Portuguese media artist and design researcher working in-between the digital and built environment. With a focus on informal, DIY, subversive and participatory ways of making (the city).
While media-agnostic, I primarily work with found material (images, video, objects, audio, 3D scans, personal stories, etc.) that I then archive, re-contextualise, layer and remix to make sense and visible the hidden rules, power structures and everyday narratives that shape our urban environments.
My work moves between two different but complementary contexts. On one hand, through autonomous artistic interventions (installations, film, workshops, printmaking, etc.) that question and reflect on urban issues. On the other, by doing ethnographic and design research projects, with a participatory approach, to understand how residents experience, negotiate, and re‑imagine their built environment.
My work has been published in the Participatory Design Conference (PDC22) and showcased in venues such as V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Zagreb Contemporary Art Museum (MSU), WIP Festival, Milan Machinima Festival, Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival, Gentler Futures Festival, Placemaking week and Rotterdam Architecture Month.
I’m currently based in Rotterdam, part of artist collective WHAT A MESS, member of Mesh Print Club and currently part-time design researcher at Humankind agency for urban change.
CV
Key collabs: CYENS, Unity in Diversity, Art Rotterdam, Baltan Laboratories, Extinction Rebellion (XR) Netherlands, Toyno and Humankind.
Leading design research and creative projects at Humankind, an urban change agency focusing on cities and public space. Key Clients & collabs: Amsterdam Municipality; Rotterdam Municipality; EIT (European Institute of Technology) Urban Mobility; TUM; Dutch Cycling Embassy.
MAR 2025 | ‘Echoes of Us’ installation @ Art Rotterdam. 2025
MAR 2025 | ‘In Search of Productive Friction’ short film @ Milan Machinima Festival
OCT 2024 | Presentation of short film ‘Monuments of Incident’ during Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam as part of the Film & architecture Studio @ AFFR | Rotterdam, NL
OCT 2024 | Solo exhibition @ Social Hub Rotterdam
AUG 2024 | Mesh Group exhibition at Radio Brutus @ Brutus | Rotterdam, NL
MAY 2024 | ‘Lagares do Alvará’ presented in group exhibition at Gentler Futures Festival | Lisboa, PT
OCT 2023 | Group exhibition “Extended Worlds” @ Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) organised by KONTEJNER | Zagreb, CR
OCT 2023 | ‘What a Mess’ presented at WIP Festival @ CYENS | Nicosia, CY
AUG 2023 | Mesh group exhibition “On Repetition” @ Garage Rotterdam | Rotterdam, NL
MAY 2023 | “Realities in Transition” Test Lab @ V2_Lab | Rotterdam, NL
MAR 2023 | ‘In the process of Making’ Group exhibition @ Treehouse NDSM | Amsterdam, NL
APR 2023 | ‘War for breakfast’ group exhibition @ Neck of the Woods III | Rotterdam, NL
FEB 2021 | Haul Earth Ledger, Virtual Exhibition @ Mozilla Festival 2021
RESIDENCIES & GRANTS
JUN 2024 | CBK Practical funding
AUG 2023 | CBK Practical funding
MAR – MAY 2023 | Realities in Transition resident @ V2_Lab for Unstable Media | Rotterdam, NL
PUBLICATIONS, WORKSHOPS & TALKS
JUN 2023 | “The Skatable City” workshop @ Rotterdam Architecture Month, NL
MAY 2023 | The World as it is @ ZIP Space | Rotterdam, NL
APR 2023 | AI in the Hood @ Baltan Laboratories | Eindhoven, NL
APR 2023 | What a Mess workshops @ V2_ | Rotterdam, NL
PUBLICATIONS
P.G Farias., R. Bendor, B.F. van Eekelen (2022) Social dreaming together: A critical exploration of participatory speculative design. In Participatory Design Conference 2022: Volume 2 (PDC 2022 Vol. 2),. ACM, New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3537797.3537826
EDUCATION
2013 – 2017 _ BA in Industrial Design by Lisbon’s University Faculty of Fine Arts
2017 – 2020 _ Msc in Strategic Design by TU Delft, thesis on participatory speculative design
2024 _ Film & Architecture Studio at Independent School for the City and AFFR