Research Statement
I am exploring methods of design in relation with the more-than-human as an alternative to design research and practices that serve infinite production and capitalist culture. Ochre is not only mineral pigment, but terrestrial beings that have an ancient relationship with human culture. I enlist these geological interlocutors in creative work and printmaking to make drawings, maps, books, and digital artifacts that extend beyond the colonial record. Ochre not only makes color material, it activates its own agency in world-making. It realizes the desert as more than the colonial narrative of barren, criminal wasteland or public commodity.
Research Keywords
- small press publication
- natural pigment
- exhibits and installations
- ancestral lands
- Yellowstone National Park
- Publication design
- Pluriversal Design
- Ochre
- Nature/Culture relationships, Landscape poetics
- Experience Design
- Equity and Inclusion
- Ecofeminism
- Design Research
- Design
- Decolonial Education
- Bears Ears National Monument
Research/Scholarship Projects
- Unknown Prospect. PI: Elpitha Tsoutsounakis. 01/01/2020 - present.
Creative Research
- Unknown Prospect is an assemblage and collaboration with Ochre that responds to extractive industry. I am exploring methods of design in relation with the more-than-human as an alternative to design research and practices that serve infinite production and capitalist culture. Ochre is not only mineral pigment, but terrestrial beings that have an ancient relationship with human culture. I enlist these geological interlocutors in creative work and printmaking to make drawings, maps, and books that extend beyond the colonial record. Ochre not only makes color material, it activates its own agency in world-making. It realizes the desert as more than the colonial narrative of barren, criminal wasteland or public commodity. Ochre confronts the misconception of land left over as recreational ‘play-ground’ where humans can have ‘no impact’ and take no account for the erasure and enslavement of indigenous women and children. The desert is more than an abundant ecosystem with a staggering number of endemic species and access to millions of years of geological time — it is the ancestral territory of sovereign indigenous tribes. This film reveals one view of the pluriverse, as seen from the desert, as told by ochre.
Prepared for the 2021 Pivot Conference of the Design Research Society
Curatorial/Production,
refereed,
completed
07/23/2021.
https://youtu.be/5m8I6iumjy8 - Moby Dick Tracts 200 years after the birth of Herman Melville, the Bodleian Bibliographical Press at Oxford University seeks a collaboration with printers everywhere to honour the author by printing parts of 'The Whale,' (London, October 1851), or, as it is best known, 'Moby-Dick; or, The Whale' (New York, November 1851) Exhibition, in progress 09/01/2019.
- Dark Sky Journal Creative direction, design and production of the inaugural volume and web platform for the newly established Journal for Dark Sky Studies. Other, in progress 06/01/2019.
- Train Tracts 2019 Train Tracts is a traveling literary journal and an experiment in connection. The journal is made up of twelve chapters, each a collaboration between an artist and a writer. The small edition chapters are each unique works of art created by printmakers from around the country. The stories are of travel, transformation, and connecting with strangers. Tracts will be on display at the Rio Gallery. Exhibition, completed 01/31/2019.
- Design Field Studio is an exploration of the role of design in our collective ecological consciousness and the experience of public lands
Other,
in progress
07/01/2018.
http://www.designfield.studio - Dark Sky Exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah Exhibition, completed 02/28/2018.
Presentations
- Presentation at the Pivot 2021 conference of the Design Research Society.
Presentation,
Presented, 07/23/2021.
https://pivot2021conference.com - Panel discussion at the inaugural Pigments Revealed Symposium 2021.
Invited Talk/Keynote,
Presented, 06/18/2021.
https://www.pigmentsrevealed.com/pigments-revealed... - Tanner Human Values Conversation with Maya Lin. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/21/2019.
- Keynote Speaker, Bliss Celebration of Life, University of Utah, College of Architecture + Planning. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/12/2019.
- Adobe XD Webinar: Elevate Your User Experience Design Courses.
Invited Talk/Keynote,
Presented, 05/2019.
https://edex.adobe.com/en/resource/v9e4e2a26 - Design and Creative Process
.
Invited Talk/Keynote,
Presented, 08/18/2018.
https://nhmu.utah.edu/events/science-invention-fes... - Pecha Kucha Salt Lake Vol. 14. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/13/2015.
- Moderator and Session Topic at the AIGA Design Educators Conference: New Venures: Intersections in Design Education. Presentation, Accepted, 09/2014.
Languages
- English, fluent.
- Modern Greek (1453-), fluent.
Publications
- Elpitha Tsoutsounakis (2021). Tools for an Unknown Prospect. Design Research Society. Accepted, 05/17/2021.
- Elpitha Tsoutsounakis (2021). Ground Maps for an Unknown Prospect. Refract Journal. Vol. 4, 6. Accepted, 03/01/2021.