Design Anthropology as Ontological Exploration and Inter-Species Engagement
Tau Ulv Lenskjold, Sissel Olander · 2020
This chapter discusses the potential for a design anthropology that, while firmly grounded in a material-experimental practice, is also informed by, and explorative of, those ideas in contemporary anthropology that are related to what is commonly referred to as the ontological turn. It shows that material-speculative approaches that address non-humans are capable of generating questions-not-yet-posed that have relevance for contemporary design anthropology. The chapter begin by briefly mapping some of the current positions in design anthropology in order to situate our approach in relation to them. This is followed by a condensed account of how we understand and are interested in the so-called ontological turn in anthropology. That leads us to a presentation and analysis of the experimental project, which will fuel a discussion of the differences involved in attending ethno-graphically or experimentally to a series of other-than-human encounters.