Dr Bruna Petreca
- Reader in Human Experience and Materials
-
Materials Science Research Centre
Dr Bruna Petreca is Reader in Human Experience and Materials at the Materials Science Research Centre. She works in the integration of human experience into new areas of materials development: circular economy, digital environments, on-site/on-demand manufacture, human health and wellbeing. Currently, she leads ground-breaking research to deliver new circular fashion-textile experiences and innovative digital tools as the Consumer Experience strand lead in the UKRI Interdisciplinary Textiles Circularity Centre and as Co-I in the EPSRC Consumer Experience Digital Tools for Dematerialisation for the Circular Economy project.
As a Reader in Human Experience and Materials at the Materials Science Research Centre, Bruna leads a research portfolio that integrates human experience with emerging materials development in areas including the circular economy, digital environments, localised manufacturing, and human health and wellbeing. Building on her experience at a government research institute, she brings a unique applied research perspective to her work. She has an international research trajectory that has taken her from the IPT and Belas Artes University of São Paulo, through Delft University of Technology, to the RCA, where she has become an internationally recognised reference point in human experience and materials.
Bruna holds a PhD in Design Products from the RCA, undertook postdoctoral research at the Materials Experience Lab of the Delft University of Technology, and has a BA in Fashion and Textiles from the University of São Paulo.
As an educator, Bruna has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and developed several courses; her broad subject background in textiles and human-centred design, and specific knowledge in materials experience, creative technologies, and circular economy enriches her contribution to teaching programmes.
Bruna has led projects as principal and co-investigator with a focus on deepening our understanding of human wellbeing and the attributes of material interaction, fostering connections between people and their material experiences, and transforming design and usage practices. Her research has led to a robust portfolio of publications, including 29 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed academic outlets and a pipeline of papers close to submission.
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Practice
Through her research practice, Bruna has approached the human experience of materials to understand how people experience a particular material, focusing on human sensorimotor engagement; to stimulate novel material applications and new design research approaches, from this human sensory perspective; and to support the emerging design and consumer practices.
This experience has provided her with a set of skills and a research network that enables her to support the Materials Science Research Centre (MSRC) in a range of research on materials experience that includes the following:
- characterisation of experience – combining technical (objective testing) and experiential (subjective assessments) characterisation, to produce frameworks, models and methods that contribute to scientific rigour.
- elicitation of experience – through researching in-the-wild and/or applying human-centred design or phenomenology approaches, Bruna contributes to uncovering fine-grained aspects of the experience of materials, which can be applied to the development of tools.
- designing into experience – Bruna supports the MSRC in contributing new designs and/or design approaches that foster creativity.
Bruna works to weave together the design challenges that the MSRC is focused on (from invention to experience of materials), with her knowledge and experience on materials from technical, phenomenological, cultural, and design-practice perspectives. With these methodological approaches, technologies, and application, she supports the centre to conceptualise new research spaces, particularly towards transforming materials experience.
Research funding
Leadership training (Apr 2023-Oct 2024), UKRI Pathways Programme, Future Leader Fellows Development Network.
Co-Investigator and Co-Lead (2021-2024), Consumer Experience strand in the Textiles Circularity Centre, UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres Programme (EP/V011766/1).
Co-Investigator (2021-2024), Consumer Experience (CX) Digital Tools for Dematerialisation for the Circular Economy, UKRI Digital Economy Programme Sustainable Digital Society (EP/V042289/1).
International Collaborator (2021-2024), AI design tools for the designer and consumer, Intelligent Design System for Innovation Research Programme - AiDLab (Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design, by the Royal College of Art & Hong Kong Polytechnic University).
Principal Investigator (Jan-Apr 2024), Consumer Experience Scenario Building Toolkit, Royal College of Art Impact Fund, Supporting ECR Impact.
UK Principal Investigator (Oct-Dec 2023), Circular Fashion Experience, an event held as part of the Brasil Eco Fashion Week 2023 (7-9 December), São Paulo to host studies from the TCC Consumer Experience strand in Brazil. Funded by the British Council through the Circular Cultures program.
International Collaborator (Oct 2019-Oct 2022), A Brazil-UK Network for Natural Polymers derived from Local Food Industry By-Products, British Academy of Medical Sciences, GCRF Networking Grants (GCRFNGR4\1482), with University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Principal Investigator (July-Sept 2021), Radically Relational tools for experiencing New Materialities. Scoping project funded by the RCA RKEI Research Development Fund.
Principal Investigator (July-Sept 2021), Neo-Configurator: Design input tools for the fashion design process. Feasibility project funded by the RCA RKEI Research Development Fund.
