Designing with and for cohabitation

Summary

In this teaching activity, the students engage in idea generation. They will sketch cohabitation scenarios of how humans and a more-than-human (or a selection of more-than-humans) can live together. The teacher introduces the concepts of nature-culture, cohabitation, and designing/making-with. The students are then introduced to example scenarios where they can imagine co-habitation with humans and more-than-humans. Students are also encouraged to find their own scenarios.

A sketching session takes place where students choose which more-than-humans they would like to work with, what kinds of situations, and environments they would like to address. Students imagine possible scenarios where they sketch ways of cohabitation and how they are manifested through designed objects, environments, and activities. It is worth mentioning that the design of activities could be just as relevant as the design of material objects. Students present the scenarios to each other.

Motivation

When designing for or with more-than-humans or situations, environments where humans and more-than-humans co-exist, it is crucial to consider elements beyond material objects. This teaching activity considers nature-cultures that include objects, environments, human and more-than-human activities, and behaviors as integral parts of the design process. 

When designing for or with more-than-humans, it is important to move away from the idea of a linear design process that ends with a finished product ready for the market. The design process might not be linear, and the design might not be complete when it reaches its target audiences. Instead, the design could be in the beginning of what it might become as humans and more-than-humans engage in a shared process of designing and making together. Therefore, it is important to consider the activities and actions related to a design: for example, the everyday life habits and behaviors that a design or a designed situation or environment might stimulate. In other words, humans, and more-than-humans continuously cocreate what the design evolves into. 

Learning outcomes

After the teaching activity students should be able to:

• Recognize concepts like nature-culture, cohabitation, and designing/making-with.
• Illustrate near-future cohabitation scenarios consisting of humans and more-than-humans living together.
• Imagine ways in which humans can design and make with more-than-humans over longer timespans in the illustrated cohabitation scenarios.

Teacher guidance

Sequence of teaching–learning activities

Preparations
Pens and markers in different colors and sketching paper.  

Step 1: Lecture, Group size: All, Time: 60 min
The teacher introduces students to the concepts of cohabitation, nature-cultures and designing/making-with. Thereafter, the teacher provides some examples of potential cohabitation scenarios that students can move on with in their sketching process (this can be added to the slides). It would be great with local examples that the students can identify with, instead of focusing on something that is exotic to the students. Students are then encouraged to find their own cohabitation scenarios. 

Step 2: Group work, Group size: 4, Time: 60 min
Students are divided into groups of four in a classroom where there is room to sit at tables and sketch. Students should first identify what humans and more-than-humans that they would like to target, and the situations and environments that they would like the designs to be part of in their cohabitation scenarios. Then students should move on sketching one or more cohabitation scenarios.

Step 3: Group work, Group size: 4/individual students, Time: 30 min 
Student teams are now divided up into single individuals where the members of each team (except from one member who stays at the table and becomes a host) move between the tables and review the other teams’ sketches. They are encouraged to add to the idea generation and ask critical questions. 

Step 4: Group work, Group size: All, Time: 30 min
The teacher gathers everyone in the class to briefly present their sketches along with the comments and ideas they received from their peers.

Questions for assessment

• What is your understanding of the word nature-culture or cohabitation or making/designing-with?
• When describing your cohabitation scenario: how might humans and designers design- or make-with more-than-humans?

Recommended readings

Smith, Nancy., Bardzell, Shaowen, and Bardzell, Jeffrey (2017) Designing for cohabitation: naturecultures, hybrids, and decentering the human in design. Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Human Factors in Computing CHI 2017, May 6–11, Denver, CO, USA, 1714-1725. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025948

Tarcan, Berilsu., Pettersen, Ida N., and Edwards, Ferne. (2022). Making-with the environment through more-than-human design, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.). Proceedings of Design Research and Society DRS2022, 25 June – 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.347