Description

Knowledge-land-scape extends Saskia de Wildt’s PhD research on the ethical reconciliation of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and Western sciences within community-based polar bear research. Her research developed into a complex landscape of interconnected stories, encounters and insights, organized into pathways that readers could follow in different ways.

How can a complex and open-ended research structure become a digital publication without fixing it into a single narrative?

Working in collaboration with Saskia, I translated this research structure into a visual and technical publishing system. We chose MediaWiki as its underlying infrastructure, allowing the material to remain editable and continue evolving. I designed and developed a custom interface on top of the wiki, giving Saskia a way to build and connect her own stories while allowing readers to navigate the resulting landscape through different paths.

The system was also shaped by the conditions in which the research might be accessed. Images were kept below 1MB to reduce bandwidth requirements and the project’s digital footprint, making the publication more accessible in northern communities where internet connections can be limited. The project was conceived with a five-year online lifespan and the possibility of eventually translating the evolving website into a physical publication through a web-to-print process.

The result is a living digital publication in which the infrastructure supports the open-ended character of the research, rather than resolving it into a fixed account.

My roles:

• Publishing system
• web design & development

Research & content:

• Saskia de Wildt

Links

• Website
• Wiki