John Bruce
Program Co-Director
Email
johnbruce@newschool.edu
Office Location
Parsons Faculty Hotseat
Profile
John A. Bruce is a film/video artist, researcher and educator. He is Associate Professor of Design Strategies at Parsons and serves as Co-Director of the Transdisciplinary Design MFA program, and Co-Director of the Consortium for Transdisciplinarity. He is currently conducting doctoral research at RMIT in critical and collective fabulation through transdisciplinary praxis as ways of being and worlding.
He led the research project End of Life, informing the film End of Life, several short films, installations, exhibitions, and the studio Design for Living and Dying. His work has been exhibited internationally, including the New York Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel, Museum of the Moving Image, Doclisboa, Kerla Film Festival, Thessaloniki Film Festival, ICA London, e-flux, Chicago Film Festival and The Brooklyn Academy of Music, among others. He has directed several films and videos, co-created installations and experiences, served as art director for a number of feature films, and platform producer for several transmedia projects addressing social issues. He is advisor for the Light Phone, a simple phone that provokes reflection on our relationships with technology. He was a 2015/16 Fellow at the Graduate Institute for Design Ethnography and Social Thought at The New School.
Degrees Held
Presidio (Pinchot University), MBA
School of Visual Arts, BFA
Recent Publications
"To Listen Differently, To Hear Otherwise: Decolonial Perception in the work of Nida Sinnokrot" [forthcoming 2026]
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Service Design: Plural perspectives and a critical contemporary agenda. Jan 2026. Chapter "Service Design Narratives", (eds) Lara Penin, Alison Prendiville, Daniela Sangiorgi.
Participatory Design and Social Transformation: Images and Narratives of Crisis and Change. 2022
Designing in Dark Times: An Arendtian Lexicon. 2020. Chapter, "Mortality." Editors: Eduardo Staszowski and Virgina Tassinari
Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design. 2017. Chapter, “Design Strategies for Impact.” Editor: Rachel Beth Egenhoefer
End of Life, nonfiction film. 2017. Directed by John Bruce and Paweł Wojtasik. Co-producers: HAOS Film and Train-Tracks Inc. (USA, Greece)
Portfolio
Current Courses
- Transdisciplinary Seminar
PGTD 5000 - Fall 2026 - Practice Studio 1
PGTD 5100 - Fall 2026 - Convening 1: Orientation
PGTD 5110 - Fall 2026 - Transdisciplinary Methods
PGTD 5130 - Fall 2026 - Convening 2: Proposition
PGTD 5210 - Fall 2026
Future Courses
- Thesis Synthesis
PGTD 5201 - Spring 2027 - Thesis Writing Lab
PGTD 5211 - Spring 2027