Vivien Chan

Space

I completed my PhD in 2024 with my thesis titled “A Colony of Shopkeepers”: Spaces of Consumption in New Towns public housing estates, Hong Kong, 1954-1989. My research was part of the Cultures of Occupation in Twentieth-century Asia project (COTCA) led by Dr. Jeremy Taylor at University of Nottingham. I completed my MA History of Design thesis Assembling the dai pai dong: Living and Occupying the Street in Hong Kong, 1950s - present at the Royal College of Art/ V&A Museum in 2017.

I’m also interested in multi-disciplinary research methodologies and archives. Moving through space and experiencing it holistically forms my thinking of the research itself. Touching the page, tasting and smelling the market, navigating the landscape, making light or deep conversation, moving from place to place, all help to ground myself in the work.

Page

I love to think about and make books.

At the moment I am working on Archiving Archiving, a project on grassroots design archives in Asia started together with Zara Arshad, and forms the basis for our constellation astra*. We recently received a Design Trust Grant to produce our debut publication together. For me, making books is a collaborative process. The final object can be satisfying in tactility but iterative in the making.

I’m also interested in the digital page as a space for entangling text and image.I am currently an editor for History Workshop, where I have also lead the illustration commissions since 2024. I was previously editorial lead for the 2016-2017 edition of Unmaking Things, an experimental platform for the RCA History of Design programme.

Polyphonies (2017) a record of design history research, edited by Tanya Bennett, Vivien Chan, Sophie Chatellier, Andrea Foffa, Natalia Goldsteine, Anna Stewart, graphic design and image credits to Dan Kozma and Ariana Tilche

Sooner, or later (2016) a collaborative zine between RCA/V&A History of Design and RCA Visual Communiation,
edited by Vivien Chan, Sophie Chatellier and Andrea Foffa

Image

I draw and print, mostly from life. Drawing is how I learned to move and feel.

I studied Illustration & Animation at Kingston School of Art and previously trialled a career in fashion illustration. Now I make images for myself and independent publishing, as well as teach illustration. I also dabble in other kinds of making, some textiles, printmaking, a little ceramics.I like to know how things work and how they are made.

For me, drawing is about texture, bodies, movement. I understand it as a process and a method. It is itself a trace of my own body and hand, sometimes through a machine, often a material. Images can be sensual and sensitive in queer and quiet ways.

Constellation

I think collectively and collaboratively. Forming constellations are an important part of my practice.

I am a co-founder of two research collectives, Hong Kong Design History Network; and astra*. Both of these groups were founded on the ethos of criticality and curiousity while prioritising integrity and connection. There is something to be said for slow research - as our everyday becomes more pressing, I find it to be all the more urgent to slow down and be present.

Together with these collectives, I have co-curated exhibitions, made publications, presented papers, designed and facilitated workshops, and had the opportunity to exchange with people all over the world.

hkdhnet is a design collective focused on the design history and material cultures of Hong Kong. We co-curated the Hong Kong Pavillion at the London Design Biennale in 2021.

astra* is a design constellation with Zara Arshad, engaging in intersections, serendipity, works-in-progress, and intuitive research.

I also think about constellations in terms of research. Here’s how you can make your own research planisphere.