Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (ayo) is a Nigerian-American artist, designer, anthropologist, and time traveler living and working in New York. He is an Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design at Parsons The New School for Design. Ayo is also a Ph.D. student in Anthropology at New School for Social Research where he explores the perceived and lived temporal experiences of Black communities.

He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at Rutgers University where he earned his B.A. His works range from painting and speculative design to physically interactive works, wearable technology, and explorations of “Reclamation”. His residency participation includes ITP’s S.I.R., IDEO’s Fortnight, The Laundromat Project, Eyebeam, New INC, and Recess Assembly. He has exhibited and presented at the 11th Shanghai Biennale, Tribeca Storyscapes, EYEO Festival, Brooklyn Museum, M.I.T. Beyond the Cradle, and Afrotectopia amongst others. 

He is the Co-founder and Director of Iyapo Repository, a resource library that exists in a nondescript future that was founded to collect and preserve artifacts to ensure the history and legacy of people of African descent. His works exist between physical and digital spaces; across the past, present and future. Okunseinde’s works ask us, via a technological lens, to reimagine notions of race, identity, politics, and culture as we travel through time and space.

At GIDEST, Ayodamola will begin work on Technologies of Protest: An Immersive Archive. The project explores ways in which technologies are utilized for and against protest and activism. The project will have as its output an immersive map, designed artifacts, a graduate course, and an exhibition.

The interactive hypertextual map that uses both physical computational instrumentation and virtual reality will be created. The immersive nature of this map will enable enhanced interaction and data retention by the audience. The "map" will serve as the primary means of sharing research, data, questions, and findings with collaborative working groups enabling participants to contribute, interrogate and add to the growing virtual map. 

The aim of the project is, through research-driven participatory design thinking, to offer speculative provocations to issues related to the intersection of technology, activism, and protest. The project examines both historical and contemporary protest movements in an attempt to glean insights that may be useful in furthering public engagement and policy change with regards to social justice.