Anthony Wagner-Vepsä

Lecturer in Design and Gender Studies.
Programme coordinator BfA Design +Change, Växjö

Studied Visual Media Design - Video at the University of Art and Design (Linz, Austria). PhD in Cultural Studies, on transgender, monsters and film at the Academy of Fine Arts (Vienna, Austria). Postdoc research on "subversive design" with a focus on trans masculine clothing at Linnaeus University.
Research interests: transgender people, monsters, somatechnics, disability and crip theory, metadesign, inclusive design, participatory design, and norm-creativity.

Teaching

Social Sciences
1GV075 Introduction to Transgender Studies (distance course)
(2016-ongoing)
1GV100 Genusvetenskapligt fortsättingskurs (2019)

BA Design
Design + Change programme
1DI370 Design Practice: Gender and Norms
(2017-2021)
1DI170 Sustainability and creativity (2017)
1DI176 Design Tools: 2D Design (2022)
1DI176 Design Tools: 3D Design (2022)
1DI376 Design Practice: Gender and Norms (2022)
2DI576 Futures: The State of things (2022)
2DI576 Futures: Independent project (2022)

Visual Communication +Change programme
1DI380 Module 4: Infographics 4 - Chaos (2019)

MA Design
4DI173 Design processes and the complexity of sustainability: Sustainability and artistic articulation (2019)
4DI174 Design processes and the complexity of sustainability: Sustainability and design (2019)
4DI171 Design Processes and the complexity of sustainability: Suastainability and explorative methods (2020-2021)
4DI172 Design Processes and the complexity of sustainability: Suastainability and Design Theory (2020-2021)
4DI173 Design Processes and the complexity of sustainability: Suastainability and artisatic articulation (2020-2021)
4DI174 Design Processes and the complexity of sustainability: Suastainability and Design (2020-2021)
4DI271 Emerging Design Disciplines and Norm Creativity: Design Theory (2020)
4DI274 Emerging Design Disciplines and Norm Creativity: Articulation

Research

Anthony is researching what he/they/hen calls "subversive design". The term subversive design refers to norm-creative practices of resistance against hegemonic narratives and visibilities connected to normative bodies and lives. Designers are required to produce designs that can be manufactured for, used by, or applied to a majority of people and this excludes a significant number of end-users, often unintentionally. Whether it is heteronormative ideas of binary sex and procreative sexuality, ableist ideas of normative bodies, or other assumptions about the human, someone is regularly excluded. Thus, design frequently fails to satisfy the needs of overlooked, often non-normative end-users (extreme users). However, since design does not attain its finished state before it is used by the end-users, subversive design happens every time when end-users modify and re-define designs norm creatively or introduce new solutions to accommodate their own needs. Anthony´s research focuses subversive design in transmasculine clothing strategies - specifically binders. Anthony´s current project, the Trans Fashion Project, is conducted in cooperation with ABF Malmö and a group of trans collaborators.

Project participation:

CRKKL - Circular economy in Kronoberg and Kalmar County, CRKKL is a project co-financed by the ERUF and carried out in collaboration with the Linnaeus University, and in close cooperation with the Regional Association of Kalmar County, Energy Office Southeast and Sustainable Småland (2019-21).

NKI SHS – Norm Creative Innovation in Smart Housing Småland, (VINOVA financed project of Träcentrum, RISE and Linnéuniversitetet; 2018).

Commissions

Programme Coordinator Design +Change Bachelor programme (since 2021)