Julijonas probing scientific subject
Julijonas Urbonas is a designer, artist, engineer and PhD student in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.

Since childhood, I've been working within the field of amusement park development. In 2004, I became a managing director of an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and ran it for three years. Having worked in such a field – as an architect and engineer but also in ways that are creative and critical – I became fascinated by what in my research I am calling the bodily-perceived aesthetics of ‘gravitational theatre’. This experience is unavailable elsewhere, and I became intrigued by this under-developed topic. Since then the topic has been at the core of my creative life, from design/artistic work to scholarly articles (including my MA thesis ‘Mediated Euphoria’). Most recently this interest has matured into the unique and paradigm-shifting topic of Gravitational Aesthetics, at the heart of my PhD research, which is the broader conceptual framework in which ‘gravitational theatre’ is performed.


In my leisure time, I explore – through making, experimenting, and writing – alternative aesthetics of technologies and give lectures on this topic. I live and work in London and Vilnius.

+44(0)7826120391 (UK)

+37060331357 (LT)
info@julijonasurbonas.lt

EDUCATION

From 2007
Royal College of Art, London, UK
PhD in Design Interactions (expected date of graduating- 2011)

From 2005
Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
PhD in Design/Art Research (temporarily suspended)

2003-2005
Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
MA in Visual Design (Honours degree with Distinction)

1999-2003
Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
BA in Visual Design

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

From 2007
Freelance Designer / Artist / Lecturer

2005-2007
Visiting lecturer, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania

2004-2007
CEO, General manager of Amusment Park
Poilsio Parkas UAB, Private Stock Company, Klaipeda, Lithuania

2004
Chief Designer for Design of Amusement Rides
Exgames UAB, Private Stock Company, Palanga, Lithuania

2003
Designer of amusement park equipment
Poilsio Parkas UAB, Private Stock Company, Klaipeda, Lithuania

EXHIBITIONS

2010
St Etienne Design Biennale 2010, St. Etienne, France.
Prix Ars Electronica CyberArts Exhibition, Linz, Austria.

2009
"Made in Klaipeda?", Klaipėda Art Exhibition Hall, Klaipeda, Lithuania.
“Talking Doors” - series of interactive art installations in public space, workshops & lectures. Various venues, Vilnius, Lithuania.
ISEA09, Waterfront Hall gallery, Belfast, UK.

2008
”Elswhere”, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, London, UK.
“Migrating Reality” -  new media art exhibition, Berlin, Germany.
“Objects for Arithmomaniacs” - solo exhibition, "Daiktu Viesbutis" design gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania.

2007
“Le Name” - new media art festival & exhibition, Lille & Maubeuge, France.
“ENTER: Interactivity” - new media art festival, Siauliai, Lithuania.

2006
“100% design”- design exhibition, London, UK.
“PlArtforma” - contemporary art festival, Klaipeda, Lithuania.
“Art Now Future Now” - international biennale of contemporary art, Kaunas, Lithuania.

TEACHING/ ORGANISED WORKSHOPS/ CONFERENCES/ PAPERS

2010
Essay, “The Barany Chair and g-Design”. In ARC magazine, edited by Charmian Griffin. London: Royal College of Art, p. 44-47.
Edited book, “Talking Doors”, Vilnius: Hotel of Things.
Master Class, CEPHAD 2010, Conference on philosophy and design research, Danish Design School, Copenhagen, Danmark.
Urbonas, Julijonas. “Gravitational Aesthetics.” In Copenhagen Working Papers on Design, edited by Per Galle and Helle Hove, 175-179. Copenhagen: The Danish School Press, 2010.

2009
Lecture, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania
Paper, “Gravitational Aesthetics”, ISEA09, Belfast, UK.
Presenter/Workshop organiser, “The Talking Doors”, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Organising workshop & lecturing, design/art project “The Talking Doors”, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Conducting workshop, “Transgressions”, Vilnius Academy of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Reviewer, HCI 2009, 23rd British Computer Society conference on Human Computer Interaction, Cambridge University, UK.

