Designing Within Multi-Species Meshes

Designing Within Multi-Species Meshes

Capstone Project
An annotated booklet that helps designers understand and practice philosophical approaches to living alongside other species through the synthesis of readings, evaluation of design examples, and curation of activities.
DESIGNER(S)
IN COLLABORATION WITH
MAJOR
Interaction Design
FACULTY
Audrey Desjardins
Within the context of design, our toolkits and frameworks for idea generation and evaluation are largely human-centered and exclude the multi-species context we inherently live within. While problem-solving for humans is inarguably an important endeavor, there is a parallel necessity for expanding our well-being to include our companions on Earth— animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. How might we rethink and reframe our relationship with other living beings, so that multi-species flourishing and mutual ongoingness become the origin place of ideas? Within this booklet, I gather together excerpts from five authors across multiple disciplines that address alternative ways of living alongside other species. I then use this foundation to inform a set of four critical lenses, accompanied by corresponding design examples and activities. The first lens, Collective Reciprocity, considers our obligations to multi-species flourishing and looks to companion species as examples. The following lens, Contrasting Timescales, examines the discrepancies in divergent paces of living across ecological relations. The third lens, Embodied Landscapes, asks us to feel the contours and memories of our surroundings. The final lens, Nonhuman Teachers, shows us how we can learn from the lives of nonhumans who have traversed this world far longer than we have. This booklet is intended as a framework to help designers rethink and reframe our relationship with other living beings so that the work we do better contributes to multi-species flourishing. It is meant to be carried with, written in, and added upon.
DESIGNER(S)
MAJOR
Interaction Design
FACULTY
Audrey Desjardins
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
DIVISION OF DESIGN