Dora Isleifsdottir

Sense · Grace · Trust // Will work for: Food, Art, Love
Iceland, Norway (residence), Iceland (citizenship) °1970
research interests: Metadesign, Metamodernism, Design research, Design, Semiotics of type, typography, Branding, visual communication, visual language, asemic writing, design thinking, editorial design, book-making, visual identity, visual intelligence, publishing
affiliation: Member of Grafil, FÍT honorary member (Associaton of Graphic Designers in Iceland), Association Typographique Internationale (atypi)
en

Dóra Ísleifsdóttir is Professor of Visual Communication, Design, KMD, UiB.

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, but 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, and nurture like-spirited creative people, projects, and actions.


research

research expositions

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works

  • Presentation: Artistic research, KMD, UiB, Norway. January 2020 in Plymouth University (29/01/2020)
    Event: Presentation, Design, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, artist(s)/author(s): Dora Isleifsdottir, Åse Huus
    Presentation: Artistic research, KMD, UiB, Norway. January 2020 in Plymouth University. Given to the Message research cluster group by Victoria Squire’s invitation.
  • Ymt, volume 1, 2019. Online version. (04/04/2019)
    Publication: Publication, Visual communication, Design, KMD, UiB, artist(s)/author(s): Dora Isleifsdottir, Åse Huus
    Ymt 1, editorial by Dóra Ísleifsdóttir and Åse Huus. About Ymt: Ymt is an experimental publication, available in a limited edition print and is open source online as CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Ymt editors are Dóra Ísleifsdóttir and Åse Huus. Ymt is created in an Editorial design course with second year BA students of Visual communication, who work with content from academic staff at KMD, and MA alumni. Each author has sole responsibility for the content of his or her article, including all text and images. Any errors that result from the editorial design of the magazine are due to it being designed as coursework assignment and KMD does not accept responsibility for any consequences thereof.
  • Ymt, volume 1, 2019. Printed version. Cover. (04/04/2019)
    Publication: Publication, Visual communication, Design, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, artist(s)/author(s): Dora Isleifsdottir, Åse Huus
    Ymt magazine, volume 1, 2019. Printed version; edition 450. Editors: Dóra Ísleifsdóttir and Åse Huus Designers: BA 2nd year, autumn 2018.
  • Dóra & Åse—who are we? (29/01/2020)
    Event: Presentation, artist(s)/author(s): Dora Isleifsdottir, Åse Huus
    A presentation to students and staff in Visual communication, Plymouth University, UK, about Visual communication and what we do with it. JAN 2020.
  • Ymt, volume 2, 2020. Printed version. (12/08/2020)
    Publication: Publication, Visual communication, Design, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, artist(s)/author(s): Dora Isleifsdottir, Åse Huus
    Ymt magazine, volume 2, 2020. Printed version; edition 200. Editors: Dóra Ísleifsdóttir and Åse Huus Designers: BA 2nd year, autumn 2019.