Clouds May Be Past Farms and Future Rivers

Abstract

This paper starts from a premise that the current polycrisis calls for non-linear and poetic ways of conducting Participatory Design (PD). Hence, it aims to rethink the use of PD within ecosocial transitions through introducing a novel research methodology—clouding. Inspired by the feminist concept of diffraction [1, 11], the two co-authors have developed a clouding methodology through intersecting their research to address the need for PD to simultaneously remain a situated systemic support, while becoming more attuned to the increasingly shifting reality and non-linear temporalities of more-than-humans. Clouding PD would consist of acknowledging entanglements between disparate worlds through multi-directional inquiries that embrace uncertainty and cultivate difference—thus, potentially, it could bring forth obscure actors, hidden knowledge, and activate unapparent human and more-than-human synergies. The paper first outlines potentials lying in adopting clouding, and then attempts to prototype those thoughts, grounding them within a concrete context—Flemish countryside in transition. How could clouds not only represent uncertainties, interweave entanglements, but also illuminate ways for coexisting in peace? The text then morphs into a series of dialogical anecdotes composed of empirical fieldwork material, and, taking inspiration from clouds, explore different meanings they hold, potentialities they reveal, and relationalities they can help build, thus providing insights both for ecosocial transitions and clouding PD.