Co-presented by Victor Udoewa & Savannah Keith Gress
Common design methods, approaches, and processes are rooted in the same ontologies that created the current layers of crises facing the world and are inadequate to produce liberatory responses to these crises. We need new ways of designing rooted in new ontologies and epistemologies. The ancient practice of Relational Design (RD) offers one meaningful approach (Udoewa & Gress, 2023).
Relational design has many definitions. Certain people use the term to mean designing in relationship, designing with people with whom you already have a relationship. Others use the term to refer to designing with relationship, designing alongside people so that you develop a relationship through the act of designing. Participatory design is relational in this way. Others mean designing for relationship, where the goal of the design activity is improved relations between two or more people, groups, or entities. In this workshop, we mean something different: design-as-relationship-building. How can relationship-building methodologies be an act of design? Come to the workshop to learn and experience.
Udoewa, V., & Gress, S. (2023). Relational Design. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 3(1), 101–128. https://doi.org/10.47061/jasc.v3i1.5193 (Original work published May 31, 2023)
