More-Than-Human Centred Design

keynote – 45 min | Feb 8 – 9:10

Is our modern belief in progress a false religion? The promise of relentless growth appears to move us forward, but at what cost? At a time when anxiety is fuelled by the loss of jobs, automation, fake news, lack of trust, climate change, extreme weather events, political upheaval and conflict - what meaningful role can designers play? The problems are far bigger and more complex than those we have been trained to “solve”.

Are there new lenses and perspectives we should consider bringing to our design practices? Inspired by the work of Donna Haraway, Anne Galloway, Alex Taylor, Keller Easterling and many more, I would like to challenge anthropocentrism, and the business as usual human-centered approach to design. And propose the possibility of exploring a more-than-human, multi-species perspective - whether that’s other biological species, or non-human machine-species or deep ecology. What might such an approach bring to our design practice, our work, our relationships, and indeed the futures we are participate in creating?