The Politics of Nature. Designing for an Ontological Turn. DESIS Philosophy Talk #7.2

Today’s environmental emergency requires specific efforts in terms of thinking/acting in designing. The consequences of anthropocentric ways of producing, consuming and living are becoming painfully clear. Design played (and often still plays) a role in this, and therefore has in many ways contributed to feed this anthropocentric mindset, considering human interests separated from the ones of the planet’s. Design has a shared responsibility in this – what Fry calls – “de-futuring process” (1) produced by anthropocentrism, and it is hence obliged to recognize the risks connected to this anthropocentric mindset and its consequences. In this regard, designers are currently, and increasingly, becoming aware that an ontological shift is needed. What does it mean to take this “ontological turn” seriously? Which thinking in contemporary philosophy and anthropology can help designers – and particular- ly the ones dealing with subfields of design such as Participatory Design and Design for Social Innovation - to develop non-anthropocentric, non-de-futuring reflective practices that might account for the radical interrelationship between people and the planet? Which kinds of transformative reflective practices might these modes of thinking possibly nurture?