As part of the 20th Festival Internacional de la Imagen, I will give an online presentation on Machine-Centered Design: Engaging in Non-human Ecologies.
The talk bridges the history of non- or post-human design from Cybernetics and its precursors to contemporary practice. It proposes that design has always been machine-centered, even – and especially – when claiming otherwise. Because of that, it argues, we should acknowledge the reality of the field of design and technology actually being about designing for technology. A number of student-led research projects that engage with this reality is presented. These works are discussed as forms of participating in non-human ecologies – acting not against their logic but immersing in it. Because of this, machine-centered design as a critical practice can be seen as both accomplice and opponent of the technological ecologies it engages in.
The student-led research featured in the talk has been conducted at Köln International School of Design in 2019-2021 by Anastasia Bondar, Daniela Haas, Pia-Marie Stute, Julius Walsch, and Kjell Wistoff
Tuesday, May 25th, 2021, 8:45 am – 9:30 am (GMT-5)
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