01. Why I Drift Toward the Green, Even While I Dream in Code
London, UK
As a product designer, I always think about my work in terms of manifestation and values. What do I want to get out of this? What intention do I want to show?
A designer's job is to sell dreams through the embodiment of an object, service or symbol. Dream to have a better, in which definition of better is always debatable, but it comes through different layers of what is better, depending on who we are designing for.
Dreams always have a strong connotation related to the future. Therefore, when designers are designing, we are not thinking about the present time; in fact, we are never. We were always thinking about the future.
Designers are trained to be optimistic; they are formed as agents to make vision become reality. Speaking of that, according to my observation*, there are currently two big narratives in design and technology development that are going on quite strongly in the Western side of the world: 1) Design for a Regenerative Future and 2) Design for Cognitive Technology, which is related to AI. Both are strongly influenced by science-led practice, dealing with a complex context such as nature and human cognition; therefore, they require a good understanding of science, although there are many frameworks out there. I will talk briefly about these two narratives below.
This narrative responds to current climate challenges, social equity issues, and environmental degradation caused by decades of industrialisation. This emerging design focus is deeply rooted in the legacy of Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World, Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle, Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth and other influential green design work.
While closely connected to sustainable and circular design, regenerative design goes beyond sustainability and closed-loop systems. It actively campaigns for restoring and enhancing ecosystems, communities, and economies. Regeneration involves key activities such as restoring soil, enhancing biodiversity, transitioning to renewable energy, and reviving communities.
Related concepts within this movement include more-than-human[1] design[2], planet-centred design, and life-centred design. One of the key influential figures in this space is Daniel Christian Wahl, author of Designing Regenerative Cultures. In an early chapter, he argues that sustainability is not an adequate goal because it often focuses on maintaining individual systems and resources rather than fostering the deeper patterns of health, resilience, and adaptability that allow life as a whole to flourish.
Many topics regarding regenerative are related to revisiting, reviving ancient technology. Looking at how indigenous people built their relationship with nature, by respecting it yet also getting the benefits of it.
There are a lot of debates, conversations going on regarding this, as every practitioner have a different opinion. Yet in a general sense it's all about system design, bio-regional mapping,
Several ongoing movements in Europe align with these principles and serve as valuable references, including Distributed Design (EU), the New European Bauhaus, and B-Regen (UK-specific).
More-than-human, as a theoretical concept, acknowledges human life and society as being deeply interconnected with non-human entities, such as animals, plants, technologies, and natural systems
Further reading:
https://officeforpoliticalinnovation.com/book/more-than-human/
[2]
More-than-human design references:
Book:
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/More_Than_Human_Design_in_Practice/6-YxEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Exhibition:
https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/more-than-human
Cognitive Technology is technology that mimics human cognitive functions like learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. This involves the development of AI, that currently created to be as close as possible to the human brain. This development is also tied to transhumanism, it is a philosophy and an intellectual movement using technology to enhance human capabilities and improve the human condition.
You may think the movement of transhumanism has just recently grown, but the idea has already existed since it was coined by Julian Huxley in 1957, through his essay[1].
Cognitive Technology plays a central role in the progress of transhumanism. This encompasses areas like artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and cognitive science, and is seen as a means to achieve this enhancement.
There is no certain narrative around this particular interest that is growing quite rapidly, but generally, this is still driven by the computational era and neo-industrialisation vision. I would say, honestly, this trend of the design and narrative leads to a futuristic-utopian and cyberpunk aesthetic, and obviously, AI and machine learning play a big role in it.
I talked with one of my dear friends from my current study, who has been focusing on developing the design for such innovation; his name is Adonis Christodolou. He said that the growth of this started with the sudden development of the personal computer back in the past, and how it led to the development of the mobile phone, which has affected today’s human behaviour. He told a story about how his mom was trying to zoom in on a printed picture; he demonstrated how his mom pinched the printed picture in her hand, just like how we do it on the digital screen.
He mentioned that these phenomena of the digital behaviour which brought out to the physical world are kind of crazy, and how the screen basically, instead of giving freedom to us, gives us boundaries and dictates our behaviour in real life.
These limitations and phenomena caused by digital behaviour lead many innovator-designers to have an interest in exploring new gestural experiences, and senses interact with technology without being constrained by the screen.
Therefore, the development of the tech is looking at how our brain works, as we all know brain inspires AI and other computational systems. These technologies are considered as ambient technology, gesture, and interaction with the senses.
At the moment, such technology won’t replace the screen as they are still in the early stage of research and development. Despite much research having been done in universities, there are still few that make it out to the market. Even those in the market are not commercially ready yet.
Some of the innovations in this area are still influenced by — and even mimic — human behaviour in the real world. Just like how the desktop on our screen is a metaphor for a real desk. You’ve got the bin on the right, the menu on the left — all laid out in a way that mirrors how we interact with physical spaces.
But the process behind developing this kind of technology is different from other areas of tech. For example, he explains, in generative design, the case usually starts by identifying a specific problem through research, and then the researcher or designer experiments to solve that problem directly.
In contrast, radical tech development often works the other way around — people experiment freely without clear direction, and only later try to figure out what the use case might be. The results are often ambiguous, without a defined application from the start.
Compared to other practices, it is very vision-led and built on tacit knowledge. He also added that many designers are good and making something rather than explaining how they come up with it.
But to me, all of this development obviously comes from our vision and reaction towards our relationship with tech. Innovators will always see a tech limitation as a new possibility
But a general human might not. We need to think about how advancement like this will be inclusive rather than make our relationship with tech distant.
Transhumanism essay by Julian Huxley, 1957:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247718617_Transhumanism
The conflict on my side started happening when I was trying to understand which side I was leaning into. I grew up in the era when the development of mobile phones and electronics design happened rapidly and was more exciting than now, thanks to Nokia and Apple. Inspired by those, I came to design school because I want to be part of doing design work for technology products.
Now I am pursuing a master's, though I came with the vision to be a design for technology products, yet apparently my body and mind always drift me towards the first. But still, I am an optimist, I see there still a hope to involve technology as part of how we improve the quality of our lives, which led me to the discovery of Solarpunk.
For me now, the hope of Solarpunk is very tempting, it is selling the dream of where the advancement of technology can also be aligned towards a regenerative future if it is being used and regulated to support and respect the natural resource. Though there are no clear examples yet, many communities are trying to prototype this.
What I like about Solarpunk is the peaceful scenery those creatives made, giving me a zen feeling, seeing how harmonious life could be between nature and technology.