The formal written part of thesis projects at the UIC School of Design is a thesis documentation book. See excerpts from my documentation book, including criteria for planet-centric design, as well as my full bibliography below.
This is the fourth part of my Master of Design thesis project. If you have not already, go see the first part, The Cai Modeling Materials, the second part, Pasta Water for Designers, and the third part, Designing With Waste.
My thesis documentation book, Designing With Waste: Open Source Collaboration in Experimental Design, is 87 pages long and details my process for arriving at my thesis topic (Design as Death), as well as my inspirations, motivation, process, and hopes for the project.
An excerpt from the Design cannot exist without death. chapter. Note that there are minor differences in which text is bolded here vs in the book due to formatting differences:
When a designer makes a piece of wooden furniture, a tree is torn down. All the creatures that depend on it, from microorganisms to animals, lose their source of food or shelter, which often kills them. But that tree is reborn as lumber, that lumber embodies countless possibilities and is eventually turned into useful objects. And in an ideal world, that lumber will one day return to the earth as composted soil.
Death is inherent in everything. We will all die. And without death of some sort, plants, animals (which includes humans), and even designed objects could not be born. Nothing is truly consequence free, no matter what spectrum of good to bad is used as a measurement. If we acknowledge the consequences of our actions, we can create more considered objects that lessen their negative impact on the world.
The Haudenosaunee use the seventh generation principle as a way to guide their decisions1. The concept is that the decisions we make should take into consideration the impact they will have seven generations from now2. In order to design with the stewardship of the planet in mind, we must be cognizant of death. People raised on Western precepts often run away from death. When death is to be feared, legacy creates immortality by ensuring your memory lives on in future generations. The pursuit of immortality means the exploitation of other living beings and resources.
Since the intersecting Western practices of disposability and design have led us to this climate crisis3, we need to look to other cultures where people are already experts in how to interact with nature respectfully and sustainably.
“The Peacemaker taught us about the Seven Generations. He said, when you sit in council for the welfare of the people, you must not think of yourself or of your family, not even of your generation. He said, make your decisions on behalf of the seven generations coming, so that they may enjoy what you have today.”
-Oren Lyons (Seneca) Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation4
For over 13,000 years, indigenous peoples across the world used prescribed burning to help prevent larger forest fires, and to let certain plants grow that would otherwise be cut off from the sun. The deaths of the plants burned ensure the longevity of their larger ecosystems. The United States outlawed prescribed burns for about 100 years. With the cessation of this practice, indigenous traditions, such as Yurok basket weaving, began to die out as the plants they relied upon for weaving could not thrive. With the return of prescribed burns comes hope for the renewal of their basketry practices, as well as a reduction in uncontrolled forest fires5.
It is the stewardship of the land that will provide us with more resources. The more natural and sustainable resources we have, the richer our design vocabularies will be as we will have more materials to work with. This could open up possibilities for more regional design practices rather than a single, dominant, global design world and trends. By creating a pluriverse of design communities we can create a more sustainable, just, and culturally rich world6.
Planned obsolescence is avaricious7. But if used responsibly, ethical planned obsolescence can help us create sustainable deaths for our designs. And like with prescribed burns, if we allow our designs to die gracefully, we will leave room for the next generations to thrive.
When I began thinking about the criteria that should be included in ethical planned obsolescence, I realized that the phrase “ethical planned obsolescence” was limiting. The very name invokes the simplification of systems; it invokes manufacturing as separate from issues such as fair trade labor. The making of objects goes beyond factory floors and landfills. It impacts the humans making, using, and impacted by the use of products. It impacts the ecosystems whose resources are used to make the products.
Planet-centric design, I believe, is the answer. Yet it is a nascent field of design that has not received as much critical attention as it deserves. […]
The following, I believe, are criteria that should be considered when thinking about planet-centric design, considerations that purposefully complicate the design process. Because design impacts so many beings and so much of the planet, if we want to be responsible designers, we need to think beyond ourselves and our target markets8.
- The manufacturing of the product– How are the materials sourced? Under what conditions are people laboring to bring the products to life, and are they being compensated fairly?
- The intentions of the designers and business producing the product– What is the purpose of the product? Plan its lifespan accordingly. For example, outside of certain situations, such as in the medical field, plastic should not be used for disposable goods.
- The consequences of the product– How will the product impact not just its target market but unintended markets? This includes marginalized communities as well as the plants and animals that might suffer from the dumping of toxic chemicals that go into making the product. Consider the beings who may be unintentionally impacted by the target market’s use of the product. For instance, if a new prison gets erected, it will obviously negatively impact the inmates, but what impact will that prison have on the surrounding communities?
