• The Semiotics of Unity: nesting identities in a factional age

    Santo Domingo, Room 2A

    In our current political climate, we are surrounded by symbols of individuation: BLM flags, rainbow pins, Resist t-shirts, and MAGA hats. These icons are profound tools for resistance and belonging, but they are designed to signal who we are apart from the rest. This paper explores the value of developing a visual language that represents "the whole" while honoring the individual parts of a fractured system.

  • Foundation Studies as Virtual Multiplayer Studio

    Santo Domingo, Room 2A

    What does it mean to build a studio community when students don’t share a physical space? This session presents a fully asynchronous, remote foundations course that uses Figma as a unique studio environment — enabling dozens of students to work together in shared files that offer a sense of presence and collective making. 

  • Access, Creative Practice & Community Care

    Santo Domingo, Room 1 A-B

    Gatekeeping is often built into structures of artistic opportunity. Even when there is a stated intention to expand access for people of color or low-income artists, opportunities such as artist residencies are often rendered inaccessible through requirements of nominations, fees, or portfolios, which all assume access to time, resources, industry connections and cultural capital.

  • Feminist Design Archive: community-generated knowledge sharing + mini add-a-thon

    Santo Domingo, Room 2F

    Launched in 2024, the Feminist Design Archive is an open-source, community-generated digital archive that aims to document, preserve and illuminate the work of feminist designers around the globe. Anyone can submit work to the archive in any format, from any time period, including their own work or the work of others.

  • Co-Imagining Dignity Through Making Across Continents

    Santo Domingo, LM

    This workshop explores how dignity can be expressed in design through maximalism and minimalism, not as a fixed concept, but as something interpreted, constructed, and made tangible through form. Working in pairs, participants will create abstract typographic compositions that examine how visual decisions communicate presence, respect, and value.