Dr Mark Ian Jones
PhD (Design History) UNSW;
BArch (Hons 1) UTS
I am a UNSW NEXUS Fellow, design historian and a Chartered Architect in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, School of Art and Design. I have held several academic leadership positions at UNSW including Faculty Director Education Innovation in 2021 and Deputy Head of School (Design) between 2016-20. I have extensive curriculum development and teaching experience in the areas of Design, Interior Design, Architecture, Design History and Theory, and Design Practice, at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
My design historical research has involved developing alternative Swedish and Scandinavian design histories that bring previously peripheral yet significant designers to the fore, while revealing the exclusionary practices and ingrained stereotypes of Nordic design to revise the canon. The resulting achievements deliver an entirely novel understanding of Nordic design in relation to its internationalisation. My sole authored book, ˜Vicke Lindstrand On the Periphery: Mid-twentieth century Swedish design and the reception of Vicke Lindstrand, was published in the Figura Nova Series by Uppsala University Press in November 2016.
My recent publications advance knowledge of Nordic and Italian design relations with Australia that locate Australia as an important site of cultural diplomacy through design during the mid-twentieth century. This background informs my current research project that examines nation building through the diffusion of design ideas in post-war Australia that positions the Australian department store David Jones as a case study. The impact of my research has led to funding, engagement in the museum sector through exhibitions, commissions, a fellowship, public lectures, and programs. I have been invited to contribute to publications and present keynotes at international embassies. I have been interviewed and spoken about my research through media outlets in Australia and Sweden.
I have been awarded grants and awards from local and international organisations that include Estrid Ericsons Foundation Sweden, The Swedish Institute, Hallenbladska Fund Sweden, King Gustaf VI Adolfs fund for Swedish Culture, Swedish Royal Patriotic Society Grants Fund, Långmanska Fund Sweden, UNSW Art & Design Faculty Publication and Research Grants and the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts Award for excellence in Post-Graduate Research. Between 2009-2012 I was a Swedish Institute Guest Researcher in the Department of Art History at Uppsala University, Sweden and a 2022-23 MAAS Powerhouse Museum Visiting Research Fellow.
As a chartered architect, I have an extensive industry background as a design practitioner. I am principal of the Sydney based design studio, Jones Architecture, founded in 1995 that specialises in small to medium scale projects, including private houses, public buildings, multi-residential, retail, and interiors. Prior to establishing Jones Architecture, I held senior positions in commercial architectural practices in the UK and Australia. To date, I have completed over AUD $40.0m of built projects. Since my first public commission by Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Sydney for the design of The Palm Grove Centre shop and visitor centre, completed in 2000, I has completed a further 26 built projects. My practice continues to work with both public and private clients on a number of small, medium and large scale projects in Sydney and my projects have been published internationally.
- Publications
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- Media
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2022 MAAS Powerhouse Museum Visiting Research Fellow
2022 SSP Leave
2021 UNSW ADA ARC Near Miss Award
2013 SDES Design Research Award for excellence in postgraduate research UNSW College of Fine Arts
My current research activity examines Swedish and Australian design history, and their intersections, transnational design exchange and design diplomacy between 1945 and 1975.
My previous contributions to the field of design history is new knowledge on Swedish design history, design as national identity and the Swedish designer Vicke Lindstrand - disseminated across a monograph, book chapters, journal and catalogue articles, exhibition and public programs in both Sweden and Australia. As a leading figure in Australia in research into post-war Swedish modernism, my research emerges from an extensive design industry practice and focuses on Swedish and Scandinavian design histories developed over the past 15 years. My scholarly monograph is published in the peer-reviewed Figura Nova academic series, dating from 1951. The book is held in numerous international collections including Swedish Royal Library, Powerhouse Museum Research Library, Yale University, Getty Research Institute and Institut national d'histoire de l'art Paris.
Lindstrand is a significant, yet underrepresented figure in twentieth-century Swedish and Scandinavian design histories. My research contributions have revealed the breadth and depth of his work and have repositioned Lindstrand as an important figure in twentieth century Swedish and Scandinavian design history through demonstrating that his work has not been critically examined because of inherent bias. My PhD dissertation and subsequent monograph are the first studies to critically examine his work within the social, cultural and political contexts of his time. The outcomes of this research were disseminated across a series of conference presentations, invited lectures, publications and exhibitions. This large knowledge gap in design history was first addressed in my PhD dissertation (which one Swedish examiner described as an “impressive achievement”) through an interrogation of Lindstrand, his ‘fit’ in official narratives and his peculiar fate. I have been researching Lindstrand since 2005 when I identified an important design innovator whose reception and significance had been compromised. I sought to understand how and why. My authority on Lindstrand’s life and work gained momentum and was recognised through the award of strategic funding from the Swedish Government, Swedish Royal Household and several Swedish philanthropic foundations. My publications are the first scholarly outputs on his life and work.
Re-evaluating Swedish design in Australia 1945-75
This project aims to investigate Swedish-Australian design-cultural exchange through a new transnational design history of Sweden’s role as an exemplar for Australian design between 1945-75. By making accessible undocumented and at-risk knowledge held in Australian and Swedish archives, this untold history probes the emergence of this relationship at a critical time in the development of modern Australian design. The project expects to generate new knowledge of international design relations in a significant historical re-assessment that locates Australia in the current global re-evaluation of the mid-century period providing increased benefit to Australian-Swedish relations and wider understandings of design and cultural exchange.
Design diplomacy at David Jones. Nation building through the diffusion of design ideas in post-war Australia
This project aims to investigate the transmission, diffusion and promotion of international design ideas and practises through Australian department store exhibitions between 1950-75. Positioning David Jones’ department store’s sustained program of international expositions, exhibitions, fairs and promotions as a case study, the project expects to advance understandings of the historical role of department stores as agents of change. By examining the impact of these events against nation building exercises and increased migration the project expects to advance important knowledge of their contribution to the broader cultural development of Australia. Expected outcomes include highlighting their ongoing legacy and resonances to today, the vital role of retail in the present and amplifying the social value and impact of Australian design exhibitions.
Professional Activity
Fellowships
The Powerhouse Museum Research Fellowship 2022-2023
Public keynotes
‘Sweden’s Shop Window in Sydney’ - Swedish design in Australia and The Sweden at David Jones Exposition of 1954, presented to Australian Embassy in Sweden, at Australian Embassy in Sweden, Sweden
2023
‘Sweden’s Shop Window in Sydney’ - Swedish design in Australia and The Sweden at David Jones Exposition of 1954, presented to Swedish Embassy in Australia, Swedish Embassy in Australia, Australia, at Swedish Embassy in Australia, Australia
2023
Not all blonde wood and clean lines: A Scandinavian Design history, presented to DESIGN 101: A series of six lectures on design, at Australian Design Centre, Australia
2022
My Research Supervision
Architectural history
My Teaching
I have taught across the breadth of our Bachelor of Design and Master of Design programs, including studio, practice and theory.
In 2017, as Deputy Head of School (Design) UNSW Art & Design, I initiated an innovative core of Design History and Theory courses for a new Bachelor of Design program launched in 2019. This involved an international academic recruitment process and overseeing the development of a suite of four courses. I now convene and teach across these core courses.
Bachelor of Design (Integrated)
DDES1200 Design History and Theory 1: National Design Histories
DDES1201 Design History and Theory 2: Global Design Debates
DDES2200 Design History and Theory 3: Positions in Design
DDES3200 Design History and Theory 4: The Making of Design Cultures
Master of Design
SAHT9143 Design History and Theory