Jeff Kasper

Artist Statement

I practice soft design: a responsive, relational approach to creative practice rooted in care, cultural accessibility, and alternative tempos of engagement. Informed by disability justice and trauma-informed pedagogy, soft design challenges the norms of urgency, rigidity, and control that often shape design and public space. Instead, I center tenderness, adaptability, and cooperation.

I create contemplative installations, text-based works, public art, publications, community education, and participatory experiences that serve as gentle disruptions—spaces for reflection, social support, and shared presence. Much of my work focuses on developing tools for embodied dialogue: visual prompts, scripts, signage, and spatial interventions that help publics and organizations navigate vulnerability, difference, and collective care. These tools are not just conceptual; they are designed to be used, shared, and adapted in practice.

I aim to produce environments that feel safe and open enough for people to show up as they are, and practices that make emotional intelligence visible and actionable. My work invites people to pause, to listen with care, and to engage with the invisible infrastructures of emotion, proximity, and connection.