Research Catalogue

Dóra Ísleifsdóttir is a former Professor of Visual Communication, Design, KMD, UiB—now an independent design researcher affiliated still with UiB as a guest and PhD supervisor.

Her art and design is grounded in the ideas and methodology of metadesign and metamodernism. She has applied these ideas and methodologies in practice, in the design of study programmes, and in art projects and artistic collaboration, such as the Ether project, the Universities House of Ideas, and Alda – association for sustainability and democracy.

Dóra's research is on Asemic writing, a recent term for a long standing practice in Graphic design and Fine art in the form of wordless poetry and script based works. The asemic explores the visual language in the form of bodily and gestural expression through the method of writing and poetic means. Asemic writing is situated at the intersection of drawing and writing and gives insight into fundamental aspects of written forms. It has a direct relation to concrete poetry in which effect or meaning is conveyed through the visual language, by visual expression, by using words, letters, and typographical devices. The difference is that asemic works have no specific semantic content, and may communicate that for which there are no words, by the wordless, and when words are not allowed.

She claims to be a design generalist, and her work can be read as consistently and simultaneously critical and aspirational; rational and blithely emotional; dead dry and utterly foolish; there is radical optimism to be found in the works of the Icelandic Love Corporation during her time with the group; a hope for unity and poetry runs through her personal work and her activities, including continued design activism participation and initiatives. There is nothing speculative to her action, it is filled with sense, grace, and trust in the human spirit and a willingness to do better; if and when models of desirable actions are available. She wants to be of use in the making of such models.