It has been so wonderful to see PGRs taking the initiative to develop a more collaborative research culture at our beloved WSA. Having a safe space and the opportunity to learn from each other and explore and challenge our ideas are very valuable for developing our competencies as researchers as well as for our own research.
This time, we would like to acknowledge David Birks, who has been working very passionately to present us with PhD crits. PhD Crits is a regular (biweekly) 2-hour workshop where a practice-led and a theory-based PGR from different stages of the research process (early, mid, and final) present their art/design research process and findings to gain action-orientated feedback from fellow PGRs and experts, such as Stephen Cornford and Megen de Bruin-Molé.
The structure of the workshop is specifically designed to facilitate a positive and critical peer learning environment to help both the presenters and participants be more aware and appreciative of each other’s research, to be comfortable in raising questions and answering them, and to learn more about various research philosophies/methodologies, approaches/methods, analyses, and effective ways to present our research. To facilitate effective engagement, this workshop will be an on-site and PGR-only event.
Therefore, we would like to encourage all WSA PGRs who live in and outside of Winchester to come and attend these events in person. Furthermore, we would love to have fellow PGRs that share similar research topics or approaches with the speakers to come and actively engage in the open dialogue sessions to co-create a productive workshop.
The PhD Crits will be a valuable complement to our regular Wednesday PhD Sessions, WriteLab, Design Research Methodologies and Methods, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration Working Group.
It is with great pleasure that we invite you to attend the launch of the 1st WSA PhD Crits that will be held on:
Date    : 28th October 2025
Time    : 1 to 3 PM
Venue   : Right-hand Installation Space (back end of the Sculpture Studio)
Introducing our speakers:
- Weigan Zhang [Practice-based research]
PhD research title: “An Artistic, Practice-Based Inquiry into Digital Memorialisation:Visual Reality as an Empty Machine for Reshaping Memory and Mourning”
Supervisors: Dr Alexandra Anikina, Dr Emma Reay and Prof Seth Giddings and Dr Ruohan Tang.
Abstract:
This study explores how VR can function as an ethical and reflective medium for digital memorialisation. In response to the rise of the “digital afterlife” industry, the project proposes the concept of the Empty Machine—treating VR as an open, participatory field for co-creating meaning around loss and memory. Through research-creation and participatory co-design, I’m developing a speculative VR prototype that invites users to navigate fragmented, polyphonic memories, fostering reflection and dialogue rather than simulation.
- Li Xu (Visiting Postgraduate Research Student from China) [Theory-based research]
PhD research title: “The Afterlife of Nucleic Acid Testing Booths: Assembling Post-Pandemic Urban Infrastructure”
Supervisors: Jussi Parikka and Ryan Bishop
Abstract:
This article examines the lifecycle of nucleic acid testing booths in China, a form of data infrastructure that became ubiquitous during the COVID-19 pandemic. While scholarship has addressed datafication and the politics of pandemic control, the material afterlife of such infrastructures — particularly their abandonment and reuse — remains underexplored. Drawing on fieldwork in Wuhan between December 2023 and September 2025, this study traces how these booths underwent territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization as public health policies shifted. Using assemblage theory and infrastructure studies, it conceptualizes the booths as a case of post-pandemic infrastructural adaptation that reveals the volatility and plasticity of short-cycle urban systems. Once integral to data collection and pandemic governance, the booths were rapidly decommissioned, generating both spatial friction and infrastructural waste. Yet many were reassembled into community kiosks and other shared facilities through grassroots initiatives. This reterritorialization highlights the agency of local actors who reconfigured abandoned digital infrastructures to meet evolving socio-spatial needs. The study advances urban theory by foregrounding the afterlife of temporary infrastructures, contributing to debates on urban resilience, waste politics, and community governance in post-pandemic cities.