Abstract
Ongoing socio-ecological damages stem from dominant design practices rooted in modernist, capitalist ideologies that exploit nature. If we, designers, aim to contribute to healing the web of life, our practices also need healing. Seeking an alternative paradigm to problem-driven design, this article narrates my journey to embrace a paradigm of relation-caring that encompasses humans and more-than-humans. Drawing upon experiences with fellow embroiderers in Hermosillo, Mexico, I present two everyday design practices that explore women-plant relations in the desert: 1) cultivating relationships by embroidery of memories, presents, and futures with plants; and 2) infusing diálogo de saberes (wisdom dialogues) with embodied and affective encounters with plants. These practices advocate for a profound shift in design tendencies, urging designers to attend to relations as much, if not more, than our intent to make worlds.
Keywords
design practices; women-plant relations; relationality; design paradigms
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.268
Citation
Ortega Pallanez, M. (2024) Healing our Designing: Practices of Care for Human and More-than-Human Relations, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.268
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Healing our Designing: Practices of Care for Human and More-than-Human Relations
Ongoing socio-ecological damages stem from dominant design practices rooted in modernist, capitalist ideologies that exploit nature. If we, designers, aim to contribute to healing the web of life, our practices also need healing. Seeking an alternative paradigm to problem-driven design, this article narrates my journey to embrace a paradigm of relation-caring that encompasses humans and more-than-humans. Drawing upon experiences with fellow embroiderers in Hermosillo, Mexico, I present two everyday design practices that explore women-plant relations in the desert: 1) cultivating relationships by embroidery of memories, presents, and futures with plants; and 2) infusing diálogo de saberes (wisdom dialogues) with embodied and affective encounters with plants. These practices advocate for a profound shift in design tendencies, urging designers to attend to relations as much, if not more, than our intent to make worlds.