Feeling otherness: a post-anthropocentric creative framework to design more-than-human futures

Amidst the current climatic and technological transformations, a ‘post-anthropocentric turn’ is necessary to ensure human and planetary thriving. Through the decentering of the human subject in favour of an ecological conception of more-than-human relations and the introduction of a broader conception of life (zoe), posthuman theories offer a valuable theoretical foundation to acknowledge human-nonhuman interdependencies. Such a paradigm shift fosters the development of new design frameworks to overcome traditional human-centered approaches and inevitably triggers reflections about design creativity.

The talk will present the initial results of a PhD research in Design that explores how post-anthropocentric tenets belonging to posthuman philosophies reframe designers’ creativity and creative action. The aim of the project is to outline a Post-anthropocentric Creative Framework to support designers in envisioning preferable more- than-human futures.

Eva Monestier is an Italian product designer and PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano. Since 2022 she has been a researcher at IDEActivity Center where she collaborates in European projects and supports the teaching team as a tutor. She gained experience in research working at Digital Society School, a research center within the Hogeschool van Amsterdam that seeks to assess the impact of technology on society and shape preferable futures. Her current research interests revolve around creativity, design futures and posthuman theories.