HUGO PILATE
DESIGN RESEARCHER & DIGITAL ARTIST 
COUNTER-TWINNING IN GOTHENBURG

2023 - 2025  MASTERS THESIS, MFA in Design, HDK-Valand

An investigation of Gothenburg’s urban digital twinning ecosystem with a critical interrogation of its actors’ ability to provide opportunities for meaningful civic engagement.

The project resulted in the production of three “counter-twins” which explore new approaches to spatio-temporal visualizations of contested sites by drawing inspiration from the practice of counter-cartography.


Project microsite (🔗 External)
Masters thesis (🔗 External)

DESIGN STRATEGY
NEW MEDIA ART
CRITICAL SPATIAL PRACTICE
CO-PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAMMETRY
COUNTER-CARTOGRAPHY
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION



WHATAMESS.CITY

2024 — Self-Initiated

What A Mess is an artist collective founded by Pedro Gil Farias and myself, exploring how the digital and physical built environments inform each other; with a special interest for less market-dependent ways of engaging with these spaces. 

Our work uses a mix of site-specific documentation processes then translated into interactive installations made using readily available open-source tools (as much as possible!).


Collective’s site (🔗 External)
NEW MEDIA ART
CRITICAL SPATIAL PRACTICE
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION



ENVISIONING THE CONSOLIDATION OF GOTHENBURG’S LOCAL FOOD ECOSYSTEM

2024 — Client: AlmostThere for Natet

Evening-long workshop bringing together producers, distributors, processors and potential customers to identify core values, drivers, and challenges shaping the development of Gothenburg’s local food ecosystem.

My role was to consult on workshop design, production and documentation, with a focus on providing a hybrid experience for online and in-person participants, and producing a booklet capturing the consolidated set of recommended strategies .
DESIGN STRATEGY
CO-PRODUCTION
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION


TURFU PROJECT WORLDBUILDING FROM THE PERIPHERIES OF THE WORLD

2022 - 2025 — Funding: Erasmus+ Grant

The Turfu Project is an EU-funded effort to develop a worldbuilding methodology and playbook for youths across Europe living in various forms of peripheries. The intent of the project was to encourage the imagination of desirable futures rooted in otherwise often overlooked territories, based on an original concept by artist and philosopher, Makan Fofana.

My role was to managed the development of the playbook, design and roll-out its visual identity, and coordinate efforts across consortium members.


Project Instagram: (🔗 External)
DESIGN STRATEGY
CO-PRODUCTION
WORLDBUILDING
TURFU


WHO KNOWS WHAT A BODY IS

2024 — Self-initiated

A video triptych, depicting a retro-speculative narrative of a world where the use of artificial organs to enhance one’s quality of life and wellbeing has become commonplace. 

The project explores questions around how the human body is multiply enacted, allowing it to be simultaneously performed as porous and contained, as well as private and communal. 

A collaboration with Oshin Siao Bhatt and Amartya Ghosh, commissioned by Tok Currators and exhibited at Kindl for the New Subject group show.

NEW MEDIA ART
WORLDBUILDING


WHATEVER COMES NEXT

2024 — Self-Initiated

An audiovisual performance presented live at Smedjegatan 5 in Gothenburg aka Syntropia. The site-specific work questions the past, present, and future of this address by putting it in dialogue with a spiritual twin, the Whirling-In-Rags.

This performance uses Streaming Diffusion and Touchdesigner to reinterpret archival images, video game footage from Disco Elysium, and footage of the area I captured during neighborhood walks. The piece was performed using live generated visuals accompanied by a text I wrote and performed by Oshin Siao Bhatt, on the potential futures of the area.


Full performance (🔗 External)
Photos by Robin Rydén
Process zine (🔗 External)

NEW MEDIA ART
CRITICAL SPATIAL PRACTICE
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION
LIVE PERFORMANCE


LA CITÉ DE L’IMAGE ET
DU VIVANT

2023 —  Client: Fabbula for Redman

An online 3D space and strategy proposal for co-designing the programming of the CITÉ DE L’IMAGE ET DU VIVANT. This virtual space was used in the submission of an architectural proposal to the city of Arles in France.

The space worked as an interactive exhibit staging the needs and expectations of future inhabitants of the campus. The preparation of the space included the benchmarking similar campuses around the world and a deep dive into new professional bifurcations emerging in rapidly shifting image-making professions.


DESIGN STRATEGY
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION
PHOTOGRAMMETRY



UX CONCEPTS FOR EV UTILITY TRUCKS

2022 — Client: Pull Experience (for confidential client)

How might new in-car digital experiences help large EV car owners adapt their vehicles to their adventurous lifestyles?

Concept development and prototyping of future in-car services based on global research insights captured by the Pull Experience team for a leading automotive manufacturer.

DESIGN STRATEGY
USER RESEARCH
UX DESIGN


ROTTERDAM MOBILITY INTERVENTION STRATEGY

2022 — Client: Humankind

How might design thinking tools help coordinate the municipality’s various mobility transition proposals?

The workshop, organized by Humankind invited several mobility experts from Rotterdam to coordinate their efforts in creating a pedestrian street intervention between two central locations, Kruisplein and Eendrachtsplein.


Humankind’s report (External 🔗)

DESIGN STRATEGY
CO-PRODUCTION
SITE-SPECIFIC PRODUCTION