Designing Ocean Futures Literacies
Designed by Gillian Russell, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu, Katherine Reilly
[Workshop]
Designing Ocean Futures Literacies: Reimagining the shoreline cleanup as a tool for ‘amphibious thinking’
DIS 2025
July 6 (Sunday)
Madeira, Portugal
How many ways are there to ‘know’ something?
In an era where data proliferation often substitutes for genuine understanding, this one-day workshop for DIS 2025 challenges participants to explore alternative modes of ocean and shoreline engagement beyond traditional knowledge acquisition, such as shoreline cleanups. We invite participants to question: How does knowing something truly catalyze change? And more critically, how might we move beyond the paradigm of data-driven knowledge to embrace more nuanced, collective approaches to environmental stewardship?
During this field trip workshop, we will collaboratively and speculatively explore the shoreline with a view to developing entangled consciousness about anthropogenic marine debris (AMD). Activities will include an interactive treasure hunt, socio-ecological mapping exercise, cyanotype salt water art, and the development of situated ecologies of marine debris. The aims of this workshop are to:
- Challenge existing notions of data supremacy in knowing shorelines
- Explore methods for more relational and embedded engagement and eco-social change
- Expand ocean futures literacies
Call for Participation:
To participate, please submit a one page PDF briefly outlining your research and interest in this workshop. As well, we ask you to include a short story, memory or moment about or around a shoreline that has been personally significant to you (~250 words). Please use an 11 or 12 pt standard font, otherwise there are no formatting restrictions. We are open to applicants from all design and research backgrounds, although preference will be given to those whose backgrounds are in some way related to oceans, shorelines, or watery worlds. Please email applications with the subject line “Designing Ocean Futures Workshop Application” to Lauren Thu lauren_thu@sfu.ca Submission deadline: June 22nd
ACCESSIBILITY NOTE: The majority of this workshop will take place at a nearby beach, Praia Formosa. Transport will be arranged and provided by the organizers. A light lunch or an allowance for lunch will also be provided. The beach itself is a sand and pebble beach, and we will be walking, standing, and picking up debris for much of the workshop. There is little conventional seating or shade, so please come prepared with hats, sun protection, and non-disposable water bottles. Praia Formosa has accessibility features such as step-free access to the water and accessible washrooms, please visit https://www.tur4all.com/resources/praia-formosa for further accessibility information.
Organizers:
Gillian Russell is an Assistant Professor in design at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Vancouver, Canada. Working at the intersection of critical design, anthropological futures, and narrative environments, her practice explores how design can be used as a method for exposing the entangled complexity of technology, culture and environment, and open up space for new pathways towards more socially just and sustainable futures. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Portugal, in the Porto Design Biennale, Helsinki Design Museum, London Design Festival, Milan Furniture Fair and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Dr. Russell is co-director of the Imaginative Methods Lab, an innovation hub for the development of research methods and tools to foster critical and co-creative transformational futures.
Katherine Reilly is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She is the lead author of Communing Data Literacy: Tools and Concepts for Social Engagement (MQUP 2025) and the Producer of Dialogando Sobre Datos: Un Audiolibro sobre el Colonialismo de Datos (Tierra Común 2025). She has written extensively on data literacy, data colonialism, communicative sovereignty, and open data and her works have appeared in Information, Communication & Society, Media and Communication Journal, the International Journal of Communication, Internet Policy Review, AoIR, the Handbook of Critical Data Studies, and the Encyclopedia of Political Communication, among other venues.
Jihyun Park is a PhD student at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Her research explores data practice at the intersection of co-speculative design and social engagement, using data visualization and literacy to help communities collectively envision sustainable, ecologically healthier futures. As a researcher and designer with the Imaginative Methods Lab, she promotes deeper, more democratic forms of imagination through collaborative research. Her work focuses on developing critical and creative tools to navigate crises and drive eco-social transformation through collective action.
Lauren Thu is a designer and graduate student in the Everyday Design Studio at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Her research concerns methodological and material practices for designing with more-than-humans. She is particularly interested in how sensing technologies mediate oceanic constituencies. Her work with the Imaginative Methods Lab’s Community Ocean Futures group compliments her research on developing ocean-based ontologies.