Dr Les Johnson is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University. He was awarded his PhD for research into cultural visualisation, entrepreneurship and innovation. He is an alumnus of the Royal College of Art and was CEO of multi-award winning design, media, marketing and management consultancy firm Equator International. He has worked for; BBC, Channel 4, Carlton Television, The Arts Council, The Tate, the South Bank Centre, Design Museum, IBM, BPI, Clydesdale Bank, Virgin and Sony among many other cultural development organisations including local, regional and central government.
Dr Johnson has served on a range of Boards, has been a Non-Executive Director and consultant for public and private sector organisations at local, regional and national levels in the U.K. He also works internationally as counsel, lecturer and a consultant in business development and culture sectors.
His academic interests, cultural studies, entrepreneurship and philanthropy are channelled through his foundation where he supports a range of projects, research and enterprise.
Dr Les Johnson is founder and Chair of the National Windrush Museum set up to research, document, exhibit, and preserve the legacy of the Windrush generation and their successors.
Born in Jamaica, he is a part of the second wave of Windrush migrants to Britain in the 1960s. His design pedagogy experience has been applied to learning and teaching in a variety of education institutions. His expertise in practice-based and practiced led research have been combined to innovate a practice-driven methodology.
He initiated Reggae Music Archive research at BCU, and co-produced his Reggae and Sound System Innovation research to implement his doctoral analysis. Dr Johnson established a partnership to develop a MOU between BCU and the University of West Indies, Institute of Caribbean Studies.
He has been co-convenor of major international conferences such as; Reggae Innovation and Sound System Culture at Birmingham City University, Royal Birmingham Music Conservatoire, and University of West Indies. He initiated, then co-produced a successful funding bid with colleagues for international exchanges between the Birmingham City University and the University of West Indies and has delivered the prestigious Bob Marley Lecture at UWI. His research innovation led to the development of a new genre-Reggae Futurism and new knowledge resulting from study. The research will culminate in the establishment of a Reggae Music Archive. His research model is being used to establish other Black popular culture/music innovation projects. These include symposiums, new media, exhibitions, music and publications conceptualised in his doctoral research.
Dr Les Johnson serves as co-Chair of an international advisory group for the Jamaican Museum and Cultural Centre (Atlanta). He is working on a series of projects to study tangible and intangible Jamaican cultural heritage. This innovation research aims to promote cultural heritage tourism, and a major international Jamaica festival inspired by the Jamaica 60-celebration of Jamaican independence,
Dr Johnson is a member of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a practising visual artist, musician and community development activist. He spends his time between research and consultancy bases in the U.K and Jamaica, West Indies.
- Developing practice-based and practice-led postgraduate doctoral research for universities.
- Student supervision practice-based and practice-led postgraduate doctoral research.
- Cultural entrepreneurship.
- Cultural visualisation
- Innovation research and design
- Tangible and intangible black heritage research.
- Two-dimensional design practice.
- Exhibition planning and curatorial design.
- Symposium, conference and event planning.
- Design, Marketing, New Media, Project Management.
- Art, Design and Media (theory and practice teaching and lecturing).
- Cultural diversity, EDI project development.
- Reggae Studies (theory and performance)
- Jazz Studies (theory and performance)
- Gospel and Blues Music Heritage Studies (theory and performance)
- Intertextuality
- Hybrid media cultures.
- Black popular culture studies
- Ontological blackness.
- Black music culture research and innovation.
- Popular music and media studies.
- Research on the impact of black popular culture on design.
- Building and developing music archives.
- Sound system and Sound-clash cultures.
- Design technology and pedagogy.
- Strategies for developing athletic performance and sprint training through coaching pedagogy.
- New media online cultures for athletics.
- Sports product design research.
Dr Johnson welcomes applications from students for supervision and/or mentorship, or career advice.
Dr Les Johnson was awarded a PhD from Birmingham City University for research into cultural visualisation, entrepreneurship and innovation. His cultural studies examined new-media design processes using his design-practice to research black popular culture, and visual-sonic phenomena. As a result, he presented his doctoral research as original contribution to knowledge in a number of different ways.
First, it presented an innovative combination of practiced-based and practiced-led doctoral research as a methodological tool and critical element of what Johnson termed a ‘practice-driven’ design research approach. Second, it provided a fresh approach to design and new-media research using cultural entrepreneurship as a means to explore and analyse tangible and intangible visual-sonic black cultural heritage. Reflecting on his research as a type of entrepreneurship, Johnson produced a new media prototype artefact that re-contextualised and re-ordered standard meanings applied to black music culture. Being a Jamaican born-second wave Windrush migrant provided a unique vantage point for his doctoral research. His lived experience and expertise has enabled for example, unique insights into micro-histories of reggae innovation/sound-systems and sound-clash cultures. His new-media/music culture research approach is used as a model for exploring innovation in other black culture genres.
Finally, Johnson’s research presents ‘cultural visualisation’ as an important concept and research approach that can be used to re-think, re-vision and re-present humanities, and science subjects. It uses design thinking and design visualisation to supplement and enhance traditional theory-biased approaches.
In summary, his research uses black rhetorical vernaculars in music as forms, embodiments and translations of cultural heritage. It highlights the impact of visual-sonic design and enterprise philosophy in Jamaican, British and black Diaspora cultures. While operating a successful general design and management consultancy, his academic research continues to explore design and new media applied to; reggae, blues, gospel, soul, jazz, hip-hop and new forms of music culture. His professional practice and research interests centre on innovation, praxis through partnerships, publishing, peer review and performance.
He is convenor of a Black Popular Culture Research Group and welcomes enquires for participation.
Dr Johnson welcomes enquires from colleges, universities, museums, galleries, cultural institutions, industrial research teams, media organisations, governmental organisations, invitations to serve on boards alongside applications from students for supervision and/or interviews.
Dr Les Johnson is an alumnus of the Royal College of Art where he studied art, design and philosophy. In 1998 he established Equator International, a design, marketing, media and project management consultancy. He has worked on a range of business development projects and consultancies for media companies and cultural industries. As an Arts Council consultant, he pioneered British Black cultural art initiatives like; INIVA, Autograph, AAVAA, London and National Black Artists Networks, and Black Film, Media and Theatre Forums.
Working with the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta he has been Artistic Director of international conferences/festivals such as; Crossfires and Centrestage. He has worked for Arts Council of England chairing and serving on panels creating arts/culture policy. He was contracted by the Department of Innovation and Skills and Department of Education and Employment to run a £2 million training skills development project. His pioneering research for the British Phonographic Industry explored cultural diversity employment in the British music industry developing new opportunities for music industry employment diversity.
As a part of his contribution to the community Dr Johnson developed practice-based and practice-led action research through athletics coaching. This led to him working with schools and athletics clubs over many years. As a result, he became an accomplished performance athletics coach for England Athletics and coached athletes for Great Britain. His current research in this area examines cultural visualisation of speed mechanics, quantum biology and sports product design.
Dr Johnson’s research, lectures and projects in design, new media, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural visualisation aim to enable collaborations between students, professionals, institutional departments and industry. This is achieved through theory-driven and/or practice-based studies. He welcomes lecturing, board or committee service enquires from; universities, museums, galleries, media organisations, government boards and others.
