Hugarflug 2025 - Unstable Systems by Sigmundur Pall Freysteinsson

Unstable Systems Instability can be a creative force in art, design, and architecture. Artists, designers, and scholars work both with and against systems that are ever-changing, fragile, or unpredictable. Whether dealing with technological systems, ecosystems, social structures, or sensory experiences, instability is often a prerequisite for creation. Instability opens pathways for new ideas and processes, reshaping how we approach and redesign the systems that shape our lives. It can also refer to the creative act itself—one that does not follow predetermined trajectories or established norms. Art, design, and architecture serve as tools to disrupt stable systems and/or shed new light on systems that appear stable but in reality, they are not. No system is truly stable, and when we resist that instability, it becomes a problem. Instability is perhaps the only certainty we can rely on. Hugarflug 2025, the annual conference on artistic research, will take place on September 11–12. It will serve as a platform for research that engages with instability across various systems—from technological advancements such as AI and interactive systems to issues related to politics, society, and the environment. We will explore how instability functions as a tool for generating new possibilities while also fueling unrest and transformation within society and academia. The Iceland University of the Arts invites proposals of all kinds, including presentations of ongoing or completed research by our faculty, students, and collaborators.

Hugarflug annual conference on artistic research

11. - 12. September 2025

Iceland University of the Arts

Undoing Society through Authoritanianism:

The Graphic Design of Its Ascent and Opposition.

Adam Flint Taylor

Friday, 12. september, 2025 - 13:00 - 14:30

3x20 min Presentation + 3x10 min Discussion

Moderator:

Room:

Authoritarianism thrives on instability. It weaponizes uncertainty, spreads misinformation through visual and linguistic propaganda, and exploits structural inequities to consolidate power. As designers, we are often complicit in these processes—whether through branding political campaigns, shaping user flows on social media platforms, or designing the symbols of state power.

Yet graphic design also offers tools for dissent, disruption, and collective imagination. This talk critically examines the unstable systems (political and aesthetic) that graphic design both upholds and subverts. In doing so, it proposes new design methodologies for confronting authoritarianism through critical, situated, and speculative practice.

Adam Flint Taylor
Designer and program director of visual communication at Iceland University of the Arts.

Adam Flint (b. USA) is an independent designer and assistant professor/program director of visual communication at Iceland University of the Arts. For the past decade, he has collaborated with cultural institutions such as the California Museum, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, the Southern Utah Museum of Art, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Höfuðstöðin, and the City of Reykjavík, among others. His current research interests involve the design of elections, participatory art and design and connections between graphic design and utopia.

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