In the midst of civilizational and ecological turmoil, we must create livable worlds. For Haraway, livable worlds require us to turn away from the rationality and autopoiesis of anthropocentrism, towards the idea that “human beings are with and of the earth” and the “...powers of this earth are the main story;” rethinking ourselves as holobionts [2].
Humans only live through collaborations, relying upon each other to make the planet livable. As opposed to extracting from organisms in and around us, we must de-estrange ourselves in collaborations for survival with our neighbors (non-human and more), or sympoiesis.
Material practices for de-estrangement means becoming familiars with the non-human: microbiomes, birds, weeds, and so on. Sympoesis means we can only survive with (often unusual) partners; we “become-with each other”—or, “not at all” [2] We must discover collaborations with organisms, non-human and more; we must make kin to survive.
Community gardening projects, (namely those oriented towards permaculture and intersectional justice) are a fecund site for making kin for livability. In the wake of ecological destruction, invasive plants, and mass extinction---these projects can restore balance to ecosystems through what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls "ecological reciprocity" [1]. In return, in the wake of an era of modern loneliness, political turmoil, food insecurity, isolation, and despair---gardens can also serve as a site for harvest and local resiliency by rebuilding community texture. They are third places (a term coined by Roy Oldenberg, meaning a place that is neither work nor home) where people can have chance encounters and hang out with no pressure to purchase.
"in healing the land, we are healing ourselves."
The challenge that community gardens face (in part) is cultivating and maintaining a restorative and ecologically literate social texture, a base of volunteers, especially in the context of social scripts and “semi-public” consumer spaces that prioritize individual consumption and transaction for labor. How can community gardens serve as a site for transformation from consumer to interconnected ecological steward?
In teams, find opportunities for interaction design at Festival Beach Food Forest volunteer days. Research and make sense of the event—secondary research, ethnography, interviews—and present your findings. Your research should answer: which human needs (Max Neef) are / aren’t being met?
Using your research, you will design rituals that address opportunities / problems in the Food Forest community.
A ritual is the nexus of act and idea, a quotidian task elevated through meaning and narrative:
ritualization refers to a process of stylization and formalization in which instrumental behavior becomes symbolic and communicative.
You will design rituals for "reciprocal restoration" that both signify the importance of the healing of land but also foster community texture and belonging through the meeting of multiple (Max Neef) human needs.
This project aims to be a mutually beneficial semester-long project in which both students and the Festival Beach Food Forest will benefit and grow.
Students learn how to carry out research-driven design projects to meet human (and more) needs through the lens of permaculture design (+ design principles) and design justice (+ design principles).
Festival Beach Food Forest (FBFF) recieves student labor contributions to the garden as they participate as volunteers during work days. Further, students serve as a "think tank" in attempt to work through (though not solve) food forest problems, creating design proposals that FF members can incorporate, iterate upon, or reject in the everyday workings of the FF. UT design students will bring an unique interaction design perspective and tangible deliverables for FF members to use.
Because this is a research project in an external context, we should be careful to be in good relationship with (and not extract from) our design partners, Festival Beach Community Garden.
We will be using design justice, permaculture, and indigenous principles of design (to be explained in class).