- The aging of the product– Will the product produce hazardous chemicals or substances while it is being used, such as vinyl flooring off gassing dioxin as it wears down9?
- The death of the product– What will happen to the product when it stops being used? Who will be responsible for it? Individuals? Governments? Or the companies that produced the product? Will it go to landfills, and if so, will it off gas toxic chemicals when put in an anaerobic environment? Can it be composted and not just biodegraded in industrial facilities?
- The afterlife– Can the product amend soil if biodegraded? Can the product be upcycled, recycled, or repurposed?
In my notion of planet-centric design, the entire life of the product must be considered because each stage contributes to death, and thus has the potential to contribute to regeneration. The plants and animals that die during deforestation. The workers that give meaningful hours of their lives to create the products, whether they are working in humane conditions and especially if they are not. The product as it breaks down while in use. And finally, the death of the product’s first life. These tangled considerations can be considered an assemblage10, a lens through which to identify all the changing human and non-human, living and non-living existences touched by an object.
The opportunity in planet-centric design is to give products and materials new life after their first lives have ended. This can transform humanity’s impact on the planet from a negative one to a regenerative one.
At the heart of the issue of destructive land management and disposability is the concept of human exceptionalism21, the belief that we, as human beings, are superior to all other inhabitants of this planet, so should take whatever we want.
Placing humans first results in destructive practices such as our monoculture lifestyle, such as species extinction and loss of biodiversity. Killing ecosystems to sow thousands of acres of single varieties of wheat, corn, and soybeans has been driving species to extinction. This could only get worse if we rely on crops to make materials like PLA. In design, some monocultural practices appear as an overuse of plastic, only using trees to make paper, and only using red and white clays for ceramics. What materials and design possibilities are we missing out on by only using the same materials over and over again? Let’s move away from this self-centered mindset to engage in planet-centric design that is based upon non-Western principles, with a centering of knowledge from the Global South. Let’s acknowledge that our designs will not and should not last forever, and let’s plan for their deaths accordingly.
Bibliography, especially influential texts bolded:
“Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Fact Sheet,” n.d., 25.
Agapakis, Christina. New Paradigms for Design. Vol. 7. Ferment TV. Faber Future, Ginko Bioworks, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY5fp93S5lo.
Axel, Nick, Beatriz Colomina, Nikolaus Hirsch, Anton Vidokle, and Mark Wigley, eds. Superhumanity: Design of the Self. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2018.
Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. North Carolina, UNITED STATES: Duke University Press, 2010. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uic/detail.action?docID=1170671.
Block, India. “‘It’s Not Enough to Ask Designers to Be Sustainable’ Says Formafantasma.” Accessed February 29, 2020. https://www.dezeen.com/2020/02/26/formafantasma-interview-sustainable-design/.
Busch, Otto von, and Cigdem Kaya Pazarbasi. “Just Craft: Capabilities and Empowerment in Participatory Craft Projects.” Design Issues 34, no. 4 (October 2018): 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00512.
Buzon, Darin. “Design Thinking Is a Rebrand for White Supremacy.” Medium, January 14, 2021. https://dabuzon.medium.com/design-thinking-is-a-rebrand-for-white-supremacy-b3d31aa55831.
Canonical. “Ubuntu Font.” Accessed March 23, 2019. https://design.ubuntu.com/font/.
Chapman, Jonathan. “Design for (Emotional) Durability.” Design Issues 25, no. 4 (October 1, 2009): 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1162/desi.2009.25.4.29.
Cheng, Anne Anlin. “Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory for the Yellow Woman.” Critical Inquiry 44, no. 3 (2018): 415–46. https://doi.org/10.1086/696921.
Colomina, Beatriz, and Mark Wigley. are we human? notes on an archaeology of design. Zürich, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2017.
Crellin, Rachel J. “Changing Assemblages: Vibrant Matter in Burial Assemblages.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27, no. 1 (February 2017): 111–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774316000664.
Cullinane, Kate. “The Original Paradox: Or the Value of Creating New Designs vs. Being Original.” Design Observer. Accessed January 22, 2020. http://designobserver.com/feature/the-original-paradox/37733.
Delgado, L. Elena, Rolando J. Romero, and Walter Mignolo. “Local Histories and Global Designs: An Interview with Walter Mignolo.” Discourse 22, no. 3 (2000): 7–33. https://doi.org/10.1353/dis.2000.0004.
