DESIGNING FOR MORE THAN HUMAN FUTURES: DESIGN RESEARCH BEYOND HUMANITY

FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2021 at 10:00 - 13:00 (EST/UTC/GMT-04:00)
Duration: 3 Hours
Language: English

We live in an epoch, which is defined as the Anthropocene, in which human activity has the dominant influence on the climate and the environment. Direct or indirect, many species are subject to our fluctuating needs, motives, and expectations. The Anthropocene is a system that we designed, but it also designs us. Although it is based on continuous growth, it only serves us humans at the expense of nature. It marginalizes the rest of the planet while the well-being of the same planet is at stake. Centering humans runs the risk of oversimplifying how chaotic and entangled our lives with non-humans are and the effects our way of life has on other beings and the environment.

Other living organisms and non-living matter also play an essential role. "More than humans" such as animals, bacteria, algae, mycelium, and technological systems develop with us and shape us and our environment. At the same time, awareness of our global networking and interdependence with these "more than humans" is growing. Nonetheless, design practice remains human-centered. However, human-centered design is no longer able to identify and address the increasingly complex challenges that we will face in the future.

How could things look, how would we design, if the human perspective was changed, if we decentered humans? How would "more than humans" design the world? Does a new design language have to be developed to facilitate dialogue and create new narratives?

In this interactive co-creation workshop we want to encourage the participants to critically question the prevailing design principle of human-centered design and examine whether it is still representative of our current interactions with nature and technology in order to then propose a contemporary design approach beyond the anthropocentric perspective. Through several exercises such as developing speculative scenarios and narratives, creating critical objects, and generating a more than human glossary, the participants are encouraged to explore the future from multispecies perspectives and contribute to a positive ecological and social transformation.

The workshop is planned to be a part of Juliana Schneider's MA thesis research (Designing for More Than Human Futures: Design Research Beyond Humanity). This means that data which is generated during the workshop will be collected. Before the workshop, an information sheet will be sent out and the participant's will be asked to consent on collecting the data.

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