Design-topias: Design for the Pluriverse

In a time characterised by multiple intersecting crises – what tools do we hold as designers to build better futures, meeting needs that are not being met, even exacerbated, by the market? Through this proseminar we aim to conceive design-strategies that make small contributions to enacting alternative presents in our own design-topias. We are going to explore design as world-making through the lens of critical posthumanism. Critical posthumanism as described by theorists such as Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway is becoming increasingly popular in the field of design. Examples from theory, art, design and activism that conceive of the human different to the humanist ideal will inform our discussion. We explore human’s relationship with the non-human (natural and technological), considering how to navigate entangled ecosystems. Rather than dreaming up a future utopia we are going to approach design as a future praxis for the ‘healing of the web of life’, as suggested by the anthropologist Arturo Escobar.

For successful completion of this proseminar the following requirements apply:

• Regular, punctual attendance (min. 80% of all sessions) and active participation in discussion and workshops with considered comments and questions to texts and topics (30% of grade)
• Interactive presentation of an approach towards a design-topia for the student’s own practice (30% of grade)
• A designed page (portrait or landscape) of a personal design-manifesto - deadline: 11 June - and a theoretically-backed self-reflextion (1000 words +/-10%) + references - deadline 6 July (40% of grade)

Language: German