-
About
This design research portal promotes the work of Christopher Kaltenbach, collaborators and students.
For more information please contact Christopher Kaltenbach at
group@actionfcv.comCollaborators

Brent Huber
Composer and music educator
Tokyo, Japan
An Apple Distinguished Educator, Huber is based at The American School in Japan in Tokyo. He has been a music composer and educator on the forefront of emerging technologies for more than 30 years. An early adopter of web-based platforms for global music composition collaboration, in 1992 he worked with educators in Germany and Australia to create compositions (sponsored by CSK/Sega and Yamaha) for the G11 Junior Summit. Currently, he is investigating musical glove controllers and music composition software to create new curriculum and student-based compositions. His research will be presented in Tokyo at a performance in late 2016.
Christopher Kaltenbach
Designer
actionfindcopypaste
Tokyo, Japan
Associate Professor
Interdisciplinary Design
Master of Design & Division of Design
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Nova Scotia, Canada
Kaltenbach is a designer, writer, and photographer who has worked in interdisciplinary roles in design and design education in Australia, Canada, Japan, Macau and the United States. His recent interdisciplinary design work includes a window display for Aigle’s North American flagship store in Halifax and a 260-page color monograph, Desire for Magic, published in 2010 to accompany the thirty-year retrospective of Patrick Nagatani’s photographic œuvre organized by the University of New Mexico Art Museum (U.S.A). His critical writing appears regularly in the Dutch architecture magazine MARK and the Australian design magazine AR. He is an associate professor of interdisciplinary design in the Master of Design and Division of Design Programs at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, runs the design studio actionfindcopypaste, and is a PhD candidate at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
Christopher Majka
Director
Natural History Resources
Nova Scotia, Canada
Majka is an alumnus of Mount Alison University, Dalhousie University, and the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. He studied oceanography, biology, mathematics, philosophy, and Russian studies, was guest researcher at the Edward Gray Institute (Oxford University) and has worked on many scientific investigations in Canada, the USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Peru, Poland, and Iran.
As a journalist he currently writes for the Rabble.ca and the Halifax Media Co-op and is a research associate of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He has also written for the Globe and Mail, National Post, Straits Times, Hill Times, and many other publications. He was a contributing editor for Cinema Canada, Dance in Canada, Dance International, Theatrum, and Performing Arts in Canada magazines, editor of Callboard and Scan magazines and a freelance broadcaster for CBC Radio. He has written two books of non-fiction and one of fiction for young-adults. Majka was a MacLean-Hunter fellow in arts journalism at the Banff Centre of the Arts and was the chair of the Nova Scotia Cultural Action Network
As a scientist he has published over 150 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals in Canada, the United States, Great Britain, New Zealand, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Japan including writing or contributing to six books. He is the review editor for two international entomological journals. Majka was a Killam Fellow at Dalhousie University, a research associate of the Nova Scotia Museum, a former National Research Council fellow, the recipient of the Tom Brydges Award from the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network, and was selected as one of Canadian Geographic's Environmental Scientists of the Year in 2010.
Dr. Rudi Meyer
Associate Professor
Director, Master of Design Program
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Nova Scotia, Canada
Dr. Meyer earned a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), a BA from McGill University, an MA from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. from McGill. He has taught at both McGill and Concordia University, and now teaches at NSCAD. Dr. Meyer has traveled widely and lectured on design topics in Germany, the U.K., Canada, the U.S.A., Japan, China, and Australia. His interests include design theory and history; design and its ecological concerns, with a focus on the social importance of packaging and wrapping in various cultures; ad hoc– and non-intentional design; repair and maintenance as sources of innovation, and design as a knowledge culture. A particular locus for his work has been Japan, where he has lived, has visited annually since 1995, has carried out funded research, and, over the years, has given conference presentations in Tokyo, Tsukuba, Chiba, Osaka and Kyoto. After a stint as Chair of Design at NSCAD, he is currently the Director of its Master of Design Program.
Sadao Tsuchiya
Researcher & Consultant
SADAO Co., ltd
Tokyo, Japan
He conducts research and product development on lifestyles through online research and door-to-door surveys. He offers comprehensive support to various Japanese enterprises such as developers and home builders whom are concerned with planning, design, sales, advertising and communication.
In 2010, he established the HOUSE VISION project with Kenya Hara, and has been engaged in its operation as Executive Coordinator. At present, he is establishing research groups in seven Asian countries. Previously, he managed “MUJI House” and implemented communication and web strategy initiatives for MUJI’s beverage and food products.
In 1989, he earned his Master’s degree from the Department of Science and Engineering at Nihon University. From 1989 to 1990 he studied at the University of Rome on an Italian government scholarship.
Shinjiro Saeki
Director of e-ism (edible insect science study group, NPO)
Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan
Saeki has a Master’s Degree in Information Science and is currently finishing a doctoral degree at Kobe University Graduate School of Agriculture. His research is focused on entomology and agriculture from the standpoint of gastronomy. He is interested in the reintroduction of insect food production in Japan. He has eaten over 267 species of insects. In 2013 he was awarded the Science Agora Award.
Tsuguta Yamashita
Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan
Originally from Kyoto, Yamashita is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in urban sociology at Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters. He holds a master's degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science.