Dr Kamini Vellodi will join the Royal College of Art (RCA) in April 2024 as Head of Programme for MA Painting within the School of Arts & Humanities. The programme embraces painting’s rich material and conceptual history and its potential in the 21st century through shared practices, research, and a collaborative culture engaging with current global issues.
Dr Samantha Moore has been appointed as Head of Programme for MA Animation within the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art. The programme cultivates critical thinking to examine social and cultural issues by embracing experimentation and creativity, and is renowned for its artistic excellence, director-led approach and innovative risk-taking.
Dr Kamini Vellodi joins the RCA from Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, where she is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Theory and History of Art, and Director of Research. An alumnus of the RCA Painting programme, she completed her PhD in Philosophy from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, in 2012.
“It is a privilege to take up the headship of a programme that was so formative for my own career, and at a time when painting is enjoying prominence on the global stage. From the recent ascendency of figuration in transnational contexts to its embrace of new technologies, painting today is forging exciting directions that testify to its enduring potential to capture vital dimensions of human experience. I am greatly looking forward to working with the talented staff and students of this esteemed programme to maximise these opportunities and continue to produce artists and thinkers of the very highest calibre. I will look to drive an ambitious research culture that affirms painting’s place alongside the other arts and humanities as a significant contributor to contemporary culture and discourse.”
Dr Kamini Vellodi
Kamini researches and publishes extensively in the fields of modern and contemporary European philosophy and critical theory, philosophies of art, theories and critical historiographies of art history, contemporary visual arts and theories of the image. Recent books include ‘Tintoretto’s Difference: Deleuze, Diagrammatics and Art History’ (Bloomsbury, 2019), and ‘Grey on Grey. At the Threshold of Philosophy and Art’ (Edinburgh University Press 2023), and she is Series Editor of ‘Refractions. At the Borders of Art History and Philosophy’ (Edinburgh University Press).
Kamini has held senior academic roles and taught widely across departments of fine art practice, art history, visual culture and philosophy, nationally and internationally, and has been a visiting fellow/faculty at universities around the world including the University of California at Berkeley and Parsons School of Design.
Her work across teaching, research and leadership brings together a commitment to the interfaces of theory, history, and practice, to painting as a mode of thinking and to nurturing practice research cultures.
I’m delighted to be welcoming Dr Kamini Vellodi to the Royal College of Art in 2024 as Head of Programme of the College’s world-leading Painting MA programme. Dr Vellodi’s background is fascinating: a practising painter (alumna RCA 2005), she combines her own experiences as an artist with her research interests in such old Masters as Tintoretto and contemporary European philosophy. I know that she will be an extremely stimulating mentor for her students and faculty colleagues across the entire
Dr Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor, Royal College of Art,
RCA.
Formerly Senior Tutor (Research) in Animation at the Royal College of Art since 2021, Dr Samantha Moore is an animator and researcher with an interest in documentary, science, and practice as research.
I am delighted to lead RCA Animation, after having worked as Senior Tutor on the programme with Professor Suzanne Buchan for two years.
I look forward to consolidating development in this vibrant and exciting form, where the only constant
Dr Samantha Moore
is interdisciplinary curiosity, and the wide-ranging nature and impact of the animated outcome.
Animation may provide singular perspectives but it is essentially collaborative. Together with an
amazing team of internationally recognised and artistically engaged staff – tutors, technicians and
guest speakers – I want to create an inclusive and diverse educational space where students can
transform their research-led studio-based practice.
Samantha’s research and practice use animation to document the invisible, particularly in scientific arenas. Samantha’s PhD explored how animation can document perceptual brain states, with a collaboratively ethnographic methodology.Cross-disciplinary collaborative practice is vital to her work, and she has worked with a diverse cohort of peers including micro-biologists, neuro-psychologists, multiple birth medical professionals, textile artisans, and archaeologists. Samantha is passionate about the correlation between practice and research in animation with an interest in all aspects of expanded animation, from cinema-based features and independent short films, through music videos, to interstitials, installation work, VR/AR, games, medical imaging and data visualisation. Samantha directed the short animated documentary ‘Visible Mending’ about emotional repair through wool, which has been longlisted for the British Short Animation award for the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards.
I’m delighted to announce that Dr Samantha Moore will be Head of Programme on the Royal College of Art’s world-leading Animation MA programme. Dr Moore has made a significant contribution to the College since joining as Senior Tutor (Research) in 2021 and her expertise, research focus and cross-disciplinary collaborative practice will be an asset to our students in both the School of Communication and the RCA as a whole.
Dr Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor, Royal College of Art,
In addition to her role at the RCA, she is an Associate Professor in Animation at University College Volda, Norway, and co-editor of Animation Practice, Process & Production, Intellect Press Journal, with Dr Miriam Harris (Auckland University of Technology).
