Daniel Connell
Email: daniel.connell@unsw.edu.au
Supervisors: Ainslie Murray, Nicole Gardner
I am an interdisciplinary artist, architectural designer and academic, currently undertaking a practice-based PhD in Architecture at the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at UNSW, Sydney. I was awarded a Masters by research in Fine Arts from UNSW, Sydney in 2018, A Bachelor of Design in Architecture for the University of Technology, Sydney in 2015, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Time-Based Art, graduating with First Class Honours in 2012 from COFA at UNSW, Sydney.
My artistic work is conceptually driven, evolving from long periods of research. My early practice responded to readings of planned obsolescence, making gallery based installations and videos that opened questions around the role of technology; from personal constellations mapped through indicator and stand-by lights, to visual symphonies of flickering CRT screens.
My practice has continued to move into the broader spatial disciplines since my studies in Architecture, expanding into site specific and communally driven work. By employing readings of postproduction, my work has invested in the translation of media through error, glitch, anamorphic projection and mapping into conceptually layered and communally built poly-sensorial art forms.
My work has been exhibited in Sydney, Perth, Denmark, and the USA. In 2013, I co-founded an artist-run gallery space called Archive_ which ran for two years, hosting over 50 exhibitions of emerging artists. Since 2017, I have been the design lead for a theme camp at The Burning Man Project in Nevada, USA. I have taught high school students as a STEAM Coordinator, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in courses including Exhibition Design, Public Art, Architectural Studio and Communications. I currently work across industries and in diverse settings, ranging from professional videography and production; architectural design, management, visualisation, view analysis, and fabrication.
- Research area
- Research outputs
My current research engages with three key areas: A situated practice theory termed The Phronetic Framework; a conceptualising of Self-Build as a field of practice, social research and spatial production; and contemporary organisational and governance structures that support Self-Build, such as commoning practices and open-source production.
Phronetic Framework as a Model for Design Research
I look at the role of relational, situated, fragmented and critical spatial knowledge, building on the increasing awareness of design as research across architecture and spatial practice to systematise different modes of research. By particularising types of knowledge through carefully considered axioms, I direct research models towards a concept of contemporary phronesis, focussing broad research activities towards their purpose and reflexive use-value.
Self-Build as a Field of Practice
I have developed an expanded view of Self-Build as a field of practice. The practice is defined by its relational properties; between self, object and environment. It is a behavioural practice, with shifting operations based on governance and available technologies. Through this framing, the research looks beyond the aesthetic and technical characteristics of making, towards the scaling potential of situated, process-driven events and products, centred around the desire to build. My interest in defining and populating this field draws from the lasting value these practices have for the practitioners and participants who engage with them, and the secondary emergent outcomes, including sustainable practice, localised resilience, enriched cultural identity and novel design qualities.
Governance Structures for Collective Self-build
Across architectural research exists varying theories of power and control over the built environment. By identifying the cross-disciplinary areas where Self-build takes place, the research looks at ways to share knowledge and contribute to making practice more accessible. My research identifies methods, structures and systems that promote and enable self-build whilst also addressing barriers.
Self-Build Practice
I develop works - from drawing and visual media to large scale structures that engage with the theory and conceptual framing of Self-build and their organisational structures, as well as works that are firmly entrenched within self-build communities, directed by the intentions of the groups involved. In particular, my field work engages with the Event-based Self-build communities of The Burning Man Project in Nevada, USA, and Wonderfruit Festival in Chonburi, Thailand.
Conference Presentations
- Connell, D. Stack, C (2022). “Mooring Places” at The Nomadic Image: The Seventh Transdisciplinary Conference on Imaging at the Intersections of Art, Science and Culture. Naryn, Kyrgyzstan: University of Central Asia. September 23 – 25 2022.
Publications
- Connell, D. 2018, Colour Sensitive: Generative Processes and Place Making, UNSW Art and Design.
- Connell, D. (2012). Too Much, Not Enough, Fine Arts Honours paper,UNSW Art and Design.
Solo Exhibitions
- Connell, D. (2023) “Waterfront”, The Burning Man Project, Nevada, USA.
- Connell, D. (2022) “Anamorphic”, The Burning Man Project, Nevada, USA.
- Connell, D. (2019) “Navigations”, The Burning Man Project, Nevada, USA.
- Connell, D. (2018) “Colour Sensitive, V.2”, The Burning Man Project, Nevada, USA.
- Connell, D. (2017) “Colour Sensitive”, The Burning Man Project, Nevada, USA.
- Connell, D. (2015) “Obsolete”, Black Box Projects, May Space, Waterloo, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2015) “Night Light”, Black Box Projects, Brenda May Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney.
Selected Group Exhibitions
- Connell, D. (2018) “Lightless” in Warm Bodies, Cement Fondu, Paddington, Sydney.
- Connell, D. Bjørndal, S (2015) "Ivry-sur-Seine" in Aarhus Graduate Show, Arkitektskolen Aarhus, Denmark.
- Connell, D. (2014) “Untitled (Lightless)” in Will to Keep, 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2013) “Lightless” in Hatched: National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth.
- Connell, D. (2013) “Lightless” in The Big Picture, Stills Gallery, Paddington, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2013) “Personal Constellations” in Material Rites, MOP Projects, Chippendale, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2012) “Too Much, Not Enough” in Tomorrow, Today, COFA Space, Paddington, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2012) “Orbit” in Yolk Collective: launch Exhibition, The Barn, Mosman, Sydney.
- Connell, D. (2012) “Ink Studies” in The COFA Annual, Carriageworks, Sydney.