Abstract
This paper highlights temporality as an important more-than-human design strategy and expands multiple lenses for engaging with the temporal complexity of more-than-human. Reflecting on the dominance of anthropocentric and industrial notions of time in design, we choose plant as a paradigmatic case for otherly temporality. We take stock from interdisciplinary literatures and introduce six temporal lenses: rhythm, horizon, continuity, duration, genealogy, and incompleteness, to articulate how plants live, change, and relate through multiple overlapping temporalities. Connecting these lenses to human-plant interaction design practice, these temporal lenses enables designers to recognize temporal frictions, attend to vegetal rhythms, and cultivate responsive and situated design practices. The lenses serve as a conceptual framework for engaging with plants and other more-than-human temporalities in design processes. Ultimately, this study positions temporality as a key strategy for decentering the human in design and reimagining design as cohabitation and becoming.
Keywords
more-than-human, posthumanist design, temporality, human-plant interaction, decentering
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1325
Citation
Wang, C., Ho, J.C., and Wu, B. (2026) In vegetal terms: Temporal lenses in human-plant interaction, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1325
Creative Commons License
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Included in
In vegetal terms: Temporal lenses in human-plant interaction
This paper highlights temporality as an important more-than-human design strategy and expands multiple lenses for engaging with the temporal complexity of more-than-human. Reflecting on the dominance of anthropocentric and industrial notions of time in design, we choose plant as a paradigmatic case for otherly temporality. We take stock from interdisciplinary literatures and introduce six temporal lenses: rhythm, horizon, continuity, duration, genealogy, and incompleteness, to articulate how plants live, change, and relate through multiple overlapping temporalities. Connecting these lenses to human-plant interaction design practice, these temporal lenses enables designers to recognize temporal frictions, attend to vegetal rhythms, and cultivate responsive and situated design practices. The lenses serve as a conceptual framework for engaging with plants and other more-than-human temporalities in design processes. Ultimately, this study positions temporality as a key strategy for decentering the human in design and reimagining design as cohabitation and becoming.