Walking towards the Pluriverse: Rethinking Design Education through Relational and Situated Creative Practices

Abstract

Starting from the premise that we cannot face a crisis with the same categories that generated it, this investigation seeks to contribute to the exploration of new conceptual and creative horizons that support the transition towards a world where many worlds fit–the pluriverse. Drawing on the contributions of various feminist and decolonial theorists and practitioners – as well as a study conducted in an academic institution – we would like to advocate for situated creative practices that can actively contribute to confronting the “civilizational crisis” we are experiencing; that is, a crisis in the civilizational model that is no longer generating the conditions to maintain life (Escobar, 2020). The reference to “situation” has a double connotation: on the one hand, it refers to creative interventions in specific places and times, paying special attention to the geographical and historical particularities of a certain context and, on the other, it refers to practices in which the practitioner positions herself critically with respect to the context in which she intervenes, a crucial notion in feminist (Haraway, 2013; Lugonés, 2003) and decolonial theories (Vázquez, 2020). We wish to argue that such approach can be a way of developing a relational design practice (Escobar, Osterweil & Sharma, 2024), allowing designers to be more sensitive and attuned with the communities with whom they work with and the natural environment where they operate, including a consideration for the more-than human agents involved (De la Cadena & Blazer, 2018). In order to begin illustrating the practical horizons for this framework, we will present a design practice conducted with undergraduate students in the Collserola mountain, a natural ecosystem in the edge of Barcelona. Through walking, sensory mapping, exploration with AI, and prototyping, participants explored the interplay between embodied experiences, memory, future speculation, and design. Walking the park fostered sensory engagement, shaping students’ understanding of the site, its history and its inhabitants (human and more-than-human). This informed the development of projects addressing environmental concerns and promoting sustainable practices through reimagined spaces or objects, envisioning alternative futures and challenging existing norms. The methodology encouraged non-canonical reflection, urging students to move beyond conformistic approaches while fostering future-oriented critical thinking. The practice yielded valuable insights for design education and its potential in becoming a practice that can actively contribute to (sustainable) transition processes on two counts: firstly, by showing how integrating walking and sensory mapping into design processes can challenge space determinism, and secondly by demonstrating the potential of speculative design and future studies to foster alternative imagination and address pressing issues like climate change, promoting planetary awareness. By further advancing on a specific framework for design (situated creative practices) and presenting a particular experience (workshop with design students in Collserola), through this paper we wish to highlight the potential –and limitations– that design practice and pedagogy may have in contributing to the emergence of other, more just worlds.