Donna Cleveland

a headshot of a woman smiling
School: School of Communication & Design
Department: Office of School of Communication and Design
Position: Deputy Dean of School
Location: RMIT Saigon South
Email: donna.cleveland@rmit.edu.vn
ORCID: 0000-0002-8223-7663

Associate Professor Donna Cleveland is the Deputy Dean of School and provides academic quality assurance, academic development and promoting the scholarship of learning and teaching. Her work in the field of sustainable design, articulates fashion and textiles thinking and systems. Her creative practice is engaged with issues of materiality, making and resilience across areas of art, design and creative technology. Her previous roles include Associate Head of School- Learning and Teaching at the School of Future Environments, AUT and Program Director of the Creative Technologies undergraduate and postgraduate programs, AUT.

  • Ph.D. Transformational Cloth, Auckland University of Technology
  • BA (Hons) Design, Auckland University of Technology

  • Creative Technologies
  • Sustainable design and Transition design
  • Fashion design
  • Textiles Design
  • Interactive Textiles
  • Digital and analog fabrication
  • Computer software
  • Research and writing skills

  • Material Futures
  • Sustainable Textiles Design
  • Textile Art and Craft
  • Smart/electronic textiles and fashion (interactivity and sensing)
  • Bio-materials and bio-fabrication
  • Creative Practice/ collaborative practice
  • Systems design/thinking (recycling)
  • Circular and new economies

  • Cleveland D. (2020). Making metamorphic materials National Wool Museum, Arts & Culture, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. (Creative Work) https://www.wethemakers2020.com.au  
  • Cleveland D. (2020). Pulse. PRE-WTA BIENNIAL ONLINE International Call, to be remotely held as a prelude to the WTA BIENNIAL - CHILE 2021 https://www.chile.wtaonline.org/en/principal_ingles 
  • Cleveland D. (2019). Redirecting textile knowledge; an innovative approach to recycling. International Conference 2019, Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Experiential Knowledge. Conference Contribution-Published. http://www.eksig2019.com/proceedings/ 
  • Cleveland D, Karmokar S. (2019). Transformative technologies: emerging pedagogical approaches can empower students to design strategies capable of driving social change. Education, Design and Practice – Understanding skills in a complex world, New York.URL http://architecturemps.com/newyork/ 
  • Cleveland D. (2019). Transformation cloth: sensing environmental change Real Jardín Botánico Alfonso xiii, Madrid, Spain. (Creative Work) https://madrid2019.wta-online.org 
  • Cleveland D. (2019). Re-thinking Regalia Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia 23 Sep 2019 (Creative Work) http://www.eksig2019.com/home/ 
  • Cleveland D, Cleveland P. (2019). Rhythmic Materiality University of New Caledonia/ Nouméa, New Caledonia. (Creative Work) https://diginova.nc/ 
  • Cleveland, D. (2017). Small is the new Big: Scaling Models of Sustainable Practice. Making Futures Journal. Plymouth, UK. 
  • Joseph, F., Smitheram, M., Cleveland, D., Stephen, C., & Fisher, H. (2017). Digital Materiality, Embodied Practices and Fashionable Interactions in the Design of Soft Wearable Technologies. Journal publication. Designing for Wearable and Fashionable Interactions. International Journal of Design. http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2845/791
  • Cleveland, D. (2016) . Small is the new Big: Solutions to Repurposing Textile Waste, paper presented at the 2016 Fashion Colloquia, RMIT, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  • Cleveland, D. (2014). Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion Practices within a New Zealand University [Online virtual Presentation]. Available via URL. http://youtu.be/EALbyL0qcmI

Internal Research Grant, 2022, RMIT: $10,000USD

  • Research Title: Material Futures: experimental fabrication of bacterial cellulose as a potential biomaterial
  • Research Team: Principle investigator Associate Professor Donna Cleveland, Associate Professor Rajkishore Nayak, Professor Frances Joseph

Internal Summer Research Funding, 2021, AUT: $3,600 USD

  • Research Title: Future is Wool. 
  • Research Team: Principle investigator Associate Professor Donna Cleveland, Research Assistant Dan Collings

