EMILY GILLCRIST
  • About
  • Art 2020-2024
    • Paintings 2019
    • Step Lightly 2011-2019
    • Difference & Identity 2010-2014
    • Night Series 2010
    • Point + Form 2010
  • Resume
  • CV
  • Vital Thought
  • About
  • Art 2020-2024
    • Paintings 2019
    • Step Lightly 2011-2019
    • Difference & Identity 2010-2014
    • Night Series 2010
    • Point + Form 2010
  • Resume
  • CV
  • Vital Thought
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Culture     eats    strategy  
for   breakfasT.
- Peter Drucker

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I'm Emily Gillcrist, a technocritic, cultural strategist, and the founder of Vital Thought. I research, create, manage, and consult.
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is an edtech startup providing humanities insight from PhD trained experts in real time. We specialize in contemporary theory, cultural literacy, and tech ethics. It began as an experiment in alt ed during pandemic lockdown; now platform beta testing is underway.  Learn more here.
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I was interviewed on Digital Void by founders Jamie Cohen--digital culture expert, Vital Thought instructor, and Professor at Queens College; and Josh Chapdelaine--Producer at Team Human and Special Projects Manager at All Tech Is Human. Listen.

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Instagram Live with Sophia Basaldua-Sun: Associate Director of DEI at Penguin Random House; Vital Thought Instructor and advisor; and the scholarly influencer behind @themetropolitanist.


Public engagement and research on democracy, tech, and culture

I contributed to and was profiled in the 2023 Tech & Democracy report from All Tech Is Human. Read.
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As Deputy Director for Democracy and the Geopolitics of Tech, I drove the completion of the Digital Cognition and Democracy Initiative papers at the Institute for Security and Technology. Explore.
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                      Other current projects:

Sustainable Urban Horticulture: I'm currently consulting on brand and growth strategy, and helping to build a more beautiful and sustainable community while apprenticing with the Master Gardener behind Green Bey Gardens NYC.

Research: I have been tracking and synthesizing insights from a range of interdiciplinary and cross industry sources for over 15 years. I focus particularly on: science & technology studies, cognitive science, sustainability, consciousness studies, existential phenomenology, and psychoanalytic deconstruction, market trends, ecological & landscape change and management, higher education, the responsible tech industry, art & design, activism and social movements, alt economies, media, material and experiential culture and subculture on and off the internet.

Writing: My doctoral research in Cultural Analysis & Theory analyzes the history and psychology of technoindustrial power in relation to the climate crisis.

Painting: My visual work is influenced by themes in my research: materiality, vitality, and the tension of the nature/culture relation. 

Consulting: I provide guidance for special research initiatives, small organization growth, experiential analysis, and aesthetic and cultural strategy. Schedule a free meeting by email at [email protected].



  • About
  • Art 2020-2024
    • Paintings 2019
    • Step Lightly 2011-2019
    • Difference & Identity 2010-2014
    • Night Series 2010
    • Point + Form 2010
  • Resume
  • CV
  • Vital Thought