Jonathan Ventura

Jonathan Ventura is currently researching the multilayered world of the industrial designer, focusing on medical and social design vis-à-vis applied anthropology. He is a visiting research fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He has completed a post-doctorate at the RCA and presented his PhD dealing with anthropological dimensions of industrial design, in a joint program of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (the Department of Sociology and Anthropology) and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem (the Department of Industrial Design).

He teaches at the Department of Inclusive Design at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem and at the Design Graduate Program at Shenkar College in Ramat Gan. Jonathan focuses mainly on social and medical design, design theories and methodologies, theories of space and urbanity, visual and material culture and applied anthropology.

Titles. Here is an especially provocative one that brings the mountainous weight of literary theory to material culture: ‘I Just Cut my Finger in a Ninja Fight: The Semiotics and Hermeneutics of the Band-Aid’ Jonathan Ventura and Galit Shvo. More articles are listed on his Academia page: hadassah.academia.edu/JonathanVentura and below in his cv.

Jonathan Ventura, curriculum vitae

Education

Post Doctorate: Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art London UK (10/2013)

PhD: Design Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (6/2012)

M.A: Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (6/2008, cum laude)

B.A: Anthropology and History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (4/2006)

Employment

2016 – Teacher: Design Graduate Program, Shenkar Academy of Engineering and Design

2014 - Senior lecturer (with tenure): Department of Inclusive Design, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem

2013 - Visiting research fellow: Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art London

2011-2018 - Teacher: Department of Architecture and the MA program of urban design Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design

2006 - Teacher part-time: Department of Inclusive Design, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem (tenure from September 2014)

2006-2017 - Teacher part-time: Department of Sociology, Communication and Political Science, The Open University

Present Research and Development

2018 - Deputy Head of Internationalization at Hadassah Academic College.

2018 - Design as material language & improvisation in healthcare design

2017 - Developing a research frame leading into various outlines of design theories vis-à-vis design as a hermeneutic platform and a visual-material language system.

2017 - Developing an academic network focusing on social and healthcare design, comprising of the Department of Inclusive Design at Hadassah Academic College, MOME Academy of Design Budapest Hungary and Iceland Academy of the Arts Reykjavik.

2017 - Developing an online course titled “design theories” as part of the edX platform (MOOC courses) at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design with Dr. Lee Weinberg and Dr. Pablo Outin.

2016 - Developing theoretical, applied and historical research focusing on social-material aspects of medical products. This venue includes various researches ranging from prosthetics (with Galit Shvo from Hadassah Academic College), the design of hospitals (with Noa Apple from Bezalel) through material medical history (with Gal Ventura from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) to historical and methodological aspects of design (with Kenny Segal from Hadassah Academic College).

2015 - Creating and developing a design studio and R&D research institute based at Hadassah hospital focusing on healthcare design, with the collaboration of HELIX (UK) and Hadassah Hospital Rehabilitation Unit. This research institute is run in collaboration with Ifat Keinan and Hadassah medical staff. Recently (early 2017) the research institute has begun a process of endorsement by the CEO of Hadassah hospital.

2015 - Researching applied inclusive healthcare in collaboration with Hadassah hospital (the rehabilitation ward) and other medical institutes in Jerusalem.

2015 - Developing and outlining a new R&D research institute titled "Hadassah Design Research Institute" focusing on inclusive medical healthcare

2015 - Academic manager of "Urban Lights" international conference (June 2015, Jerusalem)

2014-2015 Tempus research focusing on academy-community collaborations (joint project of BGU, Tel Hay U, IDC Herzliya, Brno University, University of Santiago de Compostela and Brighton University

2014 - Research focusing on applied anthropology and its implications to health professionals

2014 - A book on the feeding bottle from a multidiscipline approach (history and design)

2014 - A book on urban design and ethnographic boundaries: researching various ways in which social communities create physical boundaries to exclude the larger social reality (interdisciplinary approach: urban design and anthropology)

Other Activities

June 2019 Co-curator, Hadassah Academic College pavilion at the Jerusalem Design Week.

February 2019 Curator: the theoretical outline of the Jam-Week at Shenkar focusing on design for inclusivity.

September 2018 Theory and research advisor to the Israeli pavilion at the 2018 London Design Biennale.

April 2018 Referee in the A’ Design Award, in the fields of social and healthcare design.

