Research project Design has been a key driver in the material strides taken by our global civilization. The downsides to development driven by mass consumption are, however, becoming alarmingly apparent. Can design, which helped get us into this mess, respond differently to issues of social and ecological well-being in the future? The artistic research environment “Design after progress” explores other ways of designing, moving beyond logics of financial gain and towards worlds of more-than-human relationships.
This project explores how to carefully untie designs’ entanglements with ‘progress’, crafting imaginaries of more socio-ecologically just design, guided by post-anthropocentric and post-capitalist perspectives.The aims are to learn to become better haunted in design, attending to the ecologies of damage left behind by progress and industrialization, and to through participatory and democratic practices develop and articulate skills, competencies, capabilities, and concepts necessary for designing after progress.
This artistic research project engages in re-imagining design after progress, rehearsing and proposing new design practices that stake out how to bear the past into present and futures of design. The aim is to learn to become better haunted in design by attending to ecologies of damage left behind by industrialization, developing and articulating competencies, capabilities and concepts for designing after progress in a participatory, inclusive and democratic way.
The project operates through three experimental design rehearsal studios:
