Abstract

This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved perceptible while precipitating forms of care and connection. We will show that the very process of prototyping favours the mise en scène of an interspecies environment, sheltering the delicate unfolding of an ‘us’ that is based on mutual care and attention. We argue that this unfolding transforms prototyping into a cosmopolitical place for exercising modes of correspondence between humans, non-humans and environments. In an effort to understand prototyping as a scenario in which to perform our species interdependence, we propose a conversation between different concepts around the ideas of cosmopolitics and correspondence in order to encourage reflections on design practices that are sensitive to those entangled ʽbeyond the human.ʼ

Keywords

prototyping, species interdependence, cosmopolitics, care, correspondence

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Jun 25th, 12:00 AM

Prototyping Multispecies Environments: attentiveness and friction as modes of knowing

This article is based on the process of prototyping an environmental enrichment device for gibbons at the National Zoo of Chile (ZNdC). We analyse the capacity of prototyping to make the ontological qualities of the entities involved perceptible while precipitating forms of care and connection. We will show that the very process of prototyping favours the mise en scène of an interspecies environment, sheltering the delicate unfolding of an ‘us’ that is based on mutual care and attention. We argue that this unfolding transforms prototyping into a cosmopolitical place for exercising modes of correspondence between humans, non-humans and environments. In an effort to understand prototyping as a scenario in which to perform our species interdependence, we propose a conversation between different concepts around the ideas of cosmopolitics and correspondence in order to encourage reflections on design practices that are sensitive to those entangled ʽbeyond the human.ʼ

 

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