About
Embodied Cartographies is my digital archive and portfolio. It documents my work in critical cartography, fluid ontological mapping, and the research that leads toward a doctoral enquiry—including the embodied cartographic approach and the living instrument for public service redesign.
ethansheaf.com — portfolio, contact, and links
Biography
I am Ethan Sheaf-Morrison, a communication designer and researcher operating out of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. My practice is fundamentally shaped by the geopolitical realities of this region, where questions of land, sovereignty, and the politics of representation are not abstract concepts but daily negotiations.
Holding a Master of Design with Distinction from Victoria University of Wellington, I have spent the formative years of my career examining how complex systems—whether environmental, bureaucratic, or social—are visualised and consequently understood. My thesis, Mapping Human/Earth Systems, established the baseline for my current enquiry, challenging the reductionist tendencies of traditional data visualisation in favour of a holistic visual language capable of articulating the "wicked problems" of the Anthropocene.
Approach
My approach to design is characterised by a deliberate tension between the "hard" quantitative data prized by urban planners and the "soft," volatile data of human existence. I utilise the visual vocabulary of bureaucracy to map the "unmappable" subjectivities of marginalised youth or the ephemeral archetypes of The Dream Atlas, aiming to create a "fluid ontological" interface that speaks truth to power in its own dialect.
Work
Currently, my work is pivoting toward formalising these experiments into a scalable "living instrument" for public service redesign, specifically within the context of the embodied cartographic approach. The portfolio of work presented here—ranging from the geopolitical counter-mapping of the Western Sahara phosphate crisis to the psychogeographic exploration of dream states and the foundations laid in my masters thesis, Mapping Human/Earth Systems—serves as the prefigurative groundwork for this research.
These projects are not disparate case studies but iterative steps toward a singular goal: the democratisation of cartographic power and the renegotiation of the social contract through the lens of critical design.