Making-with is a series of discontiguous narratives coming together to tell a greater story of what it is to be more than human. This year’s MA Interaction Design cohort at London College of Communication evaluates the ways in which art and design practices of today shape the storytelling of the future through multiple forms, from speculative narratives and filmmaking to practical workshops and investigations of planetary computation.
Merging a wide variety of backgrounds and practices, MA Interaction Design sets out to demystify our relationship with the environment through decentralized narratives, in which our more-than-human cohabitants take precedence. What if there was no wind? What might the more-than-human prophecies of today look like? How can our presence be positive for other beings? By engaging with these new systems of thinking, audiences have the opportunity to explore the embodiment of crisis and survival, of decay and regeneration.
Making-with invites us to contemplate how we use resources, how we create with others, machines and the environment, and what it means to be a part of a sympoietic system. Making-with was first shown at the Science Gallery, London in Spring 2024.
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Green is an Elusive Colour
Ying Xiong (CN), Hsiang Ting Hsu (CN), Muqing Yu (CN), Wei Lai (CN)
To address global warming and its associated suffering, countries have begun implementing green transitions. But therein arises the hidden danger of green colonialism.
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Protection Evolves Destruction
Mo Cheng (CN), Jiachen Qi (CN), Haowei Yan (CN), Xiaochang Wu (CN)
The use of palm oil to replace traditional fuels, with the aim of reducing the greenhouse effect, is causing new problems such as forest destruction. Solutions proposed to address one environmental problem can actually create different and equally destructive problems.
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Symphony of Symbiosis
Jia Lyu (CN), Zitong Wang (CN), Lintang Kirana Sitaputri (ID), Demi Abiru (IE)
Over 75 percent of the world’s soils are degraded — we need to take radical steps to reverse the trend and restore biodiversity. Symphony of Symbiosis uncovers the bond between humans, sound and mycelium. This project invites visitors to explore how sound frequencies affect mycelium and how it responds to electrical charges emitted by living…
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The Oracle of Darklings
Sabina Oțelea (RO), Sagar Bhat (IN), Shiqing Ge (CN), Ren Han (CN)
This techno-biophilic oracle houses an anthology of speculative fabulations exploring the perspective of more-than-human entities in the face of the end of the world. These narratives are presented in the form of visual and sonic simulations of Darklings, creatures of the future whose experiences of climate collapse act as the prophetic dreams of today.
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Whispers from the Still
Anna Diessner (DE), Mia Ribić (HR), Zero Minglin He (CN), