A designer without a chair?
But with imagination.
It is often said that every “real” designer must design a chair.
I started with design at a time when it was understood mainly as industrial design, even though I studied at an Academy of Fine Arts. I quickly realized that I did not want to design products. What interested me more was why things are created, what values they carry, and what material culture says about us.
My first PhD focused on glocality in design — the relationship between the local and the global, and cultural diversity. It was a critical project rooted in curiosity, history, and the search for meaning. Futures thinking accompanied me for years, but around 2016 I began to treat it as a real field of practice. Today, I am completing my second PhD at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, developing speculative design, future studies, and thinking about space-time in a cultural context.
I grew up on science fiction — Star Trek remains an important reference point for me.
I call this way of working Applied Science Fiction: working with the future grounded in culture, not in forecasts.
EDUCATION
- design — Academy of Fine Arts |PhD focused on glocality in design and material culture
- second PhD (in progress) — Polytechnic University of Valencia (speculative design, future studies, cultural space-time)
- continuous informal education, international courses and programs
EXPERIENCE
- STUDIO FLISYKOWSKA — since 2010
- artist, designer, and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk
- artistic projects, installations, and exhibitions
- workshops and lectures in Poland and abroad
- presentations at international events
(incl. EXPO 2020 Dubai, Gwangju Design Biennale)
SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
- designing educational processes (learning by doing)
- leading workshops, lectures, and creative processes
- facilitation of teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration
- working in international and intercultural contexts
- creating installations, exhibitions, and hybrid formats