Скачать или смотреть Michelle Westerlaken: It Matters What Designs Design Designs: Speculations on Multispecies Worlds

Lecture conducted during WUD Silesia 2019 conference in Katowice, Poland
Full Title: It Matters What Designs Design Designs: Speculations on Multispecies Worlds
Speaker: Michelle Westerlaken

Description:
Traditionally, the field of design is established by humans, with the goal to develop artefacts and interactions for humans. Nowadays, however, most designers also learned that their practice has a large impact on the environment and that it is always politically charged. This means that design processes and outcomes are never innocent, and do not only affect humans, but all kinds of entities and living beings.

In this talk, Michelle Westerlaken will elaborate on the implications of this statement with a focus on designing – not only for humans – but for other animals as well. She will argue that, to be able to break with our outdated anthropocentric assumptions, we need to find the kinds of stories (or designs) that can inspire us to think differently about our current world and our relationships with other animals. This is a crucial first step in coming up with ideas for alternative futures.

The second part of the talk will feature a range of examples from the field of design in which humans and other animals are already negotiating a move from speciesist (oppressive and exploitative) relations, towards more respectful – multispecies – encounters. Here she will also include some of the ways in which cats, dogs, ants, and penguins have been involved in her own design projects.

The field of design is – in one way or another – always connected to the ‘possible’. The aim of this talk is therefore to encourage designers to move from a focus on only critiquing the status quo towards finding ways to inspire other, more desirable, possibilities for the future.

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