Problematizing Human-Centred Design: Notes on Planet-Oriented Design

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30682/diid772022c

Keywords:

Planet-oriented design, Anthropocene, User-centered design, More-than-human

Abstract

This article is part of the discussion about what to do with regard to the Anthropocene and how to project design in a direction oriented towards caring for the Planet. Overcoming the environmental crisis implied by the notion of Anthropocene involves questioning or, rather, redesigning the culture of design in terms of its ontological, methodological, and ethical suppositions. Specifically, this article proposes analytic displacements in order to problematize the hegemonic paradigm of user-centered design, opening the discussion up to other ways of being and world-making. To that end, we focus on the question of how to deploy planet-oriented design. We develop four points: bringing design down to Earth, situating design, decelerating design and intersectionalities in design. This article is meant to contribute to expanding this research agenda of design for transitions, focusing on the need for design that fosters more careful and ethical cohabitation on a damaged Planet. 

Author Biographies

Martin Tironi, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

He is currently Director and Associate Professor at the School of Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and completed his Master’s degree at Université Paris-Sorbonne V. and his PhD/Post-Doctorate at the Center for Sociology of Innovation, École des Mines de Paris. In 2018, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths, University of London. Tironi was part of the curatorial team (Hermansen, Chilet and Ureta), that won the gold medal at the London Design Biennale (2021) for the Pavilion “Tectonic resonance: from user-centered design to planet-oriented design”.

Camila Albornoz, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

She is a Social Anthropologist at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Camila works as a researcher on the project “Design Futures in the era of artificial intelligence and algorithmic prediction: problematizing the construction of technological futures in the Chilean context” (2021-2023). She has also been an Assistant Professor in the Critical Design course (2022), taught at the School of Design of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Marcos Chilet, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Designer, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and MA in Critical Theory, Goldsmith College, University of London. Teacher of Speculative Design, School of Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His practice and research areas are critical design, the relation between politics and designers, and media technologies. He recently published the book Materiales Televisivos: hacia una economía digital de los contenidos about the impact of international streaming services in the Chilean culture. Recently, he exhibited the installation Ashes of Coexistence at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Biennial of Medial Arts) and won the gold medal at the London Design Biennale co-curating the chilean pavilion Tectonic Resonances.

Published

2022-09-30

How to Cite

Tironi, M., Albornoz, C. ., & Chilet, M. (2022). Problematizing Human-Centred Design: Notes on Planet-Oriented Design. Diid — Disegno Industriale Industrial Design, (77), 12. https://doi.org/10.30682/diid772022c