Drawing Research Forum 2025/26 Sessions – Part 2

The session will feature presentations and a plenary discussion with artists examining diverse themes, and utilising and developing current discourse around contemporary drawing.  The Drawing Research Forum provides a space for knowledge exchange between disciplines, encourages cross-fertilization of ideas and methodology, and fosters collaborations between artists and researchers.

Presentations include:

• Max Cooper-Clark –Pits and Pansies: Drawing as Social Geology in Toxic Mining Landscapes
• Joanne Berry-Frith – A Framework for Action and Reflection: Using Play to Understand Relationships between Art Practice and Life Science
• Christian Petersen –

View full programme here

Biographies:

Max Cooper-Clark is an artist, researcher and writer from the North East of England whose work explores the intersections of art, ecology, architecture and extractivism. Through site-responsive installations, drawings and collaborative performances, his practice reimagines post-industrial terrains as spaces for collective futures. His drawing-based work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Design Museum, BASE Milano and Hangar CIA Lisbon. His research has been published in the Landscape Research Journal, Journal of Architectural Education, and by the Royal Institute of British Architects, which also awarded him the 2025 prize for Best Architectural Drawing. Max holds a Master’s in Architecture from the Royal College of Art and an MA (Cantab) from the University of Cambridge, where he has also taught as a visiting lecturer. He is currently Design and Research Lead of the Turner Prize-nominated collective Cooking Sections, creating a garden with the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, and teaching on the Spatial Practices programme at Central Saint Martins.

Joanne Berry-Frith – as well as conducting practice-based research I exhibit regularly throughout the Country and Internationally with pieces in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Arts Council England Collections, Nottingham University Medical School and Zeiss Microscopy Labs,Munich, Germany. My project ‘Hijacking Natural Systems’ was funded by Wellcome Trust, ACE, Derby City Council and Derby Museum & Arts Gallery (2012). This successful project was nominated by Nottingham University for The Times Higher Education Award and cited by the Wellcome Trust as an exemplar of a successful Arts and Engagement project. Artwork from this project was featured in the BBC4 TV series The Beauty of Anatomy (2014, 2017) presented by Dr Adam Rutherford. Residencies include Florence Trust, London, Natural History Museum, London.

Elin Eyborg is an architect, performance maker, and researcher from Copenhagen, based between London and Norwich. She trained at The Royal Danish Academy (2011) and Goldsmiths (MA Performance Making, 2015) and has worked at practices including Foster + Partners and Ab Rogers Design. She is a PhD candidate at The Bartlett (UCL), where her research develops methodologies through her practice P-Arc Agency, using performance to explore what environments and materials demand of the human body. Alongside her research, she teaches at Greenwich, The Bartlett, Norwich University of the Arts, and the Royal College of Art. Her practice also spans exhibitions, book editing, and archival work with architect Sir Peter Cook.

Christian Petersen is a visual communication designer, researcher, and illustration lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts, where he is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD on post-studio design practices. The Dane holds an MFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design (Sweden) and also trained at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (UAL). He is the author of several graphic novels, including the award-winning, climate-critical Efter København (2022). Christian’s research interests include design ethnography, critical design, visual communication, and design prototyping. He has recently been involved in bringing Sir Peter Cook’s ‘Wonder Hub’ to Norwich University of the Arts.