Ratanapat Suchat

Postgraduates

Ratanapat Suchat

2011 Master of Multimedia, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne

2007 Bachelor of Arts (Mass Communication), Chiang Mai University, Thailand

After she graduated with her master’s degree and returned to Thailand in 2013, Ratanapat worked as an Assistant Professor in the School of Information and Communication Technology, University of Phayao, Thailand. She obtained sponsorship from the university to study abroad for a doctoral degree and chose to study at Swinburne again because she appreciated the quality of education offered there as well as the professional and supportive academic staff. She is a current PhD student. Her PhD is by artefact and exegesis, which includes visual narratives related to the nostalgia for Thailand signalled through Thai condiment packaging. Ratanapat examines the nostalgia and sense of Thai-ness associated with Thai condiment packaging labels within Australia’s Thai student community and makes their emotional responses explicit. She investigates the meanings of memory and emotion within Thai condiment packaging to create the illustrations meaningfully. In the final stage of her PhD studies, Ratanapat is planning to develop a graphic novel. Narratives will be constructed and visualised into a creative representation expressing the positive nostalgia associated with Thai students’ life in Australia and their Thai cultural identity. Recently, Ratanapat was the 3rd place winner in the international Visualise Your Thesis 2021 competition. Her key visual communication skills and abilities include digital arts and media, computer 2D animation, traditional animation, and stop-motion. She also has experience in making creative interactive media.

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Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.