Cyborg-centric design workshop
A human-centric approach has been a dominant way of solving design problems for the past 50 years - and looking at the world as it is in 2023, we can be quite confident that it hasn’t saved the world. We believe that there are two good reasons for that:
The meaning of "being human" has drastically changed over the past decade, but designers didn't adapt to it.
Designers underestimated the non-human actors and their agency in the ecosystems
We believe that a human-centric approach has reached its limits because the user we are designing for today is not a pure human anymore - it’s a cyborg, with a human core, and connected technologies intertwined with them - and these technologies also have their own will and agency.
In our workshop, we will make an attempt to translate the philosophical approaches of technological mediation and flat ontology into a practical approach of a post-human understanding of design.
We will:
- Explore the understanding of the post-human state of the technologically augmented user,
- Define ways of considering the user as a complex biological-technological ecosystem we call a cyborg,
- Explore new, valuable solutions with this approach and create previously near-impossible enhancements (for example advanced accessibility, dissolving the information bubble with non-biased agents, or even the future of hyperpersonalization in the e-commerce field).
A human-centric approach has been a dominant way of solving design problems for the past 50 years - and looking at the world as it is in 2023, we can be quite confident that it hasn’t saved the world. We believe that there are two good reasons for that:
The meaning of "being human" has drastically changed over the past decade, but designers didn't adapt to it.
Designers underestimated the non-human actors and their agency in the ecosystems
We believe that a human-centric approach has reached its limits because the user we are designing for today is not a pure human anymore - it’s a cyborg, with a human core, and connected technologies intertwined with them - and these technologies also have their own will and agency.
In our workshop, we will make an attempt to translate the philosophical approaches of technological mediation and flat ontology into a practical approach of a post-human understanding of design.
We will:
- Explore the understanding of the post-human state of the technologically augmented user,
- Define ways of considering the user as a complex biological-technological ecosystem we call a cyborg,
- Explore new, valuable solutions with this approach and create previously near-impossible enhancements (for example advanced accessibility, dissolving the information bubble with non-biased agents, or even the future of hyperpersonalization in the e-commerce field).
Got some juicy gossip?
We’d love to hear it (and any other questions, wishes or suggestions you have).
