Ielyzaveta Usanova

Given by Blood is an interactive-visual novel that interrogates how graphic design and interactive storytelling can resist the aestheticization of war and challenge the silences that design often perpetuates. Illustrated, designed, and coded by Ielyzaveta (Lisa) Usanova, written by Ayra Alex Thomas, and translated by Olena Usanova, this work centers the Ukrainian body—both literal and metaphorical—as archive and witness, confronting the ongoing violence of invasion and the deeper legacies of colonial domination in wartime Ukraine.

In an era of rapid, surface-level media consumption, Given by Blood disrupts passive viewing and invites audiences into a deeper, more critical engagement with the realities of war. Rather than reducing conflict to sensationalized imagery or romanticized suffering, the project foregrounds memory, amplifies marginalized voices, and exposes the enduring structures of power that shape identity and resistance in Ukraine.

Through immersive visual storytelling and interactive design, this novel insists that war cannot be understood in isolation, nor can neutrality be an ethical response. Given by Blood stands as both an invitation and an imperative: to remember, to resist complacency, and to recognize that solidarity—rooted in memory and active engagement—is our most powerful tool against erasure and violence.