Beyond the Binary / Chandler Isbell (he/him)
The natural world and human experience are diverse in sexual identity and gender expression, yet society has been designed to affirm a two-gender binary. To move away from that, I am designing an inclusive sizing system to encourage expression that isn't limited by the confines of gender expectations.
Akin / Kassi John & Sofia Glaittli
Mapping our relationships and cultural engagement at Bears Ears National Monument. Akin is a digital platform bridging community knowledge directly with the lands and various nature systems.
Discover Bears Ears / Knox Helsop & Jan Pell
The Discover Bears Ears Project aims to create an immersive educational archive that connects the user with the environment within the National Monument. The archive provides information on natural and cultural artifacts using a variety of different digital mediums, like 3D scanning, photogrammetry, and 3D Rendering to enhance the interactivity of the experience. The Visit With Respect principles are also integrated within the experience to further the learning process to help reinforce the delicate nature of everything in Bears Ears. Taking the form of an application and/or website the Discover Bears Ears aims to give anyone, anywhere the opportunity to explore, discover, learn, and craft their own love of place for the desert and everything that it holds.
The Rural Utah Community Atlas / Tage Rinehart
R.U.C.A. is a platform that empowers communities in rural Utah to take control of their own spatial narratives. By providing a method of spatial self-report, R.U.C.A. attempts to subvert the settler-colonial "Map" to enable communities to create an assemblage that is relevant and appropriate for them. With physical and digital options for both information input and information access, R.U.C.A. provides a multi-faceted approach that relies on the social construction of space to encourage responsible visitation from community outsiders, and to act as a useful reference for those in the community.
Intermediate / Megan Petitt
The onslaught of information available to urban dwellers that has accompanied the rise of the digital age is hard to understate. But beyond metropolitan areas—many characterized by rugged landscapes and dispersed populations—how are rural citizens communicating vital information when internet, printed media, and TV news aren’t cutting it? Intermediate aims to fill this communication gap by activating an inherent part of rural life— travel— for the task of disseminating and dictating locally relevant information.
RED ROCK WIFI PROJECT / Rebecca Liou
The Red Rock Wifi Project fosters a sense of community among residents and reciprocity from visitors through a locally created mesh WIFI network in San Juan County. The Red Rock WIFI Project aims to create a platform of mutuality though data connection where an internet service is provided for the people, by the people.
PARALLAX: A Medium of Presence and Reflection / Lex Barrus
Parallax is designed to bring awareness to the evidence of meaning that exists in the physical world and inspires reflective action. By bringing awareness to physicality, both of the body and of the land, through the mechanism of simulated analog photography, users are inspired and presented with space to reect on their relationship with the immanent meaning of the land.
Sentience / Kayla Kingsley
There is opportunity for intervention in what influencers post and what users see. By regulating the post itself, being a video or photograph, there is opportunity to change the conversation from “where” to more importantly, “why.”
To shift from where one was located geographically, to where one was located emotionally.
Communicating Research in YNP / Jordan Rassmussen
Every day across the country research is taking place on our public lands. In Yellowstone National Park Nearly 150 studies take place each year. This research uncovers vital new insights and information about the world around us, our place in it, and how we can best interact with it. Many of us visit these areas without ever knowing of the research taking place or the results that come after.
This project seeks to increase awareness of research and make it more accessible through a digital platform in which a public land visitor can locate where research is taking place and engage with it.
The Same County / Hayley Dearden
An identification system for rural communities that includes multiple dimensions of identifiers that promotes connection and community. Partisan politics and racial tensions in San Juan County have led to a divisive political and social climate. How can we create a new sense of community through connection?
Engage / Katina Nikols (she/her)
Engage is a platform that bridges the gap between climate research and public impact. Through the use of narrative theory, this platform encourages the users to immerse themselves in research and find personal connection to the facts. It is a space for building a community around reliable knowledge and personal impact.
Made You See / Katya Pogodaeva (she/her)
Human/ non-human perceptions of the world diverge in many directions including color and the way that we see. Through a speculative subscription-based service I am attempting to create a knowledge-based archival system to expand color experiences beyond human point of view.
EcoKeeping: Reciprocity Through Outdoor Recreation / Catey Patrolia
A digital platform presented through a mobile app to help those who recreate in the Bears Ears National Monument area to identify and act upon opportunities to give back to the sacred landscape used for recreation. This platform facilitates a sense of stewardship with the land and drives new advocates for the protection of the communities and land in San Juan county.
Gaps in Translation / Christian Pugsley
With such an increasingly diverse group of international visitors arriving to the park each year, there’s no guarantee that all guests will understand behavioral and safety guidelines established by the park. A new set of visual safety and information standards, not dependent on language and readily available on all guest’s devices, could greatly increase visitor’s awareness, safety, and overall satisfaction with their park experience.
Hidden Libraries / Jareth Archer
Visitors in Yellowstone lack opportunities to connect with both the landscape and other people in an emotional way. This exploration aims to connect people and landscape using a digital storytelling platform. Users encounter “libraries” in Yellowstone which allow them to access narratives of previous visitor experiences, as well as contribute their own.
Distance Learning / Steven Calhoun
Typical distance learning programs lack interactive and experiential modes of learning. Due to this, students are unable to develop an intimate understanding and appreciation of content learned. A deeper connection to educational material can be made through contextual learning, in order to promote Yellowstone’s core values and mission, outside of the park.
Distance Learning / Brandon Marshall
Human emotions are a common thread of all of the human race, transcending culture and language. While we may be different in our social class, education or income level, we all know what it is to feel and experience a variety of emotions. This project uses the common element of human emotion to allow those who cannot experience Yellowstone in person to gain a better understanding of what constitutes the Yellowstone experience. This project is a social platform that identifies similar local experiences for the user and then highlights the similarity of the emotions locally experienced to those of the Yellowstone experience.
The Wild Spectrum / Erica Fasoli & Zac Kay
The WILD Spectrum is a social movement that challenges the traditional definition of wild. In the past, wild has been viewed as an environment uninhabited and uncultivated by humans. The WILD Spectrum aims to show that elements of wild can exist and thrive in all places and that the preservation of these animals and plants is essential to the human experience. The WILD Spectrum consists of a digital discovery platform and a physical touchstone. The digital platform educates people about how to reconnect and support their own wild community. The physical touchstone creates a visible and emotional connection between people who are part of this movement and generates funds to support its nonprofits partners.
Facilitating presence in an increasingly unpresent world / Daniel Thorne (he/him)
This project explores how if we can facilitate sole presence in the digital and physical worlds by plugging and unplugging into each, then we can strengthen our human connections
Bears Ears NAV / Dakota Janes
This product is for all monument visitors to help navigate and visit in one digital platform. With download-able maps and content, each visitor will be able to use this product in “off-line” mode in the monument through the GPS functions of their cellular device.