Dr Mathew Emmett

Biography

Dr Mathew Emmett is an artist-architect who holds the positions of Architecture Research Area Lead and Programme Leader for the Master of Architecture programme at the University of Plymouth, School of Art, Design, and Architecture, where he previously served as the Programme Leader for 3D Design including Spatial and Interior Design, Product Design and Designer Maker.

With a specialisation in cultural environments, public realm, immersive installations, and healthcare design, Emmett has made significant contributions to advancing architecture as a communicative art form. Having collaborated with renowned architects such as Charles Jencks on prestigious projects such as the Imperial War Museum-North (UK) in collaboration with Studio Libeskind, Portello Park (Milan), the Beijing Olympics (China), Garden of Scientific Speculation (Portrack), and partnerships with YRM Architects, Acanthus Ferguson Mann, and Harrison Sutton Partnership LLP, Emmett is dedicated to creating meaningful architectural experiences.

Emmett was awarded the prestigious Gardener Theobald Scholarship at the Architectural Association, London and the Sir Henry Herbert Bartlett Award at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. His educational background includes a Doctorate in situated cognition and architecture and a Fine Art Foundation at Central St Martins. Notably, Emmett received a research grant to study space-music with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Kürten, Germany.

Emmett's work has been internationally exhibited and widely published. His research takes a radical interdisciplinary approach, combining architecture with situated cognition, cybernetics, AV installation, soundscape, and digital performance. Notable projects, such as "Sender/Receiver," a generative-open sonic system for transcultural communication, has been performed during the inauguration of the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern in London. Recent exhibitions, including "The Albatross," a video installation at Jamestown Art Centre, and "St Sebastian: Plague Memory," a multi-channel AV installation exhibited at Museo dell'Arte Classica, Roma.

Emmett's academic career spans various international universities and institutions including Eindhoven University of Technology, Detmolder Schule für Architektur, City University of Macau, NHM New Human Media in Uruguay, Chelsea College of Art, The Royal College of Art, The Bartlett School of Architecture, and The Architectural Association.

Emmett's dedication to interdisciplinary art-architecture research is evident through his collaborations with notable figures in the arts and music industry, including Eberhard Kranemann, co-founder of Kraftwerk, Adam Benjamin, founder of Candoco Dance Company, and Node electronic composer Dave Bessell. As a PhD supervisor and examiner, Emmett actively contributes to the development of art and science collaborations including the €4.1 million EU Marie Curie Project 'Cognovo,' that explored Cognitive Innovation from an interdisciplinary design perspective.

Links:

Mathew Emmett

Qualifications

PhD: Situated Cognition within Architecture.

RIBA Part III: Chartered Architect

AADipl RIBA Part II: Gardiner Theobald Scholarship.

Bsc (Hons) Bartlett School of Architecture RIBA Part I: Sir Henry Herbert Bartlett Award.

Central Saint Martins

Professional membership

RIBA Professional Membership.
ARB Professional Membership.
The Architectural Association.

The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Kinetica Museum.

Roles on external bodies

University of the Arts (Chelsea) London: External Examiner MA Interior and Spatial Design.

Teaching

Teaching interests

I am the programme leader for the Master of Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2). The MArch programme is fully validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) to the requirements at Part 2 level. The programs’ ethos is founded upon a belief in architecture that is empowering of people culturally, politically and socially; connected to place climatically, environmentally and performatively; and grounded in processes of procurement, production and poetics. The 1 year MA Architectural Design programme explores architecture, design and urbanism, with an emphasis on the critical investigation of space through practical, theoretical research interests and creative activities. Students gain real world experience and formulate an approach to future practice that is discursive (playful, research-driven and transdisciplinary), leading (enabling, ethical and proactive), and agile (mobile, resilient and transformative). Our students’ achievements are reflected in their winning prizes in the international Creative Conscience Awards three years running. Our students and staff bring a wealth of international learning and professional experience to the learning environment.

Emmett has taught at numerous international/national universities including: Eindhoven University of Technology; Detmolder Schule für Architektur; City University of Macau; NHM New Human Media, Uruguay; Chelsea College of Art; The Royal College of Art; The Bartlett School of Architecture and The AA. His teaching focuses on crossing the boundaries of architectural design with new media architecture, investigating how spaces and design are influenced by advances in a wide range of sciences, cognitive theory and the arts with the aim to create innovative conditions in architecture and immersive environments. The teaching searches for an architecture that is innovative, spatial, immersive, technologically multifaceted, hybridised and interdisciplinary.

