Designing for Interdependence: A Poetics of Relating

193 Pages·2022·19.693 MB·English

by  Martín Ávila

Designing for
Interdependence
i
DESIGNING IN DARK TIMES
R esponding to the current and wide ranging systemic, social, economic, polit ical
and envir on mental chal lenges we face, the aim of this series is to bring together
short, polem ical texts that address these crises and their inher ent possib il it ies.

Understanding that the old divi sion between the theor et ical focus of the social
sciences and the prac tical stance integ ral to design ing, making and shaping the
world is dissolv ing, Designing in Dark Times explores new ways of acting and
knowing concern ing the arti fi cial. Identifi ed by the refusal of resig na tion to
what-is and by the equal neces sity and urgency of develo pi ng new models of the
possible, the series presents both modes of thought (models, concepts, argu-
ments) and courses of action (scen arios, strategies, proposa ls, works) at all
levels from the local and the micro (the situ ation) to the global and the macro.

The aim is to push the bound ar ies of both design and thought, to make each
more capable of opening genuine possib il it ies for think ing and acting other wise
and thus of better facing, and facing down, the myriad fail ures of the present.

As the world descends into crisis these books seek to offer, in small ways, a
counter view. Against the instru mental they use the fact that design is a lso a
means of artic u lat ing hitherto unfore seen possib il it ies—for subjects as much
as for the world—to show how at base it offers irre place able capab il it ies for
thinki ng and acting well in the arti fi cial. In so doing, they point us towards ways
of revers ing some of the negat ive and destruct ive tend en cies threat en ing to
engulf the world.

DESIGNING IN DARK TIMES

Politics of the Everyday
Ezio Manzini

Designing in Dark Times: An Arendtian Lexicon
Edited by Eduardo Staszowski and Virginia Tassinari

Making Trouble: Design and Material Activism
Otto von Busch

Designing for Interdependence: A Poetics of Relating
Mart í n Á vila

Design and the Social Imagination
Matthew DelSesto

Everyday Acts of Design: Learning in a Time of Emergency
Zoy Anastassakis and Marcos Martins

Clive Dilnot
Eduardo Staszowski
ii
“This life-affi rming book advances the fi eld of design engaged
with decen ter ing humans and proposes a focus on designi ng for
ecolo gical inter de pend ence. Á vila seam lessly converses between
complex theor et ical perspect ives and concrete design prac tices.
This results in a book that offers both profound refl ec tions on
design ing rela tion ally and in response to other entit ies as well
as a rich reper toire of examples inspiri ng pract it ion ers to attune
to multis pe cies worlds. This work takes design in an excit ing
direc tion that offers plenty of possib il it ies to construct alter-
native futures.”
MICHELLE WESTERLAKEN, C ambridge University

“In our climate emer gency, it’s become a truism that we can’t
solve prob lems with the same think ing that created them. New
think ing is desper ately needed. In Mart í n Á vila’s D esigning for
Interdependence new concepts fl our ish. Rather than mere oppos-
i tion to a human-centered design paradigm, Á vila care fully
incor por ates into design key ideas drawn from the fi eld of biose-
mi ot ics and from the “biocentric” turn of law and philos ophy in
Latin and South America. This is made tangible through examples
as diverse as designs for urban bee habit ats and for co-existing
with scor pi ons. Avila’s propos i tions are welcome and urgent: we
need to rethink design as a crucial form of rela tion to multiple
ecolo gies and biod iversity.”
RAMIA MAZ É , U niversity of the Arts London
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iv
Designing for Interdependence:
A Poetics of Relat ing
Mart í n Á vila
v
BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland

BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS and the Diana logo are
trade marks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain 2022

Copyright © Mart í n Á vila, 2022

Mart í n Á vila has asser ted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be iden ti fi ed as Author of this work.

For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xiv consti tute an
exten sion of this copy right page.

Cover design by Andrew LeClair and Chris Wu of Wkshps

All rights reserved. No part of this public a tion may be repro duced or trans mit ted in any form
or by any means, elec tronic or mech an ical, includ ing photo copy ing, record ing, or any inform a tion
storage or retrieval system, without prior permis sion in writing from the publish ers.

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or respons ib il ity for, any third-party
websites referred to or in this book. All inter net addresses given in this book were correct at the time
of going to press. The author and publisher regret any incon veni ence caused if addresses have
changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no respons ib il ity for any such changes.

A cata logue record for this book is avail able from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ávila, Martín, 1972– author.
Title: Designing for interdependence : a poetics of relating / Martín Ávila.
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2022. | Series: Designing in dark times |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2022013400 (print) | LCCN 2022013401 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350337381 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781350183742 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350183759 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350183766 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Design–Environmental aspects. | Sustainable design.
Classifi cation: LCC NK1520 .A95 2022 (print) | LCC NK1520 (ebook) |
DDC 745.401 dc23/eng/20220511
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013400
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022013401

I SBN: PB: 978-1-3503-3738-1
HB: 978-1-3501-8374-2
ePDF: 978-1-3501-8375-9
eBook: 978-1-3501-8376-6

Series: Designing in Dark Times

Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

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vi
To Maruca,
Who taught me the patience of soil and the beauty of plants.
vii
viii
CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Foreword, Andreas Weber xii
Acknowledgments xiv
Introduction: Bio-centric? 1
1 Poetics of relat ing 25
2 Responding 51
3 Alter-natives 99
4 (De)signing Alter-natives 121
5 As a mode of closing: Encounters 149
Bibliography 153
Index 163
ix