Internal Seeding Research Grant, 2020, AUT: $3,600 USD

  • Research title: Exploring how biomaterials can be used to create eco-friendly sustainable art installations.
  • Research Team: Principle investigator Associate Professor Donna Cleveland, Professor Frances Joseph, Research Assistant Claudine Nalesu

Internal Summer Research Funding, 2020, AUT: $7,200 USD

  • Research title: Bioplastic Investigations: Making and shaping new sustainable polymers
  • Research Team: Principle investigator Associate Professor Donna Cleveland, Professor Frances Joseph, Lecturer, Anke Nienhuis, Senior Technician, Harriet Stockman,Research Assistant Kate Whittaker

 

 

Student name

 

 

 

 

Thesis Title

 

 

 

 

Degree, Institution

 

 

 

 

Completion status

 

 

 

 

Aleksandra Novikova

 

 

 

 

The Development of Functional/Ergonomic Rock-Climbing Clothes for Different Climate Zones with the Integration of Smart Sensing Technology

 

 

 

 

PhD, AUT

 

 

 

 

Confirmed candidate

 

 

 

 

Mitali Nautiyal

 

 

 

 

Design Tool for Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Knitted Apparel Products in New Zealand

 

 

 

 

PhD, AUT

 

 

 

 

Confirmed candidate

 

 

 

 

Yuxi Wang (Leona)

 

 

 

 

Textile expressions: an experimental approach using new technologies to interpret traditional storytelling through making.

 

 

 

 

PhD, AUT

 

 

 

 

Confirmed candidate

 

 

 

 

Luca Ribeiro

 

 

 

 

Digital Biofabrication: building a pathway to circular economy through additive manufacturing of novel biocomposites

 

 

 

 

PhD, AUT

 

 

 

 

Provisional candidate

 

 

 

 

Kate Whittaker

 

 

 

 

Materialising the Imagination: An Exploration of Sensing Through Textiles and Tactility

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Daniel Collings

 

 

 

 

Bound by Binary: Experimental Textile Practice That Challenges Current Binary Gender Fashion Norms

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Samuel Wanless

 

 

 

 

Sound Materials: Exploring the Use of Strong Wool for Sustainable Acoustic Textile Design

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Claudine Nalesu

 

 

 

 

Exploring Bio-Based Materials as a Method to Create Eco-Friendly, Sustainable Art Installations

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Colin Anderson

 

 

 

 

Wearable Biopotential Technologies: An Exploration of Textile Based Biopotential Sensing Electrodes for an ECG Wearable Device

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Stacy Brett

 

 

 

 

South Side Pride: Celebrating the Pride of South Auckland Through Interactive Storytelling

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

 

 

Melissa Lin

 

 

 

 

Fashion: the Missing Element in Wearable Technology Design

 

 

 

 

MCT, AUT

 

 

 

 

Completed

 

 

  • Auckland University of Technology, Faculty Champions Award 2021
  • Auckland University of Technology, Faculty Champions Award 2020
  • Auckland University of Technology, Vice-Chancellor’s Doctoral
  • Scholarship, 2014 - 2017, three-year tenure
  • Colab PhD fees scholarship, 2014, one year tenure
  • AUT, Textile Design Lab Materials Award, 2014
  • Auckland University of Technology Postgraduate Art and Design             
  • Summer Research Grant, Sustainable Textiles, October 2013 to March 2014
  • School of Art and Design Postgraduate Research Award, 2013 Auckland University of Technology
  • AUT Head of Fashion School Award, 2012 

  • Freelance designer
  • External Examiner

Auckland University of Technology / Associate Head of Learning  and Teaching 

2019 - 2021,  SCHOOL OF FUTURE ENVIRONMENTS 

Auckland University of Technology / Programme Director 

2018 - 2021,  BACHELOR OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES 

Auckland University of Technology / Lecturer/Senior Lecturer  

2014 - 2021,  BACHELOR OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES 

Auckland University of Technology/ Lecturer  

2014 - 2018,  TEXTILE DESIGN DEPARTMENT 

Auckland University of Technology / Lecturer (sessional) 

2015 - 2017, MASTER OF DESIGN 

Auckland University of Technology / Research Assistant and Workshop presenter (part-time) 

2014 - 2019,  TEXTILE DESIGN LABORATORY and COLAB