Permeance. A demodern artistic process for more-than-human collaborative practices in Participatory Design

Abstract

Urgent socioenvironmental questions require traditionally human-centred disciplines, such as design, to adopt pluriversal stances. In this paper, we address pluriversality in Participatory Design (PD) through a collaborative more-than-human art-design process that engages with the concept of the demodern and is attuned to critical posthumanities. Within these two theoretical frameworks, we present the situated project ‘Permeance’, which, through an art-led methodology, rethought the tools of mapping, photography and chromatography to offer a demodernising alternative that accounts for human and more-than-human participation on equal bases. We discuss how critically and experimentally addressing common design tools, such as mapping or photography, can shape the creative design process and lead to generating alternative knowledge. We advance an art-led approach to developing well-suited tools and processes for more-than-human collaboration in PD. Lastly, we illustrate the transformative potential of an artistic methodological approach in a PD process as a means to initiate socioenvironmental action for change.