Design Assembly. “What Is Planet-Centric Design?,” October 14, 2019. https://designassembly.org.nz/2019/10/15/what-is-planet-centric-design/.
“Design Issues | MIT Press.” Accessed May 7, 2021. https://direct.mit.edu/desi.
Escobar, Arturo. Designs for the Pluriverse : Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds /. New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century. Duke University Press, 2018.
Frog Design. “Envisioning and Designing a Planet-Centric Future.” Accessed May 7, 2021. https://www.frogdesign.com/designmind/envisioning-and-designing-a-planet-centric-future/.
Fry, Tony. “Design, a Philosophy of Liberation and Ten Considerations.” Strategic Design Research Journal 11, no. 2 (September 6, 2018): 174-176–176. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2018.112.16.
Glassman, Gary, Joseph Sousa, and Scott Tiffany. “Native America.” Nature to Nations. PBS, October 30, 2018. https://www.pbs.org/native-america/episodes/nature-to-nations/.
Hansen, Terri. “How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native America.” How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native America. Accessed May 3, 2021. https:// www.pbs.org/native-america/blogs/native-voices/how-the-iroquois-great-law-of-peace-shaped- us-democracy/.
Helvert, Marjanne van. “Design for Consumer Society: Planned Obsolescence, Styling, and Irresponsible Objects.” In The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology for the Future, edited by Marjanne van Helvert, 107–23. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2016.
Helvert, Marjanne van, ed. The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology for the Future. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2016.
Huyn, Que-Lam, Thierry Devos, and Laura Smalarz. “PERPETUAL FOREIGNER IN ONE’S OWN LAND: POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR IDENTITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 30, no. 2 (2011): 133–62.
Impossible. “A New Era of Planet Centric Design.” Medium, February 12, 2018. https://medium.com/impossible/key-takeaways-from-sustainability-leaders-forum-1199a240d972.
Jackson, Sarah Poppy. Reclaim Your Shit! Auburn, Indiana: BKDN Press, 2019.
Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2013.
Kimmerer, Robin. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. 16th ed. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University, 2003.
Kovach, Margaret. Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. University of Toronto Press, 2010.
Light, Ann. “Ideas of Autonomía: Buzzwords, Borderlands and Research through Design.” Strategic Design Research Journal 11, no. 2 (September 5, 2018): 147-153–153. https://doi.org/10.4013/ sdrj.2018.112.11.
Lopez, Barry, ed. “The Pirates of Illiopolis.” In The Future of Nature: Writing on a Human Ecology from Orion Magazine, 1st ed. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2007.
Lupton, Ellen, and Andrea Lipps, eds. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2018.
Luzi, Francesca, Debora Puglia, and Luigi Torre. “10 – Natural Fiber Biodegradable Composites and Nanocomposites: A Biomedical Application.” In Biomass, Biopolymer-Based Materials, and Bioenergy, edited by Deepak Verma, Elena Fortunati, Siddharth Jain, and Xiaolei Zhang, 179–201. Woodhead Publishing Series in Composites Science and Engineering. Woodhead Publishing, 2019. https://doi. org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102426-3.00010-2.
Manzini, Ezio. Design, When Everybody Designs | The MIT Press. The MIT Press. Accessed May 24, 2020. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/design-when-everybody-designs.
Micklethwaite, Paul. “Design Against Consumerism.” In A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945, 436–56. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119112297.ch21.
Noronha, Raquel. “The Collaborative Turn: Challenges and Limits on the Construction of a Common Plan and on Autonomía in Design.” Strategic Design Research Journal 11, no. 2 (September 6, 2018): 125- 135–135. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2018.112.08.
NPR.org. “If We Called Ourselves Yellow.” Accessed April 28, 2021. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/09/27/647989652/if-we-called-ourselves-yellow. .
NPR.org. “Plastic Has A Big Carbon Footprint — But That Isn’t The Whole Story.” Accessed May 17, 2021. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/735848489/plastic-has-a-big-carbon-footprint-but-that-isnt- the-whole-story.
NM Type. “Movement Typeface – a Variable Font by NM Type.” Accessed September 23, 2020. http://www.nmtype.com/movement/.
Paper Calculator presented by Environmental Paper Network. “Paper Calculator 4.0.” Accessed May 5, 2021. https://c.environmentalpaper.org/individual.html.
“Paper Recycling Facts – University of Southern Indiana.” Accessed March 26, 2021. https://www.usi.edu/recycle/paper-recycling-facts/.
Parsons, Tim. Thinking: Objects: Contemporary Approaches to Product Design. 1st ed. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2017.
