth (3D Modelling and Animation) Australia Steve's interest is in all things graphic dates back to early childhood where he drew with different coloured found objects on the foundations of the suburban house he grew up in. His talents became more realised with formal art training gained at the old East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School). He later moved on to complete a Fine Art Degree and a Post Graduate year at Sydney College of the Arts. In 1997 after the completion of his Masters in Computer Aided Graphic and Technical Applications (CAGTA) at the University of Teesside he gained employment at the Sony PlayStation Europe (SCEE) based in London. There he created computer graphics for in-game and out-of-game requirements as part of the Special Projects team. In 2000 he returned to Sydney and decided to take a year off to counter living in London for the past 15 years and lived in a tent while travelling around Australia with his partner. Returning to Sydney in 2002 he freelanced as a 3D CGI artist working with many of the Post Production houses around town and with others interstate. In late 2003 Steve started teaching 3D CGI Modelling and Animation at the College of Fine Arts and has built up the CGI animation profile within the Digital Media Degrees ever since. He is also employed from time to time in his old form as CGI artists producing graphics for TVC’s, DVD’s and gives advice on a consolatory basis.
	Michele Barker (New media arts) Australia Michele Barker is presently investigating the area of neuroaesthetics in new media art practice. Her research draws upon the processes of genetic and neuroscientific digital visualisation techniques. These advanced imaging processes are harnessed to facilitate an immersive and interactive space which is part artist generated and part responsive to user/audience interaction.
	Leo Martyn (3D, digital media and holography) Australia Leo Martyn has 15 years professional experience as a 3D and media artist, web designer and digitial media lecturer who has worked locally and internationally on a broad range of broadcast, theme park, commercials and games projects. He is currently working both freelance and also as a lecturer at Billy Blue College of Design while completing Masters studies. Currently he is interested in the convergence of consciousness, spirituality and spaces in digital media and virtual spaces, as well as in online community development. He is working on the development of visual ideas through the combination of 3D techniques and iLumograph holography.