Dave Gottwald

Dave Gottwald coordinates Interaction Design and Digital Foundations coursework in the Art and Design Department. He is an award-winning visual designer, design educator, and writer with extensive experience in design for user experience and interaction, print and digital media, and within the built environment. Dave teaches UI/UX for mobile, experiential design for the built environment, exhibit design, typography, digital imaging, and design history. His research explores the theming of consumer spaces, the genealogy and taxonomy of thematic design, and the liminal blur between the built environment and the virtual.

Dave is a co-editor for and contributor to Virtual Interiorities, a three-volume collection from Carnegie Mellon ETC Press. The collection links ongoing discussions in the humanities, film, game studies, architecture, and design disciplines under the aegis of what “virtual” means in a socio-spatial context. He has been published in Disegno—Journal of Design Culture, The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, The International Journal of the Image, and Landscape Research Record. Along with Greg Turner-Rahman, he was the recipient of the 2019 Design Incubation Writing Fellowship and the 2020 Constructed Environment International Award for Excellence for their current collaboration, Theme Parks, Video Games, and Evolving Notions of Space: The End of Architecture (forthcoming, Intellect Books / The University of Chicago Press). He is also co-author of Disney and the Theming of the Contemporary Zoo: Kingdoms of Artifice for the Studies in Disney and Culture series (forthcoming, Lexington Books).