| Abstract: | 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, and economic, technological and scientific developments are so densely entangled – not least in design. But what happens when we turn things around and decenter “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 and designers traversing activism, anthropology, design practice, design theory, economics, environmental humanities, ethics, history, law, philosophy, politics, 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 an interdisciplinary conversation 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 design practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity's possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabit ants. 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? |
|---|
| Additional Information: | Design Beyond the Human explores ideas that transcend disciplines in their reflection upon contemporary global conditions. Global challenges, such as 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 development are so densely entangled. In no field is this so evident as that of Design, as academic discipline or cultural practice, which recognises the need for interaction with other knowledge areas. Design Beyond the Human is a collection of essays by scholars and designers from the Global South and Global North, traversing anthropology, sociology, philosophy, ethics, history, politic, economic, law, cellular agriculture, technology, design theory and design practice. Through a series of essays organized into three sections - We Are Not Alone, Design Beyond the Human, and Mediating Human–Non-Human Relations Through Design, the text generates a transdisciplinary conversation 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-centered design and its interdependence with capitalism, and the nascent design practices and projects that are attempting to reconcile humanity’s possible relationship with the planet, its ecosystems and inhabitants. In this sense, the design projects discussed in Design Beyond the Human address subjects such as human ecology, human-animal relations, cellular agriculture, digital technology, biotechnology, physics, chemistry, computing, conservation, ecotourism, climate change, indigenous knowledge and biodiversity. In this sense, Design Beyond the Human offers the reader an opportunity to engage with expertise, knowledge, methodologies or languages offered 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 “Spaceship Earth”? |
|---|
Lists
Lists![[img]](/7975/1.haslightboxThumbnailVersion/Book%20Cover%207975.jpg)
