Philip Dean

Head of the Department of Media and Director of Aalto Media Factory. Professor of New Media Management within the Department of Media, Aalto University, School of Arts, Design & Architecture.

BACKGROUND

Philip Dean was born in Ilford, East London in 1957. Education: Fairlop Junior School 1962-8, Brentwood School, Essex 1968-75, Imperial College (Physics) 1975-6, LCP (Photography, Film & TV) 1997-81. He escaped the UK with a post-graduate scholarship to study Photography as one of the first ever 'foreign students' at the University of Industrial Arts (also known earlier as TaiK) during 1982-3. Philip is married to Tarja Kankkunen (researcher and former Dean of TaiK's Art Education faculty) and they have 2 'kids', Topias (b.1988) and Tessa (b. 1991) and two grandsons, Kasper (b. 2012) & Hugo (b. 2014). Philip has worked as a freelance photographer, journalist and editor (covering photo technology and the digitization of photography and media), as a Professor and as a photographic artist. As lecturer in the dept. of Photographic Art at TaiK he founded the computer aided photography lab CAP there, one of the first units of its kind in higher education. In 1993 he was appointed to lead the development of a new department at TaiK, the Media Lab, medialab.aalto.fi. He led the internationally acclaimed Media Lab Helsinki as Director, Professor of Media Management and, later, Dean of School until August 2008. Philip was on sabbatical leave as visiting scholar based at the School of Architecture and Design, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand during January-May 2009. Philip was Director of the Aalto University Media Factory 2010-15 and since 1st January 2010 the Head of the Department of Media within the Aalto University, School of Arts, Design & Architecture. Philip has a passion for leading multi-disciplinary, creative communities, tackling the challenges inherent in such communities and enabling the careers of people who 'think differently'. Philip is a passport holding citizen of Finland, Great Britain and the micro-nation of Whangamomona.

Publications intended for professional communities

Article in professional journal

Promoting Design for All in Finland. Experiences of successful collaboration of users and designers at the University of Art and Design Helsinki Raike, Antti; Botero, Andrea; Dean, Philip; Iltanen-Tähkävuori, Sonja; Jacobson, Susanne; Salgado, Mariana; Ylirisku, Salu 2009 in Design For All