Lecturer in Creative Technologies
Dr Katherine (Katie) Rees is an academic and researcher; she joined the UCA Business School for Creative Industries in 2023 as a Lecturer in Creative Technologies.
Bio
Katie trained as a contemporary dancer and gained a Bachelor in Performing Arts: Dance with distinction in 1999 from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. She has worked in various roles within arts management (The Place, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Creative Lives) and dance education (Rambert, Royal Academy of Dance). More recently, she has lectured and assessed in higher education, working for The Royal Academy of Dance, Trinity College London, London College of Fashion and Rambert Dance School. In 2016 she was awarded the London College of Fashion and Studio Wayne McGregor PhD Award. Her PhD research focused on the use of digital touch as stimuli for the dance-making process, which led to the creation and use of three body-worn prototypes within two projects with student dancers and professional choreographers. Whilst studying at London College of Fashion, Katie was a student member of the Digital Anthropology Lab (DALab), Performing Dress: International Research Lab and Active Materials Research Group.
Katie is interested in developing her research to understand the role of creative technologies and selective entrainment in the creative process, the ethics of digital touch and wearable technologies, and the use of body-worn technology in health.
Research statement
Katie’s research specialisms are embodied, tangible and wearable technology, digital touch, multisensorial and multimodal experiences within the creative process and movement-based relationships with technology.
Research Outputs
Thesis:
- Rees, K. (2024). Body-worn technology, heightened awareness and habit. Performance Research, 28(8) – forthcoming.
- Rees, K. (2022). Somatosensory wearable technology in the dance making process, Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Arts London.
Journal articles:
- Rees, K. (2023). Using digital touch in the process of improvising and the implications for kinaesthesia. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 15(2), 213 – 229. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp_00110_1
- Rees, K. (2022). Improvising with digital touch. Multimodality & Society, 2(3), 247–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795221111279
Other:
- Rees, K. (2019). Digital touch, kinaesthetic awareness and the creative potential of the moving body. Available at: https://in-touch-digital.com/2019/02/12/digital-touch-kinaesthetic-awareness-and-the-creative-potential-of-the-moving-body/
- Association for Computer Machinery Member
- Royal Academy of Dance Member (RTS)
- London College of Fashion and Studio Wayne McGregor PhD studentship (2016-2020).
- Knowledge Exchange Project Funding (2023-2024). Embodiment and the Vagus Nerve (£5,000).