Correlations 2024: Tereza Ruller (The Rodina)
As part of the Correlations Forum, we welcomed Tereza Ruller (The Rodina) for a talk on The Synthesized Self – Crafting Personal Narratives through AI and Sound. Tereza Ruller (she/her) is a mother, communication designer, and educator. Through her practice – The Rodina – she explores a performative and critical approach to communication design. Her transdisciplinary work emphasizes the power of situation, playfulness, active spectatorship, and the relationships between human and nonhuman actors.
Ruller’s work thrives in the cultural context, weaving together participatory events, spatial installations, virtual environments, and visual identities. Addressing critical ecological and social issues of our time, she seeks to foster collective shifts in perspective, embracing the interdependence that defines our shared world. Tereza Ruller is a professor of Communication Design and Digital Practices at HfG Karlsruhe. She also lectures and leads workshops internationally at institutions like ZHdK, CalArts, RCA, and Design Academy Eindhoven, and collaborates with cultural institutions such as CARA New York, Harvard GSD, and ZKM Karlsruhe. In her presentation, Ruller explored how artificial intelligence and generative sound technologies can be used to tell deeply personal stories. Drawing from Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, she examined how dissolving the boundaries between human and machine opens up new possibilities for self-expression, identity, and authorship. The talk offered insights into Ruller’s transdisciplinary design practice, which blends communication design, critical theory, and performative strategies to challenge normative narratives and foster playful, collective engagement.
The talk took place on Friday, 13 December 2024, at 10:00 AM in the Aula at the University of Arts and Design Offenbach.
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Design: Tobias Jan Abel
Foto: Cheesoo Park