June 2017 Co-curator with Kenny Segal, the exhibition Cultural Islands: Local Interpretation of Japanese, African and American Cultures of Wood, as part of the 2017 Jerusalem Design Week

Grants & Awards

2018 Hadassah Academic College Excellence in Teaching Award

2017 Shenkar Scholarship for Excellence in Teaching Award

2017 Hadassah Academic College Excellence in Teaching Award

2016 Hadassah Academic College Excellence in Teaching Award

2015 Hadassah Academic College Excellence in Teaching Award

2011 Eshkol scholarship for outstanding PhD students

2010 Shein scholarship for outstanding PhD students

2007 Excellence in Teaching Award at the faculty of social sciences at the Hebrew University

2007-2011 Head of research team at Bar Ilan University focusing on identity creation (funded by the ISF)

2006 Shein scholarship for outstanding MA students

2006 The department of sociology and anthropology's scholarship for outstanding students

Publications

Peer reviewed papers

Ventura, Jonathan and Shahar, Dina. 2019. Three entries in the Bloomsbury Design Library (Bloomsbury Publishing): design for developing countries, design for medical rehabilitation, design education for social change.

Ventura, Jonathan, Keinan-Guy, Ifat and Adani, Renana. 2019. “Material Content Analysis: Analysing Improvisational Healthcare Design”. SAGE Datasets (SAGE publications).

Segal, Kenneth and Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. “From Material to Abstract: Contemporary Israeli Design Manifested through the Culture of Wood”. Israel Affairs 25(1): (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. "Applied Anthropology, Design and Architecture". In: Megamot: Interdisciplinary Journal of the Social Sciences. Harvey Goldberg and Chen Bram (guest eds.). Special issue on applied anthropology [In Hebrew].

Co-writing “The Lancaster Care Charter.” 2019. Design Issues 35 (1): 73-77. (MIT Press).

Ventura, Jonathan and Shvo, Galit. 2018. “I Just Cut my Finger in a Ninja Fight: The Semiotics and Hermeneutics of the Band-Aid”. Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics (special issue on design semiotics) 4(1): 179-201.

Dotan, S. Gideon and Ventura, Jonathan. 2018. “Reframing the Situation: Design for Life - Thinking beyond Inclusive Design”. The International Journal of Design in Society 12(3): 1-27.

Ventura, Jonathan and Keinan-Guy, Ifat. 2018. “Shadowing as a Central Research Method in Medical Design Anthropology”. SAGE Research Methods Cases (SAGE publications).

Ventura, Jonathan. 2018. Seven entries in the Bloomsbury Design Library (Bloomsbury Publishing): inclusive design, eyewear design, frugal design, design situation, design and ageing, hermeneutics and content analysis.

Ventura, Jonathan and Ventura, Gal. 2018. “From Classic Content Analysis to Multi-Faceted Design Research”. SAGE Research Methods Cases (SAGE publications).

Ventura, Jonathan and Gunn, Wendy. 2017. "Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Medical Design Anthropology, Improvisational Practices and Future Imaginings". Anthropology in Action 24(3): 45-55.

Ventura, Jonathan and Shvo, Galit. 2017. “Yellow as ‘Non-Black’: Prosthetics, Semiotics, Hermeneutics, Freedom and Function”. The Design Journal, 20:sup1, S4652-S4670. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Gal and Ventura, Jonathan. 2017. “Milk, Rubber, White-Coats and Glass: The History and Design of the Modern French Feeding-Bottle”. Design for Health, 1(1): 8-28 (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan and Shvo, Galit. 2017. “Interpreting Medical Design: Prosthetics, Semiotics, Hermeneutics, Freedom and Function”. Published digitally by the Holon Design Museum. [in Hebrew]

Ventura, Jonathan and Bichard, Jo Anne. (2017). “Design anthropology or anthropological design? Towards ‘Social Design’”. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 5(3-4), 222-234. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Yacobi, Haim, Ventura, Jonathan and Danzig, Sharon. 2016. "Walls, Enclaves and the [Counter] Politics of Design". Journal of Urban Design. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2016. "Uncanny Mechanics: Industrial Design and the Threatened Body". Design Philosophy Papers 13(1): 1-12. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan and Shvo, Galit. 2016. "Breaking the Language of Design: Semioclastics in the World of Industrial Design". International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 4(3-4): 222-233. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge) A Hebrew version of the above article was commissioned and published by the Design Museum Holon in 2016.

Ventura, Jonathan and Zusman, Shelly. 2015. "Suitcases, Vampires and other Demons: Metaphor and Critique as a Pedagogic Tool in the Design Studio." Bezalel Journal of Visual and Material Research no. 2 (April 2015). [in Hebrew]

Ventura, Jonathan and Ventura, Gal. 2015. "Exphrasis: Verbalizing Un-existing Objects in the World of Design". Design and Culture 7(2): 185-202. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Popper-Giveon, Ariela, Ventura, Jonathan and Abu-Rabia Atef. 2014. "From White Stone to Blue Bead: Materialized Beliefs and Sacred Beads among Bedouins in Israel". Material Religion 10(2): 132-153. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2013. "Industrial Design, Ethnography and Anthropological Thought". Anthropology in Action 20(1):31-41. (Berghahn Journals)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2013. "At The End of Fingers: The Threatened Body in Industrial Design". Protocollage 27 (Bezalel Online Articles)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2012. "Conflict and Strife on the Way to Gethsemane: Dimensions of Conflict, Strife and Communitas in a Marian Ritual in Israel". Israel Affairs 18(2): 234-247. (Taylor and Francis-Routledge)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2011. "The Industrial Designer as Mediator and Semiotic Translator". Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal 5(5):73-80.

Ventura, Jonathan. 2011. "Under the Flag of Blue and White: Mary as an A-National Symbol in the Greek-Orthodox Community in Israel". Sociology Mind 1(4):230-237.

Popper-Giveon, Ariela and Ventura, Jonathan. 2009. "Contesting the Future: The Case of Traditional Arab Women Healers in Israel" European Journal of Scientific Research 25(1):7-25.

Popper-Giveon, Ariela and Ventura, Jonathan. 2009. "Blood and Ink: Healing Practices in the Use of Traditional Palestinian Women Healers in Israel". Journal of Anthropological Research 65: 27-49. (University of Chicago Press)

Schachter, Elli and Ventura, Jonathan. 2008. "Identity Agents: Parents as Active and Reflective Participants in their Children's Identity Formation". Journal of Research on Adolescence 18(3):449-476. (Wiley)

Popper-Giveon, Ariela and Ventura Jonathan. 2008. "Claiming Power through Hardship: Initiation Narratives of Palestinian Traditional Women Healers in Israel". Social Science and Medicine 67(11):1807-1816. (Elsevier)

Books

Segal, Kenneth and Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. The History of Design. Tel-Aviv: Books in the Attic [in Hebrew].

Segal, Kenneth and Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. Touch Wood: Craft and Design in Three Major Wood Cultures. Champaign IL: Common Ground.

Danzig, Sharon, Ventura, Jonathan and Yacobi, Haim. 2017. The Designed Fortress. Tel-Aviv: Shenkar College of Engineering and Design & Hadassah Academic College [in Hebrew]. This book was part of the Israeli UN Habitat3 pavilion in October 2016 in Quito Ecuador

Segal, Kenneth and Ventura, Jonathan. 2016. From Lucy to Bernini: New Perspectives in Design. Champaign IL: Common Ground.

Ventura, Jonathan. 2014. Objects: Industrial Design in Israel. Tel-Aviv: Resling [in Hebrew].

Chapters in Books

Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. “Medicalization and Design”. In: Medicalization Exhibition Catalogue. Galit Svho (Ed.). Jerusalem: Hadassah Academic College.

Ventura, Jonathan. 2019. “Design, Fear and Ideology”. In: Exposed Nerves – London Design Biennale Israeli Pavilion Catalogue. Hila Shaltieli, Galit Gaon and Jonathan Ventura (eds.).

Ventura, Jonathan. 2018. “Just a Monobloc Chair? The Political Potential of Everyday Objects “. In: In Status Quo: Architectures of Negotiation. Ifat Finkelman, Deborah Pinto Fdeda, Oren Sagiv and Tania Coen-Uzzielli (eds.). Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, pp. 209-221. Part of the official catalogue of the Israeli Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Ventura, Jonathan and Shvo, Galit. 2016. “From the Native’s Point of View: Eyeglasses between Medicine and Design”. In: Maya Dvash (Ed.), Overview: Eyeglasses Design. Holon: Holon Design Museum.

Ventura, Jonathan. 2014. "In Motion from Evolution to Revolution: On Shoes, Teaching and Design". In: Thoughts about Shoes. Gal Ventura and Ory Bartal (Eds.). Tel-Aviv: Resling [In Hebrew]. Pp. 200-224. Tel Aviv: Resling and Bezalel

Ventura, Jonathan. 2014. "Applied Anthropology, Design and Architecture". In: Applied Anthropology. Harvey Goldberg and Chen Bram (Eds.). Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute [In Hebrew]. (accepted, forthcoming)

Ventura, Jonathan. 2013. "Color, Materials, Function and the Rest: How to Harness Visual and Material Culture to Better Understand Design Objects". In: Protocollage 2013, Writing the Visual: Visual Culture Methodologies. Dana Arieli-Horwitz, Ory Bartal and Naomi Meiri-Dan (Eds.). Pp. 178-205. Tel-Aviv: Resling [In Hebrew].

Ventura, Jonathan. 2010. "The Gethsemane Theotokos". In: Protocollage 2010. Naomi Meiri-Dan, Gal Ventura, Ben Baruch Blich and Dana Arieli-Horwitz (Eds.). Pp. 10-38. Tel-Aviv: Resling [In Hebrew].

Papers & Abstracts – Proceedings of Conferences

Ventura, Jonathan, Ifat Keinan-Guy and Renana Adani. 2018. “Visual and Material Slang: Improvisation and Healthcare Design.” Conference: Design4Health at Sheffield Halam University.

Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal. 2018 Issue, Executive Editor.

Ventura, Jonathan and Gunn, Wendy. 2015. "Medical design anthropology: Affects of product design processes within global health practices". Conference: Anthropology and global health: Interrogating Theory, Policy and Practice, At University of Sussex

Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal. 2011 Issue, Executive Editor.

Ventura, Jonathan. 2011. "A Designer at the Toy Shop: Industrial Design for Children". Paper written for www.ha-pinkas.co.il

Ventura, Jonathan. 2011. "An Anthropologist in the Studio: Teaching Anthropology for Designers". Paper written for www.untitled.co.il

Speaker

International Workshops

July 2019 Design Cares 2 at Chiba University Japan – What we Care about Design as a Discipline

April 2019 EU Erasmus+ Design theories as key for design practice at the Faculty of Arts and Research at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA)

May 2018 EU Erasmus+ Design anthropology as the multi-tool bridging theory and practice in design pedagogy at KISD (Köln International School of Design) Germany

January 2018 EU Erasmus+ Social design, healthcare and marginalized communities, at Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavik Iceland, co-presented with Dina Shahar

October 2017 DESFORM Eindhoven School of Design and TU Delft University The Netherlands - (the Power of) Design as an Act of Interpretation – co-presented with Galit Shvo

September 2017 Design Cares at Imagination Lancaster University UK - Redefining Care in Health-Care Design – co-presented with Dina Shahar

May 2017 EU ERASMUS+ mobility for faculty: A medical design applied anthropology workshop in collaboration with Moholy-Nagy University (MOME Z) in Budapest, Hungary

September 2014 University of Southern Denmark – "Design Anthropology Workshop", Kolding, Denmark

October 2013 Royal College of Art – "Design Anthropology Workshop” as part of the annual Cross RCA program.

June 2013 Royal College of Art – "Design Anthropology Workshop” with the collaboration of IDE.

Conferences and invited lectures

May 2019 “Back to ideology: The rise of social design”, Understanding Personal Values: Personality, Context and Culture, International Conference”, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

May 2019 “Bespoke Healthcare Design: Somaesthetics, Ideology and the Design Situation”, Design Culture and Somaesthetics Conference, MOMA Budapest, Hungary, co-presented with Dina Shahar.

February 2019 “Designing Cultural Objects: Cultural Design Anthropology as Innovation in the Classroom” at the CAA (College Art Association) 107th Annual Conference in New York, co-presented with Prof. Kenneth Segal.

November 2018 “Social Design Between Theory and Practice” at the Annual Conference of the Department of History and Philosophy of Design, Art and Technology at Shenkar – Engineering. Design. Art.

September 2018 “Visual and Material Slang: Improvisation and Healthcare Design” at Design4Health, Sheffield Halam University, Sheffield UK, co-presented with Ifat Keinan-Guy and Renana Adani.

July 2018 “Design Theory MOOC: Between Theory and Practice” (poster presentation) at the 16th IUCEL Conference focusing on Technological Imbued Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Jerusalem. Co-presented with Lee Weinberg.

March 2018 “Ideology and Frugal Design” at the BAU NOW International Conference of 100 Years to the Bauhaus, Alma Tel Aviv (with the cooperation of The Bauhaus Academy Dessau).

March 2018 “Reframing the Situation: Thinking Beyond Inclusive Design”. The Twelfth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices will at ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering, Barcelona, Spain, co-presented with Gideon Dotan.

November 2017 Social design workshop at the lab for social involvement at Shenkar – Engineering. Design. Art and Tel-Aviv Municipality, presented with Ifat Keinan.

November 2017 History, socio-cultural aspects and design of eyewear at the Optometry Department at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem, presented with Galit Shvo.

July 2017 “Through the Looking Glass: Medicine and Fashion in Eyewear Design” - Key lecture at the Frame Fashion Week in Sydney Australia, presented with Galit Shvo (via Skype)

June 2017 “Why do we Need Social Design and Educate Designers Differently”, Pecha Kucha cultural event through Jerusalem municipality and New Spirit (NGO)

April 2017 Design for NEXT – 12th EAD Conference, Rome (European Academy of Design). “Yellow as "Non-Black": Prosthetics, Semiotics, Hermeneutics, Freedom and Function", presented with Galit Shvo.

April 2017 From Romanticism through the Bauhaus towards Social Design, presented at The White City Bauhaus Center (NGO), Tel-Aviv

December 2016 Out of the Box (NGO) & Joint Israel – a workshop on social design for designers, government officials and policy makers, Tel-Aviv

September 2016 Design Museum Holon – Eyeglasses, between Theory and Practice (presented with Galit Shvo).

September 2016 ESA Porto Portugal (European Sociological Association) Arts and Creativity: Working on Identity and Difference – "Exphrasis: Verbalizing Unexisting Objects in the World of Design".

March 2016 Bezalel Design Graduate Program Conference, Jerusalem – Body and Design: "Between Semiotics and Hermeneutics: The Case of Prosthetics Design" (presented with Galit Shvo).

December 2015 Faculty seminar on design anthropology at the School of Design and Innovation, The College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Letzion.

September 2015 EASA (European Social Anthropologists) Medical Anthropology Network at Sussex University – "Medical design anthropology: affects of product design processes within Global Health practices" (presented with Wendy Gunn).

June 2015 City After Dark: Illuminating the Urban Nightscape (international conference) Jerusalem, with the collaboration of Bezalel, Jerusalem Municipality, UNESCO and the London School of Economics – chair of the academic committee

March 2015 Faculty seminar on design anthropology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel-Aviv University.

September 2014 University of Southern Denmark – Design Culture, Object, Discipline and Practice (conference): "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", Kolding Denmark.

August 2013 ESA (European Sociological Association) Turin – "The Industrial Designer at a Crossroad: an Educated Carpenter or a Social Agent?".

May 2013 Bezalel convention on interpretation and assessment of art – "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal: Art and Contemporary Interpretation and Vice Versa".

December 2012 Anthropological Knowledge: Relevance, Use and Potential, A Van Leer Institute Convention – "Object, Home and Neighborhood: And Where is the Person?".

February 2011 The Fifth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. "The Industrial Designer as Mediator and Semiotic Translator: Mediating Client's and User's Needs".

February 2010 Performances of Knowledge: Qualitative Research at the Crossroads, the 4th International Conference of Qualitative Research – "Interpretation, Dialogue and the 3D Text: Researching in an Industrial Design Studio".

September 2007 ESA (European Sociological Association) Glasgow – "Designing Anthropology: Using Qualitative Research Methods in the World of Industrial Designers".

May 2007 3rd Bezalel Convention, Right, Left and the Holy Spirit: Art, Religion and Politics – "The Theotokos Between Poetics and Politics: Marian Processions in the Greek-Orthodox Community in Israel".

May 2007 35th Israeli Anthropological Conference – "Between the Public and the Private: Dimensions of Secrecy in Greek-Orthodox Processions in Israel".

June 2006 34th Israeli Anthropological Conference – "Between Foreseeing the Future and Divining the Obscure: Traditional Arab Healers in Israel".

Sharon Danzig

Sharon Danzig is an industrial designer who has been engaged for more than 20 years in the development of unique products for public urban spaces and diverse hi-tech industries. His work has been acknowledged by several prestigious institutions by winning several prizes. Danzig has a cum laude MA in Industrial Design from the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. He served as a lecturer at the Industrial Design department at Bezalel, specializing in the area of research in the field of design.

Danzig has been researching the design field for many years, focusing in recent years on the study of diverse populations with distinct cultural and design characteristics, such as the Bedouin community, the Ethiopian community, and the ultra-Orthodox communities both in Jerusalem and Eastern Europe. He is the co-writer of Fortified Design (published in Hebrew), together with Jonathan Ventura and Haim Yacobi, a book focusing on the political role of urban design in the transformation of urban and rural, central and peripheral, formal and informal landscapes in Israel.