open.txt
POST NATURE Cristiana Favretto 1 /& 8 Antonio Girardi
Published by open.txt as part of the graduation exhibition at CIID — Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, 2014. All rights to this work are reserved by the author. This text was selected through an open call during November 2014. All submissions were selected and edited by Kendra Marks in collaboration with Henriette Kruse Jørgensen. open.txt is a design and publishing concept initiated by Henriette Kruse Jørgensen. open.txt — experimental publishing http://open-txt.com
POST NATURE Cristiana Favretto & Antonio Girardi
Over the last years, the traditional ecologic thinking has been updated, both in the practice and in the conceptual paradigm. A new scene of theorists, scientists, activists and designers is emerging, aiming at rethinking from the roots the relationship between humans and their surroundings. The established ecologic paradigm can be divided into two different approaches. The first one is preservation of the existing natural environment (e.g., of wildlife or of a forest), while the second one is conservation of the existing resources in order to guarantee the survival of the human species in the long term. Preservation is a biocentric approach, while conservation is an anthropocentric approach focusing on the supremacy of humans over nature. It is the sustainability mainstream program since the Bruntland Report of 1987. Both of these approaches to ecology are based on the premise that humanity is separated from its environment. They study the relations between 4/8
humankind and its surroundings without conceiving nature as a system humans are part of. On the contrary, the same concept of ecosystem does not accept the idea that the human species is distinct from nature. In the last 15 years a different approach to the theme has emerged, trying to overcome the separation between humanity and nature and between natural and artificial. Two different methodologies became popular, namely hacking nature and imitating nature. Hacking nature refers to design activities which apply new knowledge on morphogenesis, on molecular engineering and on genetics to produce artificial objects which can self arrange and self replicate, and which are able to adapt to their environment. The development of such a practice can lead to unexpected scenarios. For example, what will happen if the graft of modified photosynthesis cells into buildings will enable them to produce energy and carbohydrates (that is, food) by using carbon dioxide and sun energy, just 5/8
as plants do? That will lead to the actual possibility of replacing the natural basis of human life on earth with a neo-nature, artificial but fully sustainable: “a new manifestation of the old Baconian dream of autonomy from a pre-given nature, a manifestation more deeply Baconian than Bacon himself� (Mathews 2011). On the other hand, imitating nature is a methodology which studies the evolution of living organisms with the aim of using their adaptation techniques and strategies to design products and processes. Since in nature living organisms only use renewable energy, performing effectively and managing waste with efficiency, design solutions mimicking nature are supposed to be more sustainable and environmentally keen. However, in its current form, biomimicry aims at generating products based on our needs as consumers, not at changing our needs. Thus it can quickly turn into the justification for the ultimate consumerist cycle. 6/8
A third stream updates the ideology of Deep Ecology based on the work of thinkers such as Arne NĂŚss and Bill Devall. This paradigm aims at developing a collaborative approach with nature and proposes a limit to human actions based on the needs of other living organisms belonging to the same ecosystem. It is a mutualistic and synergetic approach, which has the merit of emphasizing the global approach to the theme, and, above all, of enhancing the fact that, without reshaping our needs, our efforts toward a more sustainable behaviour may be ultimately worthless.
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