Britta Boyer

Britta holds a PhD from the Institute for Creative Futures, Loughborough University London, and an MA in Sustainable Design from the University of Brighton. She completed a BA in Fashion Design at Central St. Martins, London, in 1995, founded three international start-ups and was an early pioneer of the fashion sustainability movement in 1995, working with post-consumer denim waste for her own brand, Earth 33, with a grant from the Prince's Trust. Britta has previous creative industry experience as a distinguished designer with a history of accolades, including the Whistles New Designer of the Year (2006), IDEA (1998), and Barker Brown Creative Industry awards (1997). 

Currently, a visiting scholar specialising in decolonising and regenerative design practice promoting social, environmental, and aesthetic literacies. Demonstrated expertise in complex systems and relational approaches within projects that mediate the intersection of practice, enterprise, and academia. Experienced in employing sensory ethnographies and creative methodological approaches that support change-thinking and allow experimentation and active engagement in meaningful research and learning experiences. For example, building positive projects that call upon global networks, working across sectors, disciplines and generations that embed and embody decolonising and regenerative principles. Britta co-led a British Council supported, connection through culture (CTC), research project in Southeast Asia; Weaving Ecologies: Stories of Material Culture and Community from Myanmar and was invited to participate alongside maker communities, Tagbanua weavers and craft makers of Tina, Aborlan, Palawan and an online community of the (UAL) Master Regenerative Design, Central Saint Martins (See the project website); both projects explore complex textile systems, weaving ecologies and weaving of shared values.

Many worlds meeting. Unsettling design at the intersection of mobility and possibility.

Britta's research develops upon a decolonial aesthesis informed by design anthropology and critical thought [feminist and global social theory]. The thesis work understood through Braidotti's nomadic theory, titled Many Worlds Meeting. Unsettling design at the intersection of mobility and possibility, explores epistemic decolonisation, and the regenerative practices of a small group of transnational Designer Beyonders situated [though not limited to] in Bali, Indonesia. Bali is understood through the lens of complex ethnocultural positioning that encompassing diverse lifestyles and cultures, a place of ‘becoming’ emphasising movement rather than stasis, and a multi-cultural design community entangled within more profound cultural traditions. The design research includes an auto-ethnographic perspective that reflects Britta’s own position in cultures of design and the broader cultural realm. Britta specialises in multisensory and participatory ethnography, emphasising storytelling, immersion, reflection, and participant-led interpretations that explore ways that the non-Western context can inform Western design practice and pedagogy?

PhD supervisors

Britta's PhD is supervised by Professor Mikko Koria, Dr Laura Santamaria and Dr Amalia G Sabiescu.

Awards, grants or scholarships received

• Loughborough University Doctoral College studentship
• DRS Travel Bursary
• Santander Bank

Papers, publications and articles

• Boyer, B., Wernli, M., Koria, M., & Santamaria, L. (2022). Our Own Metaphor: Tomorrow is Not for Sale. World Futures, 1–10.
• Wernli, M. & Boyer, B. (2021). ‘Breathful’ design in breathless times. Strategic Design Research Journal. Volume 14, number 01, January – April 2021. 175-186. 
• Boyer, B. (2020) The story of ‘The Spirit of the Hibiscus’; worldmaking activities from Bali, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L. (eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers - DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June, held online. 
• Britta Boyer (2019) Gender equality in tourism, by design, Tourism Geographies, DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2018.1564780
• Boyer, B. (2018). Other ways of seeing: film as digital materiality and interlocutor for community-based tourism relationships in Bali. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 6(3), 276-296.

Submitted for review to Diseña, Jan ‘24: The Visitors’ Hut - an integrative methodology. A reflective practice for knowledge recovery and intercultural design research.

Peer-Reviewed

1. Boyer, B., Wernli, M., Koria, M., & Santamaria, L. (2022). Our Own Metaphor: Tomorrow is Not for Sale. World Futures, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2021.2014751

2. Wernli, M., & Boyer, B. (2021). ‘Breathful’ design in breathless times. Strategic Design Research Journal, 175–186. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2021.141.15

3. Boyer, B. (2020) The story of ‘The Spirit of the Hibiscus’; worldmaking activities from Bali, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L. (eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers - DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June (virtual), https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.030

4. Boyer, B. (2019) Gender equality in tourism, by design. DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2018.1564780P a g e 3 | 4

5. Boyer, B. (2018). Other ways of seeing: film as digital materiality and interlocutor for community-based tourism relationships in Bali. International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 6(3), 276. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJTA.2018.093298

Media: video ways of knowing

• 2023 Boyer, B. Pochi weaving studio, Myanmar.
• Boyer, B. Yangon – Banana fiber, Myanmar
• Boyer, B. Lotus & Silk – Inle Lake, Myanmar
• Boyer, B. Nainglon Village – natural dyeing, Myanmar
• Boyer, B. Shwe Chi weaving interview, Myanmar
• Boyer, B. Kayin State – Backstrap weavers, Myanmar
• 2022 Boyer, B. Sensory cartographies, Bali
• Boyer, B. Blue Alchemy, Bali
• 2018 Boyer, B. Paradise Paradigm, Bali

Peer Review Activities

• Journal manuscript review: Special issue of PUBLIC on the Pluriverse 2023
• Conference abstract reviews: Pivot 2022
• Journal manuscript review: Tourism Geographies 2021
• Book reviews: Gender Equality and Tourism: Beyond Empowerment by Stroma Cole Published by CABI, 2018

Presentations

• 2023 Boyer, B. Sensory Cartography: mapping possibility. Two-hour workshop for 3rd International Conference of Possibility Studies, DCU, Dublin, Ireland.
• 2023 Boyer, B. Designing futurity from a complex we perspective. Presentation for UAL MA Regenerative Design – Discussion on ethics (virtual)
• 2022 Boyer, B. & Wernli M. ‘Breathful’ design in breathless times. Presentation for the opening of the Institute of Advanced Studies, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom.
• 2022 Boyer, B. Decolonizing Methodologies. Presentation for Brighton University, Brighton, United Kingdom.
• 2022 Boyer, B. The future(s) of Fashion. Research Community Evening at Istituto Marangoni, United Kingdom (virtual).
• 2021 Boyer, B. Re-mapping the human. Sensory cartography as a tool of integration. Presentation for the Pivot 2021 virtual conference.
• 2021 Boyer, B. Unsettled design perspectives. Presentation at the North American PhD by design symposium (virtual).
• 2021 Boyer, B. Uncommon perspectives: Feeling our way back to each other. Presentation at the Centre for Sensory Studies conference (Virtual).
• 2020 Boyer, B. Social sculptures as world making activity: Creativity narratives from Bali. Presentation for the Pivot 2020 virtual conference.
• 2019 Boyer, B. Creativity in transition design; can designers go ‘beyond’ to create positive sociocultural experience. Presentation at the Nordes conference, Alto University, Helsinki.