Alice Jarry at “Mutations: Où va le design?”
September 18-20, 2024
To mark its 50th anniversary, the École de design de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is organizing the colloquium MUTATIONS: Où va le design? The aim of this event is to explore how design is responding to the environmental, social and technological mutations of the present era, through innovative practices, and what issues are at stake.
To mark its 50th anniversary, the École de design de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is organizing the colloquium MUTATIONS: Où va le design? The aim of this event is to explore how design is responding to the environmental, social and technological mutations of the present era, through innovative practices, and what issues are at stake.
On. September 19th, Alice Jarry presents “re/générer : réciprocités matérielles et computationnelles.” at Mutations: Où va le design?
Abstract: The current era is simultaneously characterized by ecological urgency and technological ubiquity, exacerbating social, political and environmental inequalities. The 'dematerialization' associated with new technologies is not, as Bensaude-Vincent (2004) points out, a 'liberation', but rather requires us to take on a critical, ethical and singular look at matter, both living and non-living. How can design apprehend the increasingly complex entanglements between the technosphere and the biosphere? Achille M'bembe (2019) points out that while the conditions of life's emergence and evolution have been extensively studied, the ways in which life can be repaired, reproduced, preserved, cared for and shared are now crucial issues.
Abstract: The current era is simultaneously characterized by ecological urgency and technological ubiquity, exacerbating social, political and environmental inequalities. The 'dematerialization' associated with new technologies is not, as Bensaude-Vincent (2004) points out, a 'liberation', but rather requires us to take on a critical, ethical and singular look at matter, both living and non-living. How can design apprehend the increasingly complex entanglements between the technosphere and the biosphere? Achille M'bembe (2019) points out that while the conditions of life's emergence and evolution have been extensively studied, the ways in which life can be repaired, reproduced, preserved, cared for and shared are now crucial issues.
How can digital practices also be regenerative (Lyle, 1996; Mann et al. 2018; Pedersen Zari, 2018; Roberts, 2023)? How can we rethink the relationship between the material and computational fields in more ecosystemic terms of interdependence, adaptation, cooperation, justice and collective intelligence, including the non-human? Drawing on models of biodesign and installation practices - including some projects from the Critical Practices in Materials and Materiality Research Chair (Concordia University) - this presentation will examine how forms of sensitive relationship between technologies and living and semi-living materialities can embody and re-materialize ecosystem properties to create new alliances between humans and the environment.
