The presentation “Responding through design” addresses the use of the ecological notion of respon... more The presentation “Responding through design” addresses the use of the ecological notion of response diversity (Elmqvist Et al. 2003) as a frame to develop naturecultures. It does so by focusing on ...
Translation of the author's doctoral thesis: Devices. On Hospitality, Hostility and Design. h... more Translation of the author's doctoral thesis: Devices. On Hospitality, Hostility and Design. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/28925
In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled 'Spices-Specie... more In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled 'Spices-Species'. Through this case study, I discuss the possibility of designing using two decolonial strategies-"objectivity (or truth) in parenthesis" and " being where one does and thinks"-that can lead to delinking, on a micropolitical scale, from colonial social patterns as well as reconnecting humans with natural processes and beings to which they are detached by means of devices. The paper suggests that these decolonial strategies, combined with the performance of designed artefacts may help to acknowledge not only human diversity, but also the multiple and diverse nonhuman beings that conform and participate in different localities. SPICES-SPECIES 'Spices-Species' was the working title of one of three projects developed in Argentina in the context of my postdoctoral research entitled Symbiotic tactics. 1 All 1 Developed between 2014-2016 and financed by the Swedish Research Council. The design proposals of this paper resulted from a collaboration with designer Leonardo Lopez, while consulting scientists at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Vegetal Biology in Córdoba. Crucial to these studies was Mariano Lucia's advice, being a researcher specialist in carpenter bees at the Entomology Museum in La Plata. It is worth noting that the project was originally conceived through a 'ecologizing' framing rather than a 'decolonizing' one. three projects addressed everyday life, and in the case of 'Spices-Species', it addressed it at an 'intimate' scale; based on the relations we humans establish with nonhuman beings, in this case plants, by ingesting them, either because they are edible or because they can be used for medicinal purposes, thus inter and intra acting through their chemistry and materiality with our bodies.
In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled ‘Spices-Specie... more In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled ‘Spices-Species’. Through this case study, I discuss the possibility of designing using two decolonial strategies — "objectivity (or truth) in parenthesis" and " being where one does and thinks"— that can lead to delinking, on a micropolitical scale, from colonial social patterns as well as reconnecting humans with natural processes and beings to which they are detached by means of devices. The paper suggests that these decolonial strategies, combined with the performance of designed artefacts may help to acknowledge not only human diversity, but also the multiple and diverse nonhuman beings that conform and participate in different localities.
This essay commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of Felix Guattari’s The Three Eco... more This essay commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of Felix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies. It does so by proposing a ‘diffractive’ reading of the book, suggesting latent potential in each of the overlapping “ecologies” that conformed the ecosophy sketched by Guattari. There are mainly two aspects of The Three Ecologies addressed in this essay. Firstly, the understanding of the general frame of the interrelation of the three ecologies as an “intersectional” approach. Secondly, the understanding of this form of intersectionality as a possible platform to acknowledge other-than human ‘intersections’. Through the essay I exemplify with one of my own design projects to help situating the claims and the questions raised. Finally, I propose a multimodal explorative framework of the three ecologies to explicitly articulate human and other-than-human beings inter and intra-relatedness.
Images in pages 54, 83 and 114 (published in the original book version, March 2012) are not part ... more Images in pages 54, 83 and 114 (published in the original book version, March 2012) are not part of this digital version; thus, the text corresponding to these images has been slightly modified to adapt the narrative and the referencing to these works.
Interactive Institute, Sweden '3Ecologies' makes visible factors affecting the sustainability of ... more Interactive Institute, Sweden '3Ecologies' makes visible factors affecting the sustainability of consumer products. Within engineering and economics, there are a variety of models for analyzing and 'predicting' the environmental factors such as energy, emissions and waste involved during production, consumption and disposal. We develop an expanded model, which emphasizes human impact and choices as well as potential consequences and futures. Psychological, sociological and environmental factors are mapped over timethroughout the lifespan (production, purchase, use, and disposal) and the extended lifecycle(s) of products. Case studies of familiar products in everyday life are developed to demonstrate the conceptual model, and three applications are proposed to reach designers, consumers and the general public. 3Ecologies uses diagrams and narratives to visualize the history and possible futures of products, including natural disintegration, active recycling and unexpected adaptations-an alternative view upon the 'life' of things that we might ordinarily take for granted.
A nine-year-old child in the Argentinean city of Córdoba is taken to the hospital and is kept bre... more A nine-year-old child in the Argentinean city of Córdoba is taken to the hospital and is kept breathing through artificial respiration. 1 A scorpion had crept in through the grate of the shower and stung him. Similar humanscorpion encounters have become more common over the last ten years and have prompted a public campaign on how to avoid being stung. In this chapter we take an interest in more-than-human urban encounters of this kind. We want to understand what it means to share a place, not with cute, cuddly, or majestic animals that are easily visible, but with small animals, insects, and organisms that we instinctively fear will hurt us. The chapter therefore contributes to a growing literature that elaborates methods and frameworks to think about animals as fellow urban inhabitants. This has ranged from following the traces left by water voles and badgers in Birmingham in trying to upset expert ways of knowing the city; 2 to writing accounts that try to sensitize humans to how penguins and flying foxes experience the city of Sydney as "narrative subjects"; 3 and, finally, to draw on media accounts of a tiger, an elephant, and a cow, which fled zoos, circuses, and slaughterhouses, to elaborate on the possible political agency of nonhuman animals. 4 In relation to this literature, our contribution lies in approaching animals that we instinctively fear and, rather than using more traditional ethnographic methods, we use material design as a method of speculating about such more-than-human relations. Design has the advantage of sustaining affective, social, material, and political tensions and possibilities with species that we humans relate to. This chapter describes and reflects on an alternative shower grate that we designed with the idea of shifting the roles and relations between humans and scorpions toward cohabitation. A central aim is, therefore, to make urban dwellers more aware of the realms
The presentation “Responding through design” addresses the use of the ecological notion of respon... more The presentation “Responding through design” addresses the use of the ecological notion of response diversity (Elmqvist Et al. 2003) as a frame to develop naturecultures. It does so by focusing on ...
Translation of the author's doctoral thesis: Devices. On Hospitality, Hostility and Design. h... more Translation of the author's doctoral thesis: Devices. On Hospitality, Hostility and Design. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/28925
In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled 'Spices-Specie... more In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled 'Spices-Species'. Through this case study, I discuss the possibility of designing using two decolonial strategies-"objectivity (or truth) in parenthesis" and " being where one does and thinks"-that can lead to delinking, on a micropolitical scale, from colonial social patterns as well as reconnecting humans with natural processes and beings to which they are detached by means of devices. The paper suggests that these decolonial strategies, combined with the performance of designed artefacts may help to acknowledge not only human diversity, but also the multiple and diverse nonhuman beings that conform and participate in different localities. SPICES-SPECIES 'Spices-Species' was the working title of one of three projects developed in Argentina in the context of my postdoctoral research entitled Symbiotic tactics. 1 All 1 Developed between 2014-2016 and financed by the Swedish Research Council. The design proposals of this paper resulted from a collaboration with designer Leonardo Lopez, while consulting scientists at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Vegetal Biology in Córdoba. Crucial to these studies was Mariano Lucia's advice, being a researcher specialist in carpenter bees at the Entomology Museum in La Plata. It is worth noting that the project was originally conceived through a 'ecologizing' framing rather than a 'decolonizing' one. three projects addressed everyday life, and in the case of 'Spices-Species', it addressed it at an 'intimate' scale; based on the relations we humans establish with nonhuman beings, in this case plants, by ingesting them, either because they are edible or because they can be used for medicinal purposes, thus inter and intra acting through their chemistry and materiality with our bodies.
