the researcher

Dr. Donna Wright
PhD;MA-VA(Research);Grad.Dip.Adult Ed.&Training;BA-VA;Dip.Design

Donna Wright is an artist, researcher and educator. Big Blue Ball: Pictures, people, place began as her PhD research project which was carried out under the direction of Southern Cross University, Australia.

Wright’s area of research development is cultural anthropology through the arts, focusing on creative innovation facilitated by intercultural engagement.  Her scholarship is diverse, covering cultural semiotics, theories of creativity, social systems theory, cognitive psychology, art history and visual studies, creative arts practice-based research and education.    

Wright’s practice-led research methodology strongly positions the contemporary artist as cultural anthropologist by promoting arts practice-based inquiry as an intrinsic human communication process which allows for creative explorations into the construction of diverse meaning systems and therefore cultural worldviews.  

Wright's own art practice takes on varied artistic forms encompassing traditional painting techniques and new media technologies. This provides an experiential environment for the development and presentation of new ideas, with the experience of art-making and creative dialogue as essential elements for new knowledge creation.