Dia duit, is mise Ruby–I’m a designer, Gaeilgeoir, ponderer and perpetual treasure-hunter, based in Co. Wicklow. My work is rooted in themes of Irish identity, ecology and explorations of how we navigate both our physical and digital landscapes. I enjoy writing and photography, and much of my final year work uses both my own words and photos. My research and design practice involves many long walks & talks with friends, gathering strange bits of ephemera and reading lots of books. I see design as inherently a social, political practice that can never be neutral, and I aim to use it as a tool for positive social, ecological and local action.
Athfhás means regrowth as Gaeilge. This is a map of colonial language loss, deforestation and near-forgotten local knowledge - but also of regrowth and remembering. The enclosed cut-out photos allow the walker to experiment with 'live-collage' as they ruminate on the lifespan of the mountains and trees around them.
Tree Text is an exploration of decentralised networks, of symbiotic systems both biological and technological, and of the ways we are failing this planet by placing ourselves at the top of a hierarchy we invented. The information within is non-linear and branching, designed to be cross-referenced, jumped between and navigated intuitively. Underlined text signals a direct link to another topic in a reference to our digital language of hyperlinks.