PhD supervision and examination

2020-: Leah Dinning, DoS.

2018-: Zoe Latham, Second Supervisor.

2015-2019: Birgitte Aga, Second Supervisor.

2013-2019: PI on the €4.1 million EU Marie Curie Project 'Cognovo', which explored Cognitive Innovation from an interdisciplinary perspective.

International Summer Schools

2012: „Study of Industrial Ruins – Perception of Space in Architecture and Culture" is the title of the EU-funded international Summer School 2012 at the “Detmolder Schule für Architektur und Innenarchitektur” of the Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences. Participating partner institutions are: Plymouth University (England), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Lucerne University (Switzerland) and the Universidade Fumec Belo Horizonte (Brazil).

2013: Sensory Living - dedicated to the study of sensory architecture. The aim is to transfer natural patterns to spatial situations in architecture and culture. Participating partner institutions are: Plymouth University (England), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Lucerne University (Switzerland) and the Universidade Fumec Belo Horizonte (Brazil).

2010. Advanced Digital Architectural Design, International Summer School,Germany.

Staff serving as external examiners

2005-2008: Chelsea College of Art and Design: External Examiner: MA Interior and Spatial Design.

Research

Research interests

Dr Mathew Emmett is an architect who disrupts the original use and perception of buildings. Drawing upon intermedia disciplines spanning video, electronic sound and digital performance, Emmett infects architectural spaces with an altered sense of reality. Addressing both destructive and redemptive themes in society today, his work reveals multilayered references to the continual study of the Isenheim Altarpiece. Emmett collaborates with Kraftwerk co-founder Eberhard Kranemann, Candoco Dance Company founder Adam Benjamin, Node electronics composer Dave Bessell, cyberspace architect Neil Spiller and architectural theorist Charles Jencks. Emmett studied at the Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture, Central St. Martins and has a Doctorship in situated cognition. In 2007 studied space music under Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kürten. In June 2016, Emmett performed Sender/Receiver at the opening of the Blavatnik Building, Tate Modern, London.

Selected Research Projects

2022. St Sebastian: Plague Memory, Multi-channel AV installation, Museo dell'Arte Classica, Roma. Curated by Camilla Boemio. Funding partners: Museo dell'Arte Classica, Roma; Sapienza Università di Roma; MLAC | Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea. The project reflects upon pandemics and vulnerability, metabolizing our past with the present. The work spatialises the story of St Sebastian the “protector of plague victims” within the catacombs of Rome, and draws particular attention to Saint Irene who heals St Sebastian’s wounds with ointment.

2020. SHAME, AV performance, Oxo Tower, London. As part of the apocalyptic tradition, the research addresses the human impact on the natural landscape to reveal the continued toll humans leave on the planet. The work encompasses oil fields, deforestation, genocide in the Amazon rainforest, toxic waste sites, forests ravaged with fire and flooding. The work creates a series of terminal landscapes as an incitement toward a more critical view of power relations that influence our notions of the natural terrain as valuable natural resource.

2018. Double Skin, AV performance, Lauren Baker Gallery, Covent Garden. The research disrupts photogrammetric data of an industrial building in order to reveal and give agency to the latent histories. The host building is digitally re-configured to alter the perceived fixity of the space to rehearse new spatial realities through technical and temporal means. Double Skin was originally made for the 4th International Online Congress NHM New Human Media, a biannual event hosted by Anilla Cultural Latinoamérica-Europa in Uruguay (2018).

2016. Sender/Receiver, Blavatnik Building, Immersive sonic performance, Tate Modern, London. Commissioned as part of the Tate’s Blavatnik Building opening celebrations, Sender/Receiver is an innavative immersive intervention that engages people in a generative open sonic system, based upon ancient communication devices. A custom-written software was developed that could sonify 3Dimensional geometries using a gesture-controlled accelerometer. The project originates a spatio-communicative dimension to active externalism (Clark. A & Chalmers. D), based upon the active role of the immersive environment in driving cognitive processes.