2008
Article, “Wind Orchestra”, Migrating Realities, Cologne: KHM, p. 50-52
Article “Objects for Arithmimaniacs”, Media Culture Voices, Vilnius: Mene, p. 164-172.
Lecture-performance,  “Fictional Design and Design Fiction”,  design gallery “Daiktų viešbutis”, Vilnius, Lithuania.

2007
Presentation, “Interaktyvaus meno praktika ir teorija” (Interactive Art Practice and Theory), “ENTER_5” media art festival, Šiauliai, Lithuania.
Paper,  “Įtarpinto humoro dizainas: ribų ritualas ir ideo-terapija interaktyvioje terpėje” (Mediated Humor Design: boundary ritual and ideo-therapy in interactive media) Vilnius: ACTA ACADEMIAE ARTIUM VILNENSIS / VILNIAUS DAILĖS AKADEMIJOS DARBAI, p. 79-95.
Lecture/presentation, “Multimodal Interaction Design”, KIASMA contemporary art centre, Helsinki, Finland.
Reviewer, series of reviews of postgraduate students, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania.

MEDIA APPEARANCES (selected)

TV:
Austė Serepinaitė, "Demokratiškos durys". Delfi TV, 12 June 2009, http://tv.delfi.lt/video/gz40lmKU (Lithuanian)
Austė Serepinaitė, "Skambančios ir dvejojančios durys". Delfi TV, 12 June 2009, http://tv.delfi.lt/video/j4yDoxGH (Lithuanian)
Skaidrilė Grigaitė, "Kalbančios durys". In: Panorama, LTV, 12 June 2009 (Lithuanian)
Sigita Inčiūrienė, "Susieti nesusiejamus dalykus". Šiaulių televizija, 7 April 2007 (Lithuanian)

Radio:
Jolanta Jurkūnienė, "Naujas požiūris į dizaino mokslo tyrimus". In: Žinių amžius, LR, 24 February 2010, http://www.lrt.lt/radio/news.php?strid=5086&id=5416816&sid=7704 (Lithuanian)
Auksė Kancerevičiūtė. In: "Ryto allegro", LR, 26 June 2009 (Lithuanian)

Magazines, newspapers, web portals:
Jurij Dobriakov, “Julijonas Urbonas: mąstantis daiktais”. In: Artnews.lt, 20 June 2010, http://www.artnews.lt/julijonas-urbonas-mastantis-daiktais-6501 (Lithuanian)

Aistė Kisarauskaitė, "Stotelė: už "Kalbančių durų". In: Šiaurės Atėnai, 13 November 2009 nr. 964, http://www.culture.lt/satenai/?leid_id=963&kas=straipsnis&st_id=17173 (Lithuanian)
Toma Jonuškaitė, "Varstomų durų koncertas". In: CityOut, 26 August 2009, http://www.cityout.lt/menas/articles/Varstomu_duru_koncertas_interviu (Lithuanian)
Inga Norkė, "Futuristinė buitis". In: Pravda, May 2009 nr. 5309 (Lithuanian)
Ana Siman, "Kam dizainui mokslas?". In: Deko, April 2008 http://gyvenimas.delfi.lt/career/article.php?id=17901482 (Lithuanian)
Sigita Inčiūrienė, "Susieti nesusiejamus dalykus". In: Park@s, Literatūra ir menas, 29 June 2007 nr. 3149 , http://www.culture.lt/lmenas/?leid_id=3149&kas=straipsnis&st_id=11095 (Lithuanian)


AWARDS

2010
Award of Distinction in Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica 2010, Linz, Austria.
The Royal College of Art Bursary, London, UK.

2009
The Royal College of Art Grant, London, UK.

2008
The Royal College of Art Bursary, London, UK.
The Westerly Trust Grant, London, UK.

2007
The Royal College of Art Bursary, London, UK.
Educational Grant of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
Main Award GRAND PRIX NORDICA, PRIX MOBIUS NORDICA 2007, mediaculture competition, Helsinki, Finland.

2006
Main Award for the best artwork, International Biennale of Contemporary Graphic Art, Kaunas, Lithuania.

2005
Rector’s Award for Design Innovation, Vilnius Academy of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania.