Over the past 3-weeks the co-design MA students have engaged in exploring the (to some odd) theme of non-anthropocentric design (or simply, design beyond the human). As the subject has been something I myself grappled with in my thesis (and beyond) me and my colleague Sissel are delighted to have had some rather constructive discussions and experiments with both students and invited guests (thanks Tau Ulv Lenskjold, Malthe Borch, Erik Sandelin for the contributions).
As a discussion partner throughout the weeks the NGO Animal Protection Denmark (Dyrernes Beskyttelse) Thomas Degner provided us and all students with all forms of controversies between humans and non-humans (or as students Andrea and Ingeborg called it; human and non-human animals) that required us to question not just arrangements between humans, but to open up to an entirely different universe – a multiverse – of actors. All from concepts such as time and space (concepts that are very much at stake when talking about animals as food production) to stables and care (architecture of oppression to practices of care).
The course provided and engaged both discursively and materially in the question:What kind of practices can support/better (by better we mean mutually beneficial relationships) ecological entanglements between humans and other species in the city? We are proud to present some of these outcomes which gathered in a set of presentations and a folder to Animal Protection Denmark last friday.
Download the folder here: design-beyond-the-human_sammen
