Known Otherwise: Design as Sensemaking in Times of Uncertainty

Known Otherwise is the 2026 University of Texas at Austin MFA in Design thesis exhibition. The title challenges the idea of knowledge as singular or objective, highlighting ways of knowing rooted in culture, memory, embodiment, and resistance. Known Otherwise frames sensemaking as an inherently political and personal act: to “know otherwise” is to insist that there are truths not sanctioned by institutions, not visible in mainstream discourse, yet no less real or meaningful.

This exhibition proposes that making sense is never neutral—it’s shaped by who we are, what we’ve lived, and where we come from. In design, it asks how materials, images, practices, and symbols can carry knowledge that is felt rather than explained, inherited rather than taught, or questioned rather than accepted. The exhibition is a site for surfacing, disrupting, and reframing what has previously been assumed or erased. Known Otherwise is both a proposition and an invitation to consider meaning not as something given, but as something made, remade, and understood anew.

Designers

Lala Amirguliyeva

Zachary Bynes

Lauren Campbell

Deana Marie Dieujuste

Kelsey Gamino

Ariel del Vecchio

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Visual Arts Center, 2300 Trinity Street, Austin, United States

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