A collection of transdisciplinary essays by scholars and designers which explore humanity's relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants, now and in the future
How can design shine a light on humanity's relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants, now and in the future?
Global challenges like climate change and ecosystem degradation are proving that a singular disciplinary approach is inadequate to respond to issues where societal behaviours, individual choices, political decisions, economic, technological and scientific developments are so densely entangled - not least in design. But what happens when we turn things around and decentre “the human” to look at our relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants beyond the capitalist human-nature binary worldview?
Design Beyond the Human is a collection of essays by international scholars, designers and engaged citizens traversing activism, anthropology, conservation, creative writing, design practice, design theory, economics, education, environmental humanities, ethics, history, indigenous knowledge, law, philosophy, poetry, politics, regenerative agriculture, science, sociology and technology. Divided into three sections - We Are Not Alone, Design Beyond the Human, and Mediating Human–Non-Human Relations Through Design - the text generates conversations capable of thinking about life on planet Earth, challenging the Anglo-European anthropocentric conceptualisation of design that dominates practice, education, and academic discourse. Each section is unique: charting the transdisciplinary cultural perspective that is required to comprehend our predicament, the critique of human-centred design and its interdependence with capitalism, and the nascent practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity's possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants.
The book offers the reader an opportunity to engage with expertise, knowledge, methodologies and lived experiences from across disciplines shaped by shared concerns and provides an opportunity to question if design in a more-than-human way might reimagine design's relationship to capitalism and contemporary lifestyles. Will our planetary future be merely an ecologically aware version of today, or, in going beyond the human, might we develop a transdisciplinary perspective capable of imagining an alternative vision of life on Earth?
Arvustused
Connecting relevant dots in an emerging transdisciplinary discourse - both well-known positions and weak signals. The broad disciplinary nature of this book allows and encourages thinking and exploration of design for social, ecological, and political transformations. It could become a compass for entering uncharted territory for Humanity! * Philipp Heidkamp, Köln International School of Design, Germany * Design Beyond the Human is an essential, transdisciplinary book that boldly challenges Eurocentric design paradigms while decolonising design through diverse fields and practices. Theory and practice merge together to rethink humanitys relationship with TonantsintlalliOur Mother Earth with all entities towards a way of co-becoming for a sustainable future. * Desiree Ibinarriaga, Senior Lecturer in Design, Monash University, Australia *
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A collection of transdisciplinary essays by scholars and designers which explore humanitys relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants, now and in the future
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Foreword, Erin ODonnell (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Introduction, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Section I: We Are Not Alone
1. A Political Economy of Structural Anthropocentrism, Steven McMullen (Hope
College, USA)
2. Co-Creating Multispecies Worlds, Danielle Celermajer (University of
Sydney, Australia) and Matthew Darmour-Paul (Australia National University,
Australia)
3. Global Trajectories of Oil Palm: From African Communal Groves to Asian
Plantation Frontiers, Noboru Ishikawa (Kyoto University, Japan)
4. The Call of the Cricket, Helen Hollyman (Independent Scholar, USA) and
James Skeet (Co-founder Sprit Farm, Navajo Nation, USA)
5. Design, Education and the Moulding of Alternative Futures in the
Anthropocene, Peter Sutoris (University of Leeds, UK)
Section II: Design Beyond the Human
6. Design and the Invention of the Modern Human, Samer Akkach and John Powell
(University of Adelaide, Australia)
7. Ecological Design Thinking in the Anthropocene/Ecocene, Joanna Boehnert
(Bath Spa University, UK)
8. Indigenous Design: A Relational Practice Between People and Place, Desiree
Hernandez Ibinarriaga (Monash University, Australia)
9. Life-Centered Design: A Sub-Saharan Perspective, François-Xavier Nzi iyo
Nsenga, (Independent Scholar, Rwanda)
10. Design and Deep Time, Naiyi Wang (China Central Academy of Fine Arts,
China)
11. Orbital Debris: Design and its Extraterrestrial Aftermath, Alice Twemlow
(Royal Academy of Art, the Netherlands)
Section III: Mediating HumanNon-Human Relations Through Design
12. Consider Everything: A New Kind of Design for a Computationally
Irreducible World, J. Paul Neeley (Royal College of Art, UK)
13. Planetarity: Designing for Coexistence Erinma Ochu (University of the
West of England, UK) and Caroline Ward (The Royal College of Art, UK)
14. Indigenous Futures: Epistemologies of Care for a World in Crisis, Felipe
Viveros (Culture Hack Labs, UK)
15. A Bottom-Up Approach to Conservation: The Vertical University, Nepal,
Priyanka Bista (Vertical University, Nepal)
16. Design That Thinks Like a Mountain, Xinlin Song (Yunhe Centre, China)
17. A Larger, Less Humanised Design Community, Kate Fletcher (Manchester
Metropolitan University, UK)
18. Talking Materials: A Discursive Design Practice for a Design Beyond the
Human. Domitilla Dardi (European Institute of Design, Italy)
19. Towards a Culture of Life: A New Synthesis for the Living World, Rachel
Armstrong (KU Leuven, Belgium)
20. Designing the Future of Agriculture, Kris Spiros (From Fauna, USA)
Afterword, Elio Caccavale and Gordon Hush (Glasgow School of Art, UK)
Bibliography
Index
Professor Elio Caccavale is Subject Lead for the MDes in Design Innovation and Citizenship at The Glasgow School of Art. His teaching practice explores how design can foster more equitable relationships among all living beings and ecological systems - recognising their 'citizenship' within an expanded, more-than-human conception of society. Elios research investigates the ethical, social, and environmental dimensions of scientific knowledge and emerging technologies.
Professor Gordon Hush is Head of the School of Innovation & Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, UK. He is a Sociologist, with an interest in the way that design-led innovation initiates and informs social, economic and ecological change. He is keen to explore the ways in which scientific or technological expertise are incorporated within or applied to the material circumstances and design outcomes which shape human experience, and the consequences that these have for life on the planet.
