The Unfolding Ecologies research cluster at LUCA School of Arts (Genk, Belgium) brings together artistic and design research addressing socio-ecological challenges, using situated, participatory and speculative methods to investigate and engage with relationships between people, other species and their environments.

Sustainist Gaze – Kristof Vrancken

Unfolding Ecologies explores how art and design can address urgent socio-ecological challenges including environmental degradation, natural resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and climate change. We involve people and communities affected by these issues in our research to shape conversations about more just and sustainable futures. By co-creating artifacts, experiences, and systems in local contexts, we aim to make sense of these complex challenges together and ground them in everyday life. We collaborate across disciplines and work with a variety of partners in the field.

Our design and art research integrates action, reflection, theory, and practice to generate actionable knowledge. We draw on insights from media studies, political ecology, anthropology, science and technology studies, and environmental philosophy.

We specialize in situated, participatory, and speculative approaches prioritizing relational ways of knowing in entangled ecological systems. Through our work, we develop new methods for material engagement in art and design as ecological practices shaping relationships between humans and other species.

Unfolding Ecologies is a research cluster at LUCA School of Arts and the Associated Faculty of the Arts of KU Leuven, Belgium.

Our base camp is LUCA Campus Genk; a coal mining heritage site in the east of Belgium. Address: C-mine 5, 3600 Genk.

GET TO KNOW OUR TEAM

EXPLORE OUR PROJECTS