Abstract
In this extended abstract I will draw on my experimental participatory design experiments and develop a proposal for a decentred design role in transformation processes: the imagination of Otherness. This concept is inspired by the political thinking of Deleuze and Guattari and offers an alternative to the dichotomy majority vs. minority and, as I propose, an alternative thinking model for political participation through design. It offers a way of thinking design as engaged in and across multiple world makings – and not to think design as an universal tool to engage marginalized minorities. I will outline my experience working with fungi as partners in designing, which made me rethink my own assumptions of the design process and the idea of “good participation”. The imagination of Otherness is not only a perspective to understand the contingency of (political) design processes, but also the multiple temporalities forming transformations.
Keywords
More-than-human-centred-design; Otherness; becoming-minor; multiple temporalities
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.106
Citation
Popplow, L.(2020) Transforming through imaginations of Otherness, in Leitão, R., Noel, L. and Murphy, L. (eds.), Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers - DRS Pluriversal Design SIG Conference, 4 June, held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/pluriversal.2020.106
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Transforming through imaginations of Otherness
In this extended abstract I will draw on my experimental participatory design experiments and develop a proposal for a decentred design role in transformation processes: the imagination of Otherness. This concept is inspired by the political thinking of Deleuze and Guattari and offers an alternative to the dichotomy majority vs. minority and, as I propose, an alternative thinking model for political participation through design. It offers a way of thinking design as engaged in and across multiple world makings – and not to think design as an universal tool to engage marginalized minorities. I will outline my experience working with fungi as partners in designing, which made me rethink my own assumptions of the design process and the idea of “good participation”. The imagination of Otherness is not only a perspective to understand the contingency of (political) design processes, but also the multiple temporalities forming transformations.