Abstract
Planet B emerges as a practice-based-fiction responding ironically to the slogan “There is no Planet B.” The project speculates on the discovery of an alternate planet and the task of replicating Planet A under the principle “if it looks the same, it is the same.” Through absurd protocols for selecting the perfect rock, flower, and stick, the experience enacted a satire of technoscientific control. Developed within the School of Materialist Research’s exploration of Nature and Artifice, it asks: what sensory, political, and aesthetic implications would the discovery of a Planet B bring to the design practice? Children spontaneously took over the installation, turning the stage into a space for free play, revealing an ecology of gestures beyond our initial intention. Planet B reflects how design can host open-ended processes, proposing irony, attentiveness, and affective responsiveness as modes of engaging with planetary fragility and the paradox of fabricating the natural.
Keywords
Post-Anthropocentric Design; Ontological Design; Speculative Design; Practice-Based Research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.389
Citation
Guyot, C., and Rodriguez Schon, V. (2026) We found Planet B. What does this mean for design?, 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.2026.389
Creative Commons License
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Included in
We found Planet B. What does this mean for design?
Planet B emerges as a practice-based-fiction responding ironically to the slogan “There is no Planet B.” The project speculates on the discovery of an alternate planet and the task of replicating Planet A under the principle “if it looks the same, it is the same.” Through absurd protocols for selecting the perfect rock, flower, and stick, the experience enacted a satire of technoscientific control. Developed within the School of Materialist Research’s exploration of Nature and Artifice, it asks: what sensory, political, and aesthetic implications would the discovery of a Planet B bring to the design practice? Children spontaneously took over the installation, turning the stage into a space for free play, revealing an ecology of gestures beyond our initial intention. Planet B reflects how design can host open-ended processes, proposing irony, attentiveness, and affective responsiveness as modes of engaging with planetary fragility and the paradox of fabricating the natural.