Thursday
Delfina Fantini van Ditmar + Filipe Pais
Designs of Care
Free admission, register at info@bragamediarts.com
Conducted in English
Visions of progress rooted in systems inherently toxic lead us to an environmental emergency causing disasters of all sorts affecting all ecosystems. The ecological crisis based on outsized extraction, overproduction and waste evidence that we must design differently and cooperate with nature. By getting away from human-centric design practices, the workshop will avoid purely human-driven values designing for other species. Through a critical shift in perspective of how design gestures affect other species’ lives, the participants will explore alternatives to prioritise the other. The workshop aims to offer design alternatives based on questions of care and ecosystemic considerations.
Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a design researcher and lecturer at the Royal College of Art, Design Products + Futures Programme. Delfina has a BA in Biology and completed a year of an MFA at Konstfack University in Stockholm. She also holds a PhD from the RCA with a thesis entitled ‘The IdIoT’. Delfina has a transdisciplinary background linking design research, critical algorithmic studies, architecture and ecology. Her practice encourages a critical and reflective approach towards technological ‘smartness’ and ecological futures. She has been a critic and visiting lecturer in several institutions, including The Bartlett, Architectural Association, Goldsmiths, University of Brighton, Manchester School of Art, Canterbury University, Liverpool University, Critical Media Lab Basel and TU Berlin, among others. In 2021 she was selected as one of the Future Observatory Design Researcher in Residency (DriR) at the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The programme aims to find solutions to the most pressing societal and environmental issues bringing design researchers together with the networks to help them achieve the nation’s environmental goals.
Filipe Pais is an Associate Professor at Noroff University College and a Research Associate at the Reflective Interaction Group from EnsadLab (the laboratory of Ensad – École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). He is the co-coordinator of the MisB Kit Project at Ensadlab. His research focuses on the transformative power of play and on the notions of behavioral and misbehavioural objects. More recently his research has also been focusing on the impact of digital technologies in natural environments.