Tom Fisher

Tom Fisher is a gardener, craftsperson, musician and academic. Professor in the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University since 2007, he has worked in art schools since 1985 and made his living as a furniture designer/maker before his first university appointment. He is now developing a business custom-making French horns. His academic interests derive directly from this - prominent themes include materials in everyday consumption (the subject of his 2004 PhD from the Sociology...See more

Tom Fisher is a gardener, craftsperson, musician and academic. Professor in the School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University since 2007, he has worked in art schools since 1985 and made his living as a furniture designer/maker before his first university appointment. He is now developing a business custom-making French horns. His academic interests derive directly from this - prominent themes include materials in everyday consumption (the subject of his 2004 PhD from the Sociology Department at the University of York) and the acquisition of skill in material practices, informed by theories of cognition. His research has produced a book on the everyday re-use of packaging, (Designing for Re-Use, Earthscan, 2009), a special issue of the Journal of Design History on the meaning of materials' surface qualities, a special issue of Critical Studies of Fashion and Beauty on fashion and materiality, a 2017 book for Routledge, Design for Personalisation, and an edited collection of essays on design and ethics for Bloomsbury in 2019. He has led funded research on sustainable clothing (Defra), and industrial heritage (AHRC). His current work is focusing on personalisation and skilled practice in the context of repair. See less