Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Humans are weird. There, we said it.
We try to use non-human figurative languages for ourselves but humanise everything around us. Does this unconscious intersectionality means we understand the nuances of co-existing with other species? Do we merely bring other creatures down to human-like capabilities to understand them better?
We are so obsessed with human supremacy that we often forget to account and celebrate the uniqueness of other co-existing species around us. Saying so, keeping humans at the centre of futures thinking is reflected in our behaviours, decisions, cultures, products and services unconsciously catalysing ecological and social crisis.
At re:ac8, non-humans spark our curiosity. It can be as simple as how an octopus moves without a single bone in their body, or the foxfire fungi glows at night or pollination the flower by honeybees on the go, or how plants cry high-pitch airborne sounds when they are cut (Guenot, n.d.), or they mimic other plants to save themselves from herbivores (Jones, 2022).
Despite of their mysterious abilities and importance in balancing life on earth, we do not consider them as a part of our metaphorical world of so called “users” and write them off as collateral damage.
Different bodies shapes alternate realities. Even twins with the identical bodies perceive the world differently. With such varied embodied cognition, have you ever wondered how animals or plants perceive the world (Dautenhahn, K. 1996)? What would be their needs? If they could speak what would they say about humans?
Biologist and researcher Donna Haraway also questions modern obsessions with technologies of human self-improvement and calls for an age of “humanimalism” where we think and live with animals (Tellisi, 2022).
Many technologists and researchers have found innovative ways of using AI to track and analyse data from sound and movements of animals and plants thinking that it can solve the problem of depleting biodiversity (McKie, 2023). Design has also taken a shift in methods like contextual mimicry, bodystorming, thing ethnography and many more to accommodate for non-human stake holders.
But we at re:ac8 believe that it is not just the responsibility of designers or environmentalists to solve these critical challenges of 21st century. To create truly equitable societies, we all need to become a micro-activist by taking a step forward in understanding and becoming the voices of non-humans.
Species Warrior Design Challenge on Instagram -
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Species Warrior Design Challenge on Linkedin -
Baber, C. (2022). EMBODYING DESIGN : an applied science of radical embodied cognition. S.L.: Mit Press.
Dautenhahn, K. (1996). “Embodied Cognition in Animals and Artifacts.”.
Guenot, M. (n.d.). Plants let out an ultrasonic scream when their leaves are cut or they don’t get enough water. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/plants-shriek-with-high-pitched-ultrasonic-clicks-when-stressed-study-2023-3?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 29 Dec. 2023].
Jones, B. (2022). The mystery of the mimic plant. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/11/30/23473062/plant-mimicry-boquila-trifoliolata.
McKie, R. (2023). ‘Only AI made it possible’: scientists hail breakthrough in tracking British wildlife. The Observer. [online] 13 Aug. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/13/only-ai-made-it-possible-scientists-hail-breakthrough-in-tracking-british-wildlife.
Tellisi, B. (2022). Donna J Haraway (1944-). [online] Architectural Review. Available at: https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/reputations/donna-j-haraway-1944.