In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled ‘Spices-Specie... more In this paper I present a design project developed in Córdoba, Argentina, entitled ‘Spices-Species’. Through this case study, I discuss the possibility of designing using two decolonial strategies — "objectivity (or truth) in parenthesis" and " being where one does and thinks"— that can lead to delinking, on a micropolitical scale, from colonial social patterns as well as reconnecting humans with natural processes and beings to which they are detached by means of devices. The paper suggests that these decolonial strategies, combined with the performance of designed artefacts may help to acknowledge not only human diversity, but also the multiple and diverse nonhuman beings that conform and participate in different localities.
This essay commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of Felix Guattari’s The Three Eco... more This essay commemorates the 30th anniversary of the publication of Felix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies. It does so by proposing a ‘diffractive’ reading of the book, suggesting latent potential in each of the overlapping “ecologies” that conformed the ecosophy sketched by Guattari. There are mainly two aspects of The Three Ecologies addressed in this essay. Firstly, the understanding of the general frame of the interrelation of the three ecologies as an “intersectional” approach. Secondly, the understanding of this form of intersectionality as a possible platform to acknowledge other-than human ‘intersections’. Through the essay I exemplify with one of my own design projects to help situating the claims and the questions raised. Finally, I propose a multimodal explorative framework of the three ecologies to explicitly articulate human and other-than-human beings inter and intra-relatedness.
Images in pages 54, 83 and 114 (published in the original book version, March 2012) are not part ... more Images in pages 54, 83 and 114 (published in the original book version, March 2012) are not part of this digital version; thus, the text corresponding to these images has been slightly modified to adapt the narrative and the referencing to these works.
Interactive Institute, Sweden '3Ecologies' makes visible factors affecting the sustainability of ... more Interactive Institute, Sweden '3Ecologies' makes visible factors affecting the sustainability of consumer products. Within engineering and economics, there are a variety of models for analyzing and 'predicting' the environmental factors such as energy, emissions and waste involved during production, consumption and disposal. We develop an expanded model, which emphasizes human impact and choices as well as potential consequences and futures. Psychological, sociological and environmental factors are mapped over timethroughout the lifespan (production, purchase, use, and disposal) and the extended lifecycle(s) of products. Case studies of familiar products in everyday life are developed to demonstrate the conceptual model, and three applications are proposed to reach designers, consumers and the general public. 3Ecologies uses diagrams and narratives to visualize the history and possible futures of products, including natural disintegration, active recycling and unexpected adaptations-an alternative view upon the 'life' of things that we might ordinarily take for granted.
A nine-year-old child in the Argentinean city of Córdoba is taken to the hospital and is kept bre... more A nine-year-old child in the Argentinean city of Córdoba is taken to the hospital and is kept breathing through artificial respiration. 1 A scorpion had crept in through the grate of the shower and stung him. Similar humanscorpion encounters have become more common over the last ten years and have prompted a public campaign on how to avoid being stung. In this chapter we take an interest in more-than-human urban encounters of this kind. We want to understand what it means to share a place, not with cute, cuddly, or majestic animals that are easily visible, but with small animals, insects, and organisms that we instinctively fear will hurt us. The chapter therefore contributes to a growing literature that elaborates methods and frameworks to think about animals as fellow urban inhabitants. This has ranged from following the traces left by water voles and badgers in Birmingham in trying to upset expert ways of knowing the city; 2 to writing accounts that try to sensitize humans to how penguins and flying foxes experience the city of Sydney as "narrative subjects"; 3 and, finally, to draw on media accounts of a tiger, an elephant, and a cow, which fled zoos, circuses, and slaughterhouses, to elaborate on the possible political agency of nonhuman animals. 4 In relation to this literature, our contribution lies in approaching animals that we instinctively fear and, rather than using more traditional ethnographic methods, we use material design as a method of speculating about such more-than-human relations. Design has the advantage of sustaining affective, social, material, and political tensions and possibilities with species that we humans relate to. This chapter describes and reflects on an alternative shower grate that we designed with the idea of shifting the roles and relations between humans and scorpions toward cohabitation. A central aim is, therefore, to make urban dwellers more aware of the realms
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