Pietz, William. “The Problem of the Fetish, I.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 9 (1985): 5–17.
Planet Centric Design. “Why Should We Go Planet Centric?” Accessed May 7, 2021. https://planetcentricdesign.com/method-tools/.
Psychology Today. “On Human Exceptionalism.” Accessed September 15, 2020. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201301/human-exceptionalism.
Rettner, Rachael. “More Than 250,000 People May Die Each Year Due to Climate Change.” livescience.com, January 17, 2019. https://www.livescience.com/64535-climate-change-health-deaths.html.
Richardson, Adam. “The Death of the Designer.” Design Issues 9, no. 2 (1993): 34–43. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511672.
Richard, Kevin. “Beyond Human Centered Design.” Medium, May 23, 2020. https://blog.designcriticalthinking.com/beyond-human-centered-design-48c0e673f1dc.
RISD, the Nature Lab at. Regeneration with Daniel Glenn | 7 Directions Architects & Planners, 2021. https://vimeo.com/541660490.
Salazar, Pablo Calderón, Mela Zuljevic, and Liesbeth Huybrechts. “Southern Manners in Northern Lands: Design Interventions for Autonomía.” Strategic Design Research Journal 11, no. 2 (September 6, 2018): 103-114–114. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2018.112.06.
Segal, Lynn. “The Myth of Objectivity.” In The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster’s Constructivism, edited by Lynn Segal, 5–25. New York, NY: Springer, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0115-8_2.
“Seven Generations – the Role of Chief.” Accessed November 30, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/timeline/opendoor/roleOfChief.html.
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. Accessed May 7, 2021. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation.
Sullivan, Laura. “How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled.” NPR.org. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled.
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Testori, Giulia, and Viviana d’Auria. “Autonomía and Cultural Co-Design. Exploring the Andean Minga Practice as a Basis for Enabling Design Processes.” Strategic Design Research Journal 11, no. 2 (September 6, 2018): 92-102–102. https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2018.112.05.
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The Guardian. “‘Fire Is Medicine’: The Tribes Burning California Forests to Save Them,” November 21, 2019. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california- native-americans.
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Yusoff, Kathryn. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. 1.
This is the final part of my Master of Design thesis.
See part one, The Cai Modeling Materials.
See part two, Pasta Water for Designers.
See part three, Designing With Waste.
Citations for the excerpted text:
1. Hansen, Terri. “How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native America.” How the Iroquois Great Law of Peace Shaped U.S. Democracy | Native America. Accessed May 3, 2021. https:// www.pbs.org/native-america/blogs/native-voices/how-the-iroquois-great-law-of-peace-shaped-us-democracy/.
2. Variations on this principle exist. The Apsáalooke view the seven generations as encompassing the three generations that came before, the current generation, and the three generations to come.
RISD, the Nature Lab at. Regeneration with Daniel Glenn | 7 Directions Architects & Planners, 2021. https://vimeo.com/541660490.
3. Micklethwaite, Paul. “Design Against Consumerism.” In A Companion to Contemporary Design since 1945, 436–56. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119112297.ch21.
4. “Seven Generations – the Role of Chief.” Accessed November 30, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/timeline/opendoor/roleOfChief.html.
5. The Guardian. “‘Fire Is Medicine’: The Tribes Burning California Forests to Save Them,” November 21, 2019. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/21/wildfire-prescribed-burns-california-native-americans.
6. Escobar, Arturo. Designs for the Pluriverse : Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century. Duke University Press, 2018.
7. Chapman, Jonathan. “Design for (Emotional) Durability.” Design Issues 25, no. 4 (October 1, 2009): 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1162/desi.2009.25.4.29.
8. My list is a general overview. For a comprehensive look at manufacturing and waste considerations coupled with the role that government plays, but a view that does not take into account broader environmental concerns or labor concerns, refer to the concept of product stewardship.
“What Is Product Stewardship? | Northwest Product Stewardship Council.” Accessed September 7, 2020. http://productstewardship.net/about/what-product-stewardship.
9. Lopez, Barry, ed. “The Pirates of Illiopolis.” In The Furture of Nature: Writing on a HUman Ecology from Orion Magazine, 1st ed. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2007.
20. Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. North Carolina, UNITED STATES: Duke University Press, 2010. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uic/detail.action?docID=1170671.
Crellin, Rachel J. “Changing Assemblages: Vibrant Matter in Burial Assemblages.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27, no. 1 (February 2017): 111–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774316000664.
21. Psychology Today. “On Human Exceptionalism.” Accessed September 15, 2020. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201301/human-exceptionalism.
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