More-Than-Human-Centred Design
- Written byAda Maymó Costa
- Published date 05 May 2023
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Lessons from the workshop “Learning from More-Than-Human Teachers and Reimagining Education”
On the 12th of April, I had the chance to attend ‘Learning from More-Than-Human Teachers and Reimagining Education’ at Central Saint Martins - a workshop organised by the Climate Emergency Network as part of CATALYST, a series of gatherings, workshops, conversations, and interventions that embed the Universities Climate Action Plan in the practices of UAL’s communities. The workshop, led by Dr. Kay Sidebottom, integrated both lecture and participative approaches and addressed the topic of educating for and about a world that is not only “for us” but one that elevates animals, plants, and the wider eco-systems on which we rely on.
The event was mainly directed to lecturers and teachers, which composed most of the attendees. Nevertheless, some students could also be seen among the public, as this topic transcends beyond the role of a teacher into the role of a designer. Personally, this workshop made me think about my practice and how the users in my designs are always human. Could we get inspired by morethan-human practices to inform our designs? What is more, could we be decentralising the human and do more-than-human-centred design instead?
From ‘Egotistical’ to ‘Ecotistical’ Worldview
Dr. Kay Sidebottom introduced ideas from Posthumanist theory and Indigenous epistemologies to talk about how we can move towards a worldview where we decentralise the human.
Some of the key ideas that resonated were:
- Multiplicity of ways to be human; Posthumanist approaches can help us not only to decentralise the human but also to decentralise the imageries and narratives of what it means to be human, raising the voices of all those oppressed among the human as well.
- Relationships of kinship with the non-human; To be able to learn from the more-than-human we need to overcome our current hierarchical relationship with nature, moving towards more reciprocal exchanges.
A binary divide between the natural world and education
To illustrate how can we introduce Posthumanist approaches in our ways of teaching and learning, Dr. Kay Sidebottom shared a project she led on April 2022. The project consisted of three days of exploration with a group of educators in different types of education and institutions: university, schools, colleges, and community education. Together, they explored what they could learn if they decentred themselves as the only educators, and they did so through a variety of formats and methods. For instance, by writing poetry, creating artefacts, and looking at fungi and root systems. This brought reflections such as how we learn in schools and nature.
After sharing the project, participants got to go on a quest around the CSM campus and its surroundings to find more-than-human teachers or natural places where they felt a connection. Access people’s contributions through this Padlet created for the workshop attendees to interact with.
Key takeaways from the session
(I) From human to more-than-human teaching
Dr. Kat Sidebottom shared three key principles that can be carried out in daily practice to elevate the more-than-human in teaching:
Emphasising relationality and collectiveness
Challenging human exceptionalism in the stories we tell
Working in an interdisciplinary way and with art as a tool
(II) From human to more-than-human-centred design
The Posthumanist lens poses challenging and interesting questions about how we are designing. Over the past years, the word “Human-Centred Design” has been resonating more and more. The origins of this term are often traced back to Stanford University in the 1950s, but still very present today in fields like Service Design, which is my field of study. However, it often does not consider the more-than-human and prioritises human benefits over the rest of the beings inhabiting our ecosystem. Personally, this session made me excited to practice going from human-centred design to more-than-human-centred design in my work.
As part of my course, I am taking a class on Design Futures, where we are using design as a tool to communicate and spark dialogues around alternative futures. My team is focusing on biodiversity loss, and how we can imagine a future where we can have thriving biodiversity in cities. Perhaps the biggest realisation that was triggered by both the project and the session by Dr. Kat Sidebottom is that to work towards a world that elevates the more-than-human, it might mean that in certain occasions this might lower our privileges as humans, as we are moving from being at the top of the pyramid to being part of a more equitable ecosystem. How can we think about services and systems that integrate this thinking? How can we consider the more-than-human as another stakeholder in our designs?
Related Links
- Climate Emergency Network
- CATALYST
- Dr. Kay Sidebottom
- Read a reflection of the session from Sophia Wang
- Ada Maymó Costa
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