Liliana Ovalle
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Liliana Ovalle's MPhil/PhD Design research project
Material Dialogues – Ludic engagement through craft practices
This practice-based research explores collaborative material experimentation as a relational space for exchange between different ways of making—specifically between Indigenous craft and artisanal design practices.
Grounded in a series of collaborative encounters with a family of Zapotec potters in Oaxaca, the project views traditional craft as a dynamic, evolving worldmaking practice and examines the complex entanglements between craft, globalisation, and design within the Mexican context. Drawing on decolonial theory and reflective design approaches, the research argues that encounters shaped by playful, situated material experimentation can function as pluriversal contact zones (de la Cadena, Escobar).
Through this exploration, the project aims to contributes to ongoing discussions on decolonising design research in indigenous contexts, while opening up plural understandings of innovation and change for Indigenous craftspeople and design practitioners.
Supervisors
- Prof Alex Wilkie
- Dr Michael Guggenheim
- Andy Boucher
Researcher Biography
Liliana is a Senior Research Fellow with over ten years of experience in research-through-design. She is a member of the Interaction Research Studio, where she has contributed to a wide range of projects focusing on the design and production of research devices. She studied Industrial Design at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and completed an MA at the Royal College of Art in London. Alongside her academic work, Liliana has run her own design practice since 2006.
Her portfolio includes independent projects, commissions, and production pieces for clients such as IKEA, the MAXXI Museum, and Nodus. Her designs are held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City.
