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What kind of beautiful strangeness will it take? sustainable design, matter and pedagogical encounters

University of British Columbia

Sustainability is not about achieving an end point, rather it is a way of knowing, feeling and being that embraces a different perception of the material world we live in. My thesis is an inquiry into the entangled relationship between design and matter with the hope of inspiring this dynamic understanding of sustainability. I consider how coming to know the material nature of design may help designers achieve a more intimate perception of matter, and alter not only the way we design, but also what we think design should be. Matter is the force that binds the human with the nonhuman, the relationship human’s share with the material world shapes our thoughts and ideas, and the fabricated world we live in today had its birthplace in human imagination. Of interest to me is the question: If design, as a practice, were to challenge the Western antimaterial habit of mind that burdens both human and nonhuman beings, what unimaginable and strange realms may open up when our imaginations are pushed beyond the limits of disciplinary thinking? The intention of my thesis is not to arrive at a single solution that will draw us out of the unsustainable reality that lurks beneath much of design, mass production and consumption. Instead this is the thoughtful journey of one designer longing to discover what new dialogue can be found between design and matter beyond the limited scope of our instrumental reasoning so that we may begin to see, feel and know the material world differently.

Text

2013-09-13

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45070

Art Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/