Awards
Best concept or narrative in Human Centred Design, on the annual Human Prize Centred Design Institutes PhD research prize competition, Human Centred Design Institute (2013
Best poster presentation, IV ABEP-UK Conference (2013)
Current and recent projects
Co-Investigator and Co-Lead (2021-2024), Consumer Experience strand in the Textiles Circularity Centre, UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres Programme (EP/V011766/1).
Co-Investigator (2021-2024), Consumer Experience (CX) Digital Tools for Dematerialisation for the Circular Economy, UKRI Digital Economy Programme Sustainable Digital Society (EP/V042289/1).
International Collaborator (2021-2024), AI design tools for the designer and consumer, Intelligent Design System for Innovation Research Programme - AiDLab (Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design, by the Royal College of Art & Hong Kong Polytechnic University).
Principal Investigator (Jan-Apr 2024), Consumer Experience Scenario Building Toolkit, Royal College of Art Impact Fund, Supporting ECR Impact.
UK Principal Investigator (Oct-Dec 2023), Circular Fashion Experience, an event held as part of the Brasil Eco Fashion Week 2023 (7-9 December), São Paulo to host studies from the TCC Consumer Experience strand in Brazil. Funded by the British Council through the Circular Cultures program.
International Collaborator (Oct 2019-Oct 2022), A Brazil-UK Network for Natural Polymers derived from Local Food Industry By-Products, British Academy of Medical Sciences, GCRF Networking Grants (GCRFNGR4\1482), with University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Principal Investigator (July-Sept 2021), Radically Relational tools for experiencing New Materialities. Scoping project funded by the RCA RKEI Research Development Fund.
Principal Investigator (July-Sept 2021), Neo-Configurator: Design input tools for the fashion design process. Feasibility project funded by the RCA RKEI Research Development Fund.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
2024
Petreca, B., Tajadura-Jiménez, A., Vidal, L.T., O’Nascimento, R., Singh, A., 2024. 'Body x Materials @ CHI: Exploring the intersections of body and materiality in a full-day workshop.' Interactions Magazine.
Hernandez, L., Petreca, B., Baurley, S., Berthouze, N., Cho, Y., 2024. 'Examining clothing repair practices, core competences, techniques, tools and community structures involved in extending the life of garments.' International Journal of Sustainable Fashion & Textiles.
2023
Yu, C., Liu, Y., Petreca, B., Baurley, S. and Berthouze, N., 2023. T2GR2: Textile Touch Gesture Recognition with Graph Representation of EMG. In 2023 11th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Workshops and Demos (ACIIW) (pp. 1-5). IEEE Computer Society.
Olugbade, T; Lin, L; Sansoni, A; Warawita, N; Gan, Y; Wei, X; Petreca, B; Boccignone, G; Atkinson, D; Cho, Y; Baurley, S; Berthouze, N., 2023. FabricTouch: A Multimodal Fabric Assessment Touch Gesture Dataset to Slow Down Fast Fashion. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction. IEEE: Cambridge, MA, USA.
Xue, J., Petreca, B., Dawes, C., Obrist, M., 2023. FabTouch: A Tool to Enable Communication and Design of Tactile and Affective Fabric Experiences. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2023.
Petreca, B., Tajadura-Jimenéz, A., Turmo Vidal, L., O. Nascimento,R., Seifi, H., Ley-Flores, J., Singh, A., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Obrist, M., and Baurley, S., 2023. Body x Materials: A workshop exploring the role of material-enabled body-based multisensory experiences. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23), April 23–28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages.
2022
Rognoli, V., Petreca, B., Pollini, B., Saito, C., 2022. Materials Biography as a tool for designer exploration of biobased and biofabricated materials for the sustainable fashion industry. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy.
Petreca, B., Baurley, S., Hesseldahl, K., Pollmann, A., Obrist, M., 2022. The Compositor Tool: Investigating consumer experiences in the Circular Economy. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction.
2021
Ciaunica, A., Fotopoulou, A., Roepstorff, A., and Petreca, B. 2021. Whatever Next and Close to my Self–The Transparent Senses and the ‘Second Skin’: Implications for the Case of Depersonalisation. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, p.1219.
2020
Hesseldahl, K., Baurley, S., Petreca, B., 2020. Who designs (in) the circular economy? International Society for the Circular Economy conference, 6th-7th July 2020 (online).
Baurley, S., Petreca, B., Selinas, P., Selby, M., Flintham, M., 2020. Modalities of Expression: Capturing Embodied Knowledge in Cooking. In TEI '20: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, Sydney, Australia, P785–797, 9-12 February 2020.
Costa, S.A., Cerón, A.A., Petreca, B.B., and Costa, S.M., 2020. Fibers of cellulose sugarcane bagasse with bromelain enzyme immobilized to application in dressing. SN Applied Sciences, 2, pp.1-6.
