Research

Karl is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Material Culture at the University Professors Program at Boston University. His research interests revolve around the interplay of apparel design and a community's self-image. In his doctoral dissertation he examines the state and nature of national dress in Iceland.

Teacher

Karl will be a Teaching Fellow at the University of Rhode Island's Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design in the school year of 2010-2011. He will lecture on the Development of Contemporary Fashion (TMD 240) and chair the Textiles and Clothing Seminar (TMD 402) in addition to his current teaching schedule: Apparel Design (TMD 327) (from '96), and Portfolios and Presentations (TMD 427)  (from '98).

Karl has taught art, design and CAD since 1991. In 1994, he was commissioned to create, and head for its initial year, a Department of Industrial Design at The Reykjavik Technical College in Iceland, where he taught a number of design related courses from '91-'96. He has also taught Apparel Design ('96-'00) and An Introduction to Illustration and Design for Apparel  ('04) at the Rhode Island School of Design's Department of Continuing Education.

Artist/ Designer

Karl worked as an artist and designer since graduating with a degree in 3d Design (Theater) from the Wimbledon School of Art in London in 1986, until entering a PhD program at Boston University in 2007. As a designer, his credits include over 40 theatrical productions, 4 films and numerous other commissions. This has involved sets and costumes, couture, exhibitions, graphic design, murals, lighting, installations, art direction and production design.

Art, Design and Computing

Karl designed for - and collaborated with - the artist Brower Hatcher at the Mid-Ocean Studio in Providence, Rhode Island, from 2001 to 2008. In his collaborative efforts with Brower he focused on researching cellular automata and natural morphology with a view to applying these to the formation of artwork. Karl also developed algorithms and other computerized methods for the auto-generation of structural forms obeying organic principles. As a result Karl was the liaison between the Mid-Ocean studio and Brown University’s SHAPE Lab, a multidisciplinary project supported by Brown and the National Science Foundation. This collaboration focused on the development of biomimetic sculpture.

Publications

Fashioning Society: One hundred years of haute couture by six designers

On the interplay of high fashion, politics and society. Published by Fairchild Books, New York, 2010

More information from the publisher here

Here on Amazon.com

The Design Process, 2 ed.

A cross-disciplinary design textbook, introducing the process and methods of design. First published in 2006, the second edition was published by Fairchild Books, New York in 2010.

More information from the publisher here.

Here on Amazon.com

Computational Schemes for Biomimetic Sculpture

B. Hatcher, K. Aspelund, F. F. Leymarie, A. Willis, J. Speicher, D. B. Cooper,  5th Int. Conf. on Creativity & Cognition, ACM, London, April 2005. The conference was hosted at Goldsmiths College in London, by The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.