About

Hello! My name is Letícia Ferreira and I am a scholar, designer and artist. My transdisciplinary research is focused in designing and analyzing interactive and participatory experiences in public settings.

I received my PhD in Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication at the School of Arts, Humanities and Technolgy at the University of Texas at Dallas, in Dallas, Texas. In my transdisciplinary research I combine multiple methods, including creative practice, field research and design research to study interactive and participatory experiences in public spaces.

One of my goals is to develop design practices deeply rooted in the synergy between practice, theory and field research to produce meaningful experiences for participants.

My work navigates through different fields, such as public interactives, interactive design, participatory art, critical theory, social justice, and art as social practice. My practice is often connected to social justice; I have done work about worker’s rights, women’s rights, HIV/AIDS activism, refugees’ rights, among others. My installations are intimately connected with space/place, and often comment on the public spaces they are located, or use the place as a main element to produce the experience. Some of my practice consists of poetic, absurd, or surreal experiences that encourage participants to question norms and rules. I design pieces that afford reflections about the worlds we live in, and invite participants to imagine which other worlds we could create and inhabit.

You can download my full CV here.

Affiliations

Laboratory for Synthetic and Electronic Poetry (LabSynthE) – directed by xtine burrough

Since 2016 I have worked with LabSynthE in several participatory art pieces which have been installed in different festivals and conferences. I have taken a student leadership role and contributed to all parts of the creative process of our pieces, from inception, production, installation, documentation, and publication.

Public Interactives Research Team/Public Interactives Research Lab (PIRL) – directed by Anne Balsamo, Dale MacDonald and Heidi Cooley

Since 2014 I am a member of the Public Interactives Research Team. First based at The New School, in New York, NY, we were renamed as Public Interactives Research Lab when we moved to the University of Texas at Dallas, TX. I have contributed in design research projects of the lab, such as the AIDS Quilt Touch project, given workshops, and taken a student leadership role in the organization, planning and execution of the activities of the lab.