2015-. Space Interface Project, Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf (2015), Lichtturm Solingen, NRW (2016), KARST gallery, Plymouth (2016) and The Atlantic Project, Plymouth (2018). AV performance presented to an audience that embraces the problem of: 1) space-blindness, 2) buildings limited by unimaginative conventions and 3) rigid procurement laws. Iteratively developed over three years and five venues spanning Germany and UK, the research contributes to architectural design through the synthesis of situated cognition and new media interfaces. Space Interface received funding from Arts Council England and Kulturförderung & Dinnebier Licht GmbH.

2015 - 2017. Open State, Tokyo Art Centre, Japan. Contemporary dance soundscape developed over iteration of two years and two venues spanning Japan and UK. The research uses audio sensors and augmented video conferencing to capture vocal disfluencies from dancers alienated by speech disorders and physical impairment. Utilizing technologically supported chorographical encounters, a hidden language is revealed between disabled and non-disabled dancers, providing material for the spatial and sound environment that readdresses existing barriers of communication. Open State received funding from Art and Culture Promotion Fund, Arts Council Tokyo & Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. Premiered at Tokyo Art Centre, Japan, 2015 and The House, Plymouth, 2017.

Research Projects

2021 TRANSFORMATION, Exhibition, Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf. Funded by Neu Start Kultur & Stiftungkunstfonds.

2019 MUTATED HEADS/C.A.R (Contemporary Art Ruhr), Germany/Exhibition and Video/Sequence 5 – CHARLES DARWIN in collaboration with Eberhard Kranemann/Courtesy Weithorn Galerie.

2018 CHARLES DARWIN/The Atlantic Project/Audiovisual Performance with Eberhard Kranemann/The Millenium Building.

2018 SPACE INTERFACE III/The Atlantic Project/360 Video and Sound with Eberhard Kranemann/Immersive Vision Theatre/University of Plymouth.

2018 DOUBLE SKIN/PARA_ARCHITECTURE/Audiovisual Performance/4th International Online Congress NHM New Human Media/Anilla Cultural Latinoamérica-Europa/Uruguay.

2016 SPACE INTERFACE II/KARST Gallery/Plymouth/UK/Exhibition and Audiovisual Art Performance with Eberhard Kranemann. Courtesy Weithorn Galerie.

2016 SPACE INTERFACE II/i-DAT – Emmett/Kranemann/Philips/Christison – 360 Immersive Performance/The Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT), Plymouth/UK/Courtesy Weithorn Galerie.

2016 THIS IS WHERE WE ARE/Tate Modern, London in collaboration with i-DAT for the opening of The Blavatnik Building.

2016 PULSATING HENNIG BRAND’S CONDENSATE/Lichtturm Solingen, Düsseldorf/ Dinnebier Licht GmbH/Signal Transduction – Video Sound Art Performance in collaboration with Eberhard Kranemann.

2016 THE BIRTH OF MEMORY/The Place, London/Soundscape Composition for choreographer Adam Benjamin (co-founder of Candoco) and EXIM Dance Company. Toured internationally: Moscow, South Korea and Mexico.

2015 MIRROR BLUR/PLYMOUTH CITY MUSEUM/Soundscape alongside Gerhard Richter ARTIST ROOMS/Tate/The National Galleries of Scotland and Anthony D’Offay.

2015 SPACE INTERFACE/Weithorn Galerie, Düsseldorf/Exhibition and New Media Art performance in collaboration with Eberhard Kranemann.

2013 ASYNCHRONOUS PERCEPTION/Installation/Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland, with DAAD Funding.

2012 180 DEGREES OF TRAUMA/Installation/Bundeswehrkrankenhaus, Detmold, Germany, with DAAD Funding.

2011 THE ILLEGAL ARCHITECT/Film Score Composition/Directed by Igea Troiani with Carytid Films.

2011 OVERLAID REALITIES/Cybernetic Installation/Peninsula Arts in association with Plymouth City Museum.

2010 VECTION BUILDER/ARTIST RESIDENCY/Roman Baths, Bath/Cybernetic Performance.

2010 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS LONDON/ARCHITECURE SUMMER SHOW.

2009 THE LONDON GROUP/Menier Gallery, London/Exhibition.

2007 THE LONDON GROUP/Menier Gallery, London/Exhibition.

2007 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS LONDON/ARCHITECURE SUMMER SHOW.

2005 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS LONDON/ARCHITECURE SUMMER SHOW.

2004 ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS LONDON/ARCHITECURE SUMMER SHOW.

2004 JURASSIC CHALLENGE/WORLD HERITAGE COMMISSION/UK/Exhibition/Arts Council funding.

2001 HYPERACTIVE/The Year of the Artist Residency/Prema Arts Centre, Uley/Arts Council funding.

Research Groups:

Architecture Research Area

I-DAT

CogNovo: Investigator, funded by the EU Marie Curie initiative and Plymouth University.

Transtechnology Research

Estranged Space (founding member, pan - university).

Perception Network (pan - European).

Research groups

Other research

2012. Perception of space & cybernetics in collaboration with PerceptionLab (Germany), host site: The Roman Baths, Bath.

2012. Mapping perception, host site: USAAF Dunkeswell.
2011. Multi-modal space typologies, host site: ARP bunker, Plymouth.
2010. Estranged Space, interdisciplinary research group: Founding member.
2007. Karlheinz Stockhausen, Interpretation & Composition.

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

2015-2019: Birgitte Aga, Second Supervisor.

2013-2019: PI on the €4.1 million EU Marie Curie Project 'Cognovo', which explored Cognitive Innovation from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Grants & contracts

Art and Culture Promotion Fund, Arts Council Tokyo (Open State), 2015.

Arts Council (Etch), 2015.

R1A funding to present paper: Pathological Space: Trauma and the matrix of cognition, 2014, Berlin.

R1A funding to present paper: Hyper Vigilant Spatial Practice, (Architectural Humanities Research Association).

R1S Funding for research sabbatical (Artist Residency Roman Baths).

R1A funding to present paper: eCAADe 2011 Respecting Fragile Places, Ljubljana.

R1A funding to attend Karlheinze Stockausen Composition & Interpretation Course.

R1A funding for transportation of work to London Group exhibition.

Creative practice & artistic projects

'15: Gerhard Richter, Artist Rooms Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery.

'13: 'Asynchronous Perception" Installation Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
'12: "180 Degrees of Trauma" Installation Bundeswehrkrankenhaus, Germany.

'11-13: "The Illegal Architect" film score music composition.

'11: "The Cabinet" Peninsula Arts, Plymouth.

'10: Artist Residency, The Roman Baths, Bath

'10: Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, Architecture.

'09: The London Group, Menier Gallery, London.

’07: The London Group, Menier Gallery, London.
’07: Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, Architecture.
’05: Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, Architecture.
’04: Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, Architecture.
'04: World Heritage Commission: Jurassic Challenge.
'01: Year of The Artist residency: 'Hyperactive', Prema Arts Centre.

Architectural competitions:
’04: The New Architecture Foundation Building, London.
‘02: The Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt.

Publications

Journals

Papers

· Bodies Insufficiently Fresh. Paper presented at Anthropocenes (Reworking the Wound), European Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSAeu), Katowice, Poland, 2020.

• ‘Pulsating Hennig Brand’s Condensate’. In: The Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference at the Intersection Between Art, Science and Culture: The Atemporal Image. 1st-3rd July 2016, Plymouth University.

• ‘Open State’. In: Off The Lip, Transdisciplinary Approaches to Cognitive Innovation, pp. 51–70, 2015.

• ‘Pathological Space: Trauma and the Matrix of Cognition’, Health Care of the Future 5, Academy of Arts, Berlin (Technische Universität), 2014.

• ‘Hyper Vigilant Spatial Practice: an investigation of perception as an extended architectural parameter’, The 10th international conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association, UWE, 2013.

• ‘I was a disembodied brain poised in space: Space cognition and immersive agency’, Plymouth University, 2013.

• ‘Acquisition of reality: perception as reflexive architecture’, Oxford Brookes University, 2012.

• Estranged Space: research methodologies, 2012. Germany.

• eCAADe 2011 Respecting Fragile Places, 2011. Ljubljana.

• Architectural Association: Design Ecologies Symposium, 2011. London.

• ADAD Advanced Digital Architectural Design: Towards a New Mobility, 2010 International Summer school, Germany.

• Plymouth University: Hidden City, 2008. Plymouth.

• Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Intervention interaction, 2007.

Chapters

Publications

· Emmett, M. (2022). Book chapter “Multi-Dimensional Architecture: Audio-visual devices” in Redefining Architectural Scholarship through Visual Methodologies, Intellect Ltd.

• Emmett, M. (2018). Book chapter "Event Spaces of Infinite Perspective" in Digital Echoes: Spaces for Intangible and Performance-based Cultural Heritage, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

• Emmett, M. (2014). ‘Pathological Space: Trauma and the matrix of cognition’. In: Nickl-Weller, C. and Matthys. S. ed. Health Care der Zukunft 5. Medizinisch Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.

• Emmett, M., Littlefield, D. (2013). Perception of Space in Architecture and Culture: Study of Industrial Ruins, pp. 100–107 and pp. 176–193.

• Emmett, M. (2013). Felt_space infrastructure: hyper vigilant spatiality to valence the visceral dimension. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Thesis. Plymouth University.

• Emmett, M. (2011). ‘Bunker auscultation: A classification system for a proto-method of sensory space composition’, Design Ecologies, 1(2), pp. 287–303.

• Jencks, C., (2011). The Universe in the Landscape: Landforms by Charles Jencks. London: Frances Lincoln Ltd.

• Zupancic, T., Juvancic, M., Verovsek, S. and Jutraz, A., eds. (2011). ‘Respecting Fragile Places’, Tadeja. eCAADe, pp. 261–268.

• Hemmerling, M., ed. (2011). ‘Body Purge’, Augmented Reality: Mensch, Raum und Virtualitat. Germany: Fink Wilhelm GmbH (PerceptionLab No. 1), pp. 43–50.

• Jones, W., ed. (2011). ‘The Minutiae of Space’, Architects’ Sketchbooks. London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 135–137.

• Hemmerling, M., ed. (2010). ‘Digital Frisson’, Advanced Digital Architectural Design (ADAD), Germany: Produktion, Detmold, pp.34–45.

• Littlefield, D., ed. (2008). ‘Contemporary Digital Design’, Space Craft: Developments in Architectural Computing. London: RIBA Publishing, pp. 84–89.

• Littlefield, D. and Lewis, S. (2007). ‘Soundscape of 2 Marsham Street’, Architectural Voices: Listening to Old Buildings. West Sussex: Wiley-Academy, pp. 204–207.

• Emmett, M. (2005). ‘Revelation’, Building Design, 18 February (1661), pp. 27.

• Emmett, M. (2004). ‘Image Conscious’, Building Design, 16 July 2004 (1634).

• Jencks, C., (2003). The Garden of Cosmic Speculation. London: Frances Lincoln Ltd.

• Jencks, C., (2002). The New Paradigm in Architecture: The Language of Post-modernism. London: Frances Lincoln Ltd.

• Emmett, M., (2002). ‘Scaling the Pyramid’, The Great Egyptian Museum Giza. London: RIBA Journal, pp.25–28.

Performances

2020 SHAME, AV performance (film and electronic sound scape), Mars & Beyond Immersive Event, Oxo Tower Wharf, London.

2018 CHARLES DARWIN/The Atlantic Project/Audiovisual Performance with Eberhard Kranemann/The Millenium Building.

2018 SPACE INTERFACE III/The Atlantic Project/360 Video and Sound with Eberhard Kranemann/Immersive Vision Theatre/University of Plymouth.

2018 DOUBLE SKIN/Lauren Baker Gallery, Covent Garden, London. Audiovisual Performance with Kinetica for The Invisible Realm.

2016 SPACE INTERFACE II/KARST Gallery/Plymouth/UK/Exhibition and Audiovisual Art Performance with Eberhard Kranemann. Courtesy Weithorn Galerie.

2016 SPACE INTERFACE II/i-DAT – Emmett/Kranemann/Philips/Christison – 360 Immersive Performance/The Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT), Plymouth/UK/Courtesy Weithorn Galerie.

2016 THIS IS WHERE WE ARE/Tate Modern, London in collaboration with i-DAT for the opening of The Blavatnik Building.

2016 SENDER/RECEIVER/Tate Modern, London/The Blavatnik Building/Interactive Sound Performance.

2016 PULSATING HENNIG BRAND’S CONDENSATE/Lichtturm Solingen, Düsseldorf/ Dinnebier Licht GmbH/Signal Transduction – Video Sound Art Performance in collaboration with Eberhard Kranemann.

Exhibitions