ArtsUP! METAVERSE Aroussiak Gabrielian is an environmental designer and bioartist working with living organisms, natural systems, and atmospheric phenomena to explore mutispecies entanglements across scales. Her work aims to torque our imaginaries to help us rethink our interactions with both human and non-human agents on this planet.

Aroussiak’s work has received numerous design recognitions including the Emerging Designer Awards from the Design Futures Initiative, the Tomorrowland Projects Foundation Award administered through the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Word Changing Ideas Awards recognized by Fast Company, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. She has exhibited internationally at various institutions, including SXSW, Ars Electronica Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, the Eli & Edith Broad Museum Art Lab, A+D Museum Los Angeles, the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York City, Science Gallery Detroit, among others.

Aroussiak is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism at the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, where she teaches design across ecologic and biologic scales. She is an Affiliate Faculty of Media Arts Practice at the School of Cinematic Arts and Founding Director of the Landscape Futures Lab, which is focused on expanding the climate imaginary. Outside of academia, Aroussiak is a member of NEW INC, the arts and technology incubator of the New Museum in New York City, and Founding Design Principal of foreground design agency, a critical design practice based in Los Angeles that aims to dismantle structures of power and privilege that render specific humans, species, and matter silent.