Deepta Sateesh

Background

About Deepta Sateesh

I am a design activist and researcher working towards new ecological futures. My work is driven to create new pathways in design, environment, education and policy. I conceptualize and facilitate complex projects concerned with the environment and communities, to catalyse socio-ecological change in contentious and sensitive terrains. For me, design is a creative process of inventing, adapting and imagining ways of seeing, engaging and acting in open dynamic systems, and is about constructing positive change in the environment. Research and studio projects are in collaboration with NGOs, government organisations, and communities. My own research focus is at the intersection of design and environment, inhabitants and atmosphere, movement and material. My research is oriented towards emergent creative practices, eco-pedagogies and situated policies in the context of ecological transformations and climate change for greater nature-culture synchronicities. Core fields: Design research, environmental humanities, environmental philosophy, environmental education, planning and policy. I am actively involved in international networks as a member of the Consortium of Environmental Philosophers and Steering Committee Member of Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene; Committee Member of the Coastal and Marine Research Group (RGS); and Member of IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (IUCN CEC) South/SE Asia. My past experience includes Urban & Regional Planning & strategy, with experience in institutional planning, urban design, and sustainable development planning and policy. I have worked as an environmental leader, planner and designer on projects in China (including the 2008 Beijing Olympics Master Plan), Korea, Vietnam, USA, South Africa and India. I am also a dancer/movement artist, wanderer and photographer, amateur equestrian and novice cellist.