2019
Petreca, B., Saito, C., Baurley, S., Atkinson, D., Yu, X., and Bianchi-Berthouze, N., 2019. Radically Relational Tools: A Design Framework to Explore Materials through Embodied Processes. International Journal of Design.
2018
Price, S., Mackley, K.L., Jewitt, C., Huisman, G., Petreca, B., Berthouze, N., Prattichizzo, D., and Hayward, V., 2018. Reshaping Touch Communication: An Interdisciplinary Research Agenda. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper W17, 8 pages.
2017
Petreca, B., Saito Junqueira Aguiar, S., Yu, Xuemei., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Baurley, S., 2017. Radically Relational: Using Textiles as a Platform to Develop Methods for Embodied Design Processes. In Proceedings of the Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge (EKSIG), TUDelft, 19-20 June 2017.
Petreca, B., 2017. Giving body to digital fashion tools. In: Broadhurst & Price Eds. Digital Bodies: Creativity and technology in the Arts & Humanities. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
2016
Petreca, B. 2016. Reflexões sobre o design de experiências materiais nos contextos físico e digital. DATJournal Design Art and Technology, 1(2), pp.31-41.
Petreca, B. 2016. Können wir digitale Textilien fühlen? Designforschung, Körpererfahrung und ein Ausblick auf zukünftige Technologien, in: Jana Herwig, Alexandra Seibel (Hrsg.), Texture Matters: Der Tastsinn in den Medien – haptisch/optisch 2 (Maske und Kothurn. Internationale Beiträge zur Theater-, Film und Medienwissenschaft, vol. 61/1), Wien: Böhlau.
Atkinson, D., Petreca, B., Baurley, S., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P., 2016. The tactile triangle: a design research framework demonstrated through tactile comparisons of textile materials. The Journal of Design Research. 14(2):142.
Petreca, B., Baurley, S., Bianchi-Berthouze, N. and Tajadura-Jiménez, A., 2016. Investigating nuanced sensory experiences in textiles selection. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct (pp. 989-994). ACM.
2015
Petreca, B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Baurley, S., 2015. How do designers feel textiles? In Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Volume: 2015.
2014
Petreca, B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N. Furniss, D., Baurley, S., 2014. The future of textiles Sourcing: Exploring the potential for digital tools. 9th International Conference on Design & Emotion 2014, Bogota.
2013
Petreca, B., Bianchi-Bertouze, N., Baurley, S., Watkins, P. Atkinson, D., 2013. An embodiment perspective of affective touch behaviour in experiencing digital textiles. Fifth biennial Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2013) Mediated Touch and Affect workshop. IEEE Computer Society.
Atkinson, D., Orzechowski, P., Petreca, B., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P., Baurley, S., Padilla, S., Chantler, M. 2013. Tactile Perceptions of Digital Textiles: a design research approach. Proceedings of 2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY.
2012
Orzechowski, P.M., Padilla, S., Atkinson, D., Chantler, M.J., Baurley, S., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P. and Petreca, B. 2012. Archiving and simulation of fabrics with multi-gesture interfaces. In Proceedings of HCI (p. 1). InterfacesHCI 2012 – People and Computers XXVI, 12-14 September 2012, Birmingham. British Computer Society and ACM Digital Library.
Costa, S. A., Marcicano, J. P., Petreca, B., Costa, S. M., 2012. Medical textiles: product development inspired by nature, 2012, Guimarães - Portugal. Proceedings CIMODE 2012 - 1º Congresso Internacional de Moda e Design. Guimarães: Bernardo Providencia, 2012. p. 2637-2647.
Other publications
Landin, H., Towsend, R., Petreca, B. Textile Intersections 2023 - Exhibition catalogue. Textile Intersections Conference, Loughborough University London 20–23 September 2023.
Karana, E., Petreca, B., Barati, B., 2018. Material Driven Design Toolbox. Visual identity by Sylvia Machgeels. Delft: TU Delft.
Petreca, B., 2016. An understanding of embodied textile selection processes & a toolkit to support them. PhD thesis, Royal College of Art.
Petreca, B., 2016. The sCrIPT toolkit: A system for Collection, (re)Interrogation, Projection and Transformation for Textiles Experience. Appendix to PhD thesis, Royal College of Art.
External collaborations and activities
Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Interaction Centre.
Visiting Lecturer at the Professional MA Architecture, Urbanism and Design. Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo, Brasil.
Micro-phenomenology Lab member.
EPSRC Peer Review College member.
Editorial Advisory Board, Multimodality & Society, Sage Publishing.
Advisory board for the CraftVærk project (Trapholt Museum – Kolding, Denmark).
Member of the Steering Committee of the RCA AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).
Member of the RCA Research Ethics Network.