What's "Grid(a) Temporali"?
Grid(a) Temporali in More-than-Human Ecologies is a Research through Design project that reimagines incomplete historical and ecological datasets through speculative and iterative practice.
The exhibition includes:
Two large-format prints (in the picture to the left).
Three zines (also in the picture to the left, just below the large prints).
Here is a copy of a single edition zine tilted (Un)balances: Entangled Destinies.
3. A video (on the right).
Who's it for?
This work is for anyone curious about how data shapes the stories we tell about history, nature, and society.
It was well received by ATL-based conservation NGOs for visualizing local climate data in new ways such as showing change over time and designers appreciated the playful rethinking of the grid as a way to represent temporality.
The goal is also to spark a bit of healthy scepticism by encouraging viewers to question data outputs (both which data is omitted from datasets, and which is generated by AI) and think more critically about what they represent and whose perspectives they carry.
Approach
This project reimagines incomplete historical and ecological datasets through speculative, iterative methods. Using graphic design, image-making, and printing techniques (risograph, inkjet, curated paper), it produces books and prints that visualize archival shipwreck records and predator-prey data from the Great Lakes (USA).
Through layered titles and experimental forms, the project explores how data gaps shape historical narratives, challenging fixed interpretations and highlighting the fluid, relational nature of time, knowledge, and more-than-human ecologies. It invites viewers to see data as open, unstable, and rich with interpretive possibility.
Contribution
This project reimagines data as a site of creative and critical inquiry, showing that historical and ecological records are not fixed truths but fragmented, interpretive artifacts. By blending design, storytelling, and speculation, it opens up new ways of understanding the past and envisioning more inclusive, relational futures.
It changes the world by shifting how we relate to data by encouraging people to question whose histories are told, what gets left out, and how knowledge is constructed, ultimately fostering more ethical and imaginative ways of designing for the future.
Why is it in the Observatory?
This project demonstrates how Design Research can surface hidden narratives and challenge assumptions about objectivity in data. By blending archival research with speculative design, it offers a compelling method for rethinking how histories are visualized, highlighting Design Research’s ability to engage complexity through poetic, critical practice.
It probes the capacity of generative AI to speculate on ecological dynamics beyond the bounds of available data.