Lost? Return to the motherland

What was it?

What came out of it were educational/conversation tools for future projects, in which I share some strategies of how we can achieve it, be it a physical product or a workshop.

The goal was to further shape my practice as a researcher and designer in a way that allows me to work with projects that are aligned with personal values of care, sustainability and diversity.

If we are creating something that will physically exist in the world, what are some guidelines (beyond existing regulations) to make sure we comply with the responsability of no-harm?

Some testing is still needed, but the goal is to share these tools so it can help other researchers/designers

Education is part of being able to design, and do research, in a way that prevents harm and promotes good

If you’re interested, check out their openings

Regenerative Design Lab

What are the conditions needed for us (people and organizations) to thrive?

Life as a model

Biomimicry

from this

People as ends in themselves

Cartesian Split

Bacon

Structures that allow for flexibility and that enable purspose and health to be achieved through day-to-day work

trust

Context

Interdependency

Everything that is not the thinking thing is something that can be manipulated and used for the benefit of the thinking thing (men) as the thinking thing is superior.

Justification of exploitation of other human beings

Climate change

Reductionism

Loss of history

Justification of aggressive extraction of natural resources

people are not machines

connections

Information

supporting environment

Intensification of mechanistic view through industrial revolution and capitalism establishment

Loss of biodiversity due to industrialization

Hegemonic knowledge as the rule

Abundance

energy flow

quality of life

People live in a economic system that has a hold on their lives that is bigger than the energy that we have to try to change things

workers as gears in a well oiled machine

more importantly, are we also promoting quality of life for all?

Are our actions/behavior promoting quality of life?

are we braking cycles of harm?

decision making

equity lens

Health

behaviors

How do we create them?

purpose

White Supremacy

Slavery

What comes after? IS THERE AN AFTER?

(certain) Humans are separate from nature and superior to it in the sense that they possess ability to manipulate control over it.

Humanity is not separate from nature

Who has the ability/energy for organizing the disruption of a harmful system?

Organizations as machines

Life is an organized system capable of maintaining itself within a boundary of its own making

people as means to an end

Colonization

“Do you have the bandwidth for that?”

LIVING SYSTEM METAPHOR

Erasement of knowledge that differs from norm.

to this

how???

Consequences

Nature as a puzzle to be solved, its secrets unlocked for human benefit.

What it means to me

Rational scrutiny can refine the human condition, stripping away error in pursuit of truth.

Governance is an agreement crafted by rational agents, its legitimacy rooted in mutual consent.

For the purpose of this design lab, the focus was on mapping how we relate to our environment and how a shift in language and approach can create conditions that promote life at large.

Voltaire

The cosmos is a realm of order, governed by discoverable and applicable laws.

Locke

Newton

MACHINE METAPHOR

As any concept, it can mean a lot of different things depending on who you ask about it. I like that some of the first associations that we tend to do is with a salamandra, the self-repairing fish. BUT,

Europe 1500-1700

Origins

A three week program where people came together to develop their own projects through a regenerative approach.

Currently, one of my topics of research is degrowth and regenerative materials in industrial design (and overall material human creation)

What was developed while in it?

What do we mean by Regenerative Design?