Editorial: More-than-human Design in Practice

Lindley, Joseph and Nicenboim, Iohanna and Berger, Arne and Zaga, Cristina and Forlano, Laura and Giaccardi, Elisa (2024) Editorial: More-than-human Design in Practice. In: DRS2024: Editorials :. DRS2024 Boston: Design Research Society Conference 2024 . Design Research Society, USA. ISBN 9781912294626

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Abstract

The field of design is currently undergoing a more-than-human turn. This shift is driven by pressing global challenges such as the climate crisis, alongside the increased agency of technologies in everyday life and a growing interest in advancing inclusive and sustainable agendas. This track invited submissions reporting on practical experiments within this emerging space. The contributions highlight diverse ways in which more-than-human thinking can be enacted across various contexts and emphasize the importance of forging new alliances –between humans and nonhumans, theory and practice, and research and industry. This editorial unpacks the track’s motivation and summarizes the contributions received, examining them through the concept of designing-with. Our discussion expands this concept to include a wide array of more-than-human engagements across three themes: making-with care, thinking-with technologies, and becoming-with multispecies. These themes move the field beyond mere participation of nonhumans in design processes, and towards novel practices of making, thinking, and becoming within human-nonhuman relations.