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Doctor

Niklavs Rubenis

Senior Lecturer in Object Design

Art

Orcid identifier0009-0001-1075-7301
  • Senior Lecturer in Object Design
    Art

BIO

Niklavs Rubenis is a designer and maker interested in the intersection of craft, design, ethics, waste, and people with a specific focus on repair (objects, systems, communities). He has been involved with diverse projects spanning community, non-profit, commercial, and cultural institutions, and has had work presented, exhibited, and published nationally and internationally.

Current collaborative projects include:

“Thinking Through Craft and The Digital Turn: Writing Our Future”
A three-year (2023-2026) transnational partnership development project aimed at investigating the profound economic, social, aesthetic, and methodological transformations that have taken place in the field of craft during and after the pandemic funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Research Team: Pablo Gobira (Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais); David Grimshaw (Manchester Metropolitan University); Lynne Heller (OCAD University); Rohan Nicol (University of Tasmania); Niklavs Rubenis (University of Tasmania).
Collaborators: Tricia Crivellaro (Toronto Metropolitan University); Dorie Millerson (OCAD University); Kathleen Morris; Miranda Smitheram (Concordia University); Cynthia Villagomez (Universidad de Guanajuato).
Partner Institutions: Manchester Metropolitan University (UK); OCAD University (CA); University of Tasmania (AU).
www.craftandthedigitalturn.com

“USED: Design=Waste=Design”
An initiative that pairs the creative sector alongside the waste industry to confront issues of sustainability and the circular economy.
Research Team: Niklavs Rubenis; Caroline Cumberbatch; Rohan Nicol.
Partners: Australian Design Centre; Spectran Group.

“The Pet Project”
A model of creative and cultural enterprise that initiates, establishes, and maintains a community of practice in regional/remote Tasmanian areas through hands-on visual art workshops.
Research Team: Niklavs Rubenis; Meg Keating; Steven Carson; Andy Terhell.
www.the-petproject.com

“Design/Repair: Place, Practice & Community”
Forthcoming book published by Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
Editorial Team: Eleni Kalantidou (Griffith University); Guy Keulemans (UniSA); Abby Mellick Lopes (University of Technology Sydney); Niklavs Rubenis (University of Tasmania); Alison Gill (Western Sydney University).

“Circular Sole Design”
An exploration of concepts to improve footwear sole design and circularity with project partners Blundstone.

His solo exhibitions Crafting Waste (2016) and The Ethics of Making (2018) were respectively described by reviewers as “sophisticated” and “…potentially making an important contribution to Australian craft/design practice”. He has also been a research and curatorial member of funded national waste-focused projects Object Therapy (2016-19) and Transformative Regional Repair (2017-18) and has creative work held in collections including the Museum of Australian Democracy, Australian National University, and the State Library of New South Wales.

Niklavs has served as a Councillor on the Design Institute of Australia ACT Executive Committee (2017-19) and Craft ACT: Craft & Design Centre’s membership committee (2018); won awards (incl. Robert Foster Memorial Award; Harris Hobbs Award); and been a selected finalist in the nationally competitive prizes such the Clarence Prize for Furniture Design and the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize.

Professionally, he has been employed across many aspects of the manufacturing and design sectors. This includes high scale manufacture; computer aided design and computer aided manufacture (CAD/CAM); laser technology; commercial, production and fine furniture making; shop and museum fit-out; exhibition design; project and design management; public art; urban design and musical instrument making. He has taught at community, trade and university levels and has held positions at Sturt Craft Centre (Sturt School for Wood); Canberra Institute of Technology (College of Trade Skills and Vocational Learning) and the Australian National University (School of Art & Design; Research School of Computer Science and Engineering; ANU Continuing Education).

Niklavs has a trade in cabinet making, holds a BA Visual Arts (Honours), a PhD from the Australian National University and is currently serving on the board of the World Crafts Council—Australia and as a coordinating committee member of Global Climate Change Week.

He is at the School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, and is coordinator of design; coordinator of object + furniture; and co-convenor of the Conceptualising and Communicating Change research hub.

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • School of Creative Arts and Media

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

  • 4 Quality Education
  • 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
  • 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
  • 13 Climate Action

FIELD OF RESEARCH