Role
Dr Kevin J. Hunt is Director of Doctoral Programmes (DDP) for Nottingham School of Art & Design (NSA&D), which includes overseeing doctoral candidate applications and progression. He works closely with Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) supervisors and the Associate Dean of Research (ADR) in Art & Design, as well as cross-School to support interdisciplinary research, and alongside NTU Doctoral School and fellow DDPs across NTU.
Kevin is Senior Lecturer in Culture & Context and a member of the Fashion & Textile Research Centre. His research relating to culture and the senses frequently draws upon the topological (transformative) thinking of philosopher Michel Serres. Kevin is part of the Sensory Studies research directory, which is an international network of researchers (hosted by the Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University): Research Directory – Sensory Studies
Kevin completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) with distinction and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
Kevin supervises PhD candidates in both Director of Studies and Co-Supervisory roles, including a cross-School NTU Studentship funded project in collaboration with the Connected Experiences Lab (CXL). His research interests align with NTU research strategies including health & wellbeing, social inclusion & community, and culture & creativity. In addition to connections with Design & Digital Arts, NSA&D, Kevin is associated with the Creative and Virtual Technologies Research Lab.
Career overview
Kevin previously studied and taught at the University of Nottingham in the School of American & Canadian Studies and the Institute of Film Studies. Prior to joining Nottingham School of Art & Design (NSA&D) he worked for a Literary, Film and Theatre Agency in Central London.
Research areas
Kevin’s research into culture and the senses draws significantly upon the philosophy of Michel Serres, including winning the 2023 Film-Philosophy annual article award for 'Michel Serres, Topology and Folded Time in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk'.
As part of his research, he writes about film, photography, painting, fashion and textile design as intersensory experiences and practices. His interests include mediality and the mediation of knowledge through bodily experiences and the lived environment, including how the body is affected by, and intersects with, technology and science. Kevin's research explores the ways creative practices share, communicate, and otherwise encourage intersensory engagement and understanding of different sensibilities and perspectives. His work supports socially inclusive thinking and being, as well as ecological awareness, and is frequently collaborative, working alongside colleagues, researchers, and external partners and practitioners.
Kevin received funding from the British Academy for the project ‘Learning Aesthetics from People who are Visually Impaired’, working collaboratively with My Sight Nottinghamshire exploring sensory aesthetics. The project included a collaborative pop-up exhibition at New Art Exchange, titled Sensing Beyond Sight: Sensing Beyond Sight | New Art Exchange | NAE
Kevin has run numerous knowledge exchange practice and sensory design workshops in collaboration with NTU colleagues and external partners, exploring areas such as sensory textile design and innovative/interpretive Audio Description (AD). These projects have been supported by funding from NTU Institute for Knowledge Exchange Practice (IKEP).
Kevin supervises doctoral research projects connected to his research interests.
External activity
Kevin has been collaborating with My Sight Nottinghamshire for a number of years, and more recently also with Nottingham Contemporary, exploring sensory design and innovative/interpretive Audio Description (AD).
Kevin took part in the AHRC funded Science in Culture workshops on 'The Lived Environment' at the Royal Society and the AHRC Knowledge Exchange in Design (KED) residencies, working with IDM Media film production company.
He was previously External Examiner for the Cultural and Historical Studies (CHS) module on the Graphic Design, Advertising, Illustration, Fashion Design, and Product Design courses at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) and for the equivalent cultural and contextual module for the MA Prosthetics and Sculpting, also at BNU, run in conjunction with Pinewood Studios.
Kevin has presented sensory studies research at the Uncommon Senses conferences in Montreal (hosted by the Centre for Sensory Studies at Concordia University), the Film-Philosophy conference in Espinho, Portugal, and at the 'Darkness' conferences in Svalbard, Norway, and Nuuk, Greenland, hosted by Island Dynamics. He has also presented related research at the Wellcome Trust in London, Domus Academy in Milan, and at the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) conferences hosted by Polimoda in Florence and Pearl Academy in Jaipur, India. Kevin has been part of collaborative workshops, symposiums and conferences, attending either in person or virtually, hosted by the Department of Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University in Sweden, Concordia University in Montreal, the Buffer Fringe Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus, and Nottingham Contemporary art gallery, as well as other national and international research events.
Kevin occasionally writes opinion pieces for The Conversation, including an article about eyes in Blade Runner 2049 that was republished in Scientific American. A short piece for The Conversation about the way David Bowie’s eyes formed part of his creative identity went viral following Bowie's death, and has been accessed online more than 2,500,000 times. The Bowie article has been republished nationally and internationally by outlets including The Independent, Mashable, The Cut (New York Magazine), and The New Zealand Herald. Kevin has also written articles and blog posts for Eye Magazine: The International Review of Graphic Design and Visual Culture and Huffington Post.
Kevin undertakes peer review for academic journals, including: Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies; International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education; Quarterly Review of Film & Video; Celebrity Studies; and Visual Communication.
Sponsors and collaborators
Kevin has been funded by the British Academy for a small research grant, as well as NTU IKEP for knowledge exchange practice projects, working with external partners My Sight Nottinghamshire and Nottingham Contemporary. He was also part of the AHRC funded Science in Culture networking and workshop events on 'The Lived Environment', hosted at the Royal Society, and the AHRC Knowledge Exchange in Design (KED) residencies.
Publications
Selected Publications
HUNT, K., (forthcoming). Finding sunbeams in the darkness: Michel Serres’s analogical thinking and the ethics of listening in The Zone of Interest. Film-Philosophy.
HUNT, K., 2024. Multiple knowledges and the non-human in Leviathan: Michel Serres and the power of creative practice. Senses of Cinema (109). Special Dossier on Film and the Non-human. ISSN 1443-4059
HUNT, K., 2024. Michel Serres’s sensorial philosophy and the importance of skin in Francis Bacon’s nudes. Body and Society. ISSN 1357-034X
HUNT, K.J., 2023. Inside and outside of vision and blindness: seeing within the mind’s eye and the inner darkness of aphantasia. Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, 50 (4), pp. 149-155. ISSN 0300-7472
HUNT, K.J., 2023. Noise, ecological crises, and the posthuman sensibility of Michel Serres in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. ISSN 1030-4312
HUNT, K., 2022. Michel Serres, topology and folded time in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk". Film-Philosophy, 26 (3), pp. 308-330. ISSN 1466-4615
HUNT, K. and HAMBLIN, F., 2020. 'Materials in motion': using film as a method for exploring material properties. In: L. CAMPBELL, ed., Leap into action: critical performative pedagogies in art & design education. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433166402
HUNT, K., 2018. ‘Eyes, Sight and the Senses on Fashion and in Film: Crossmodal Correspondences and Sensorial Empathy between Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000) and Johan Ku’s ‘Selma’ Collection s/s (2014)’, Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, Vol.22, Issue 1: pp.31-68.
HUNT, K., 2018. 'Hella Jongerius: Breathing Colour', The Senses and Society, Vol.13, Issue 2: pp.244-249.
HUNT, K., 2018. 'Systematic Play', Eye Magazine, No.95, Vol.24: pp.68-73.
HUNT, K., 2018. 'Follow the Glitch: how glitch art, shaky and unstable, can recalibrate our ways of seeing', Eye Magazine, April 2018.
HUNT, K., 2017. ‘Colour and Vision: Through the Eyes of Nature’, The Senses and Society, Vol.12, Issue 1: pp.113-118.
HUNT, K., 2016. 'Notes on Blindness: Sensory Cinema and the Beauty of Cognition', Huffington Post (11 July 2016).
HUNT, K., 2015. ‘The Eyes of David Bowie’ in Toija Cinque, Christopher Moore and Sean Redmond (eds) Enchanting David Bowie: Space/Time/Body/Memory, London and New York: Bloomsbury.
HUNT, K., 2015. 'Unexpected Beauty: Phillip D. Stearns discovers new images and patterns in the twisted glitches of digital media', Eye Magazine (4 Sept 2015).
HUNT, K., 2015. 'Adam Curtis's Bitter Lake: Clarity Through Collage', Flow: Online Journal of Television and Media Studies, Vol.21, Issue 5.
Press expertise
- Film / Media studies
- Sensory studies
- Cultural studies
- Michel Serres