From Archive to Public Encounter: Publishing Experiential Graphic Design | 2026 SEGD Academic Summit

From Archive to Public Encounter: Publishing Experiential Graphic Design | 2026 SEGD Academic Summit Speaker: Christopher Coté, Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville How can publishing become a form of experiential graphic design? In this 2026 SEGD Academic Summit presentation, Christopher Coté, Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, explores how publishing can move beyond documentation and become an active design process. Through the project Always Open, Coté examines the Knoxville Metaphysical Library and presents a framework for transforming archival material through writing, visual response, publication, circulation, and public encounter. This talk positions publishing as a relational experiential graphic design practice—one that shapes interpretation, authorship, visibility, and meaning over time. Coté discusses how designers can activate under-circulated archival materials, create new creative relationships, and design conditions for publics to emerge through sequence, transformation, and delayed encounter. Presented as part of the 2026 SEGD Academic Summit, this session contributes to conversations around design research, contested histories, archives, publishing, and the expanding methods of experiential graphic design. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: Publishing as Experiential Graphic Design 00:33 Rethinking Publishing as Experience 01:35 Publishing Theory, Filtering, and Public Encounter 03:16 Knoxville Metaphysical Library Archive 04:45 Editorial Selection and Interpretive Possibility 05:40 Trans Mediations Framework 06:19 Writers, Artists, and Sequential Interpretation 07:23 Example: From Archival Image to Painting 09:11 Delayed Encounter and Publication Structure 09:55 Designing the Printed Publication 11:18 Publication Ecology and Always Open 12:16 Website, Access, and Digital Circulation 13:18 Contributors, Isolation, and Delayed Recognition 14:01 Designed Circulation and Narrowcasting 14:49 Gathering, Reading, and Public Formation 15:22 Framework for Making Others Public 16:26 Adaptable Framework and Relational Logic 17:21 Authorship Across the Publication System 18:12 Conclusion: Publishing as Experiential Design Hashtags: #SEGD #ExperientialGraphicDesign #DesignResearch #DesignEducation #PublicationDesign This talk will be featured in Communication + Place, the official journal of experiential design, which showcases research by academics and professionals advancing the field through creative research, curriculum development, and user-centric testing. Find this at https://segd.org/resources-education/... About SEGD: SEGD is the global multidisciplinary community for experiential graphic design. We are designers of experiences connecting people to place. Visit us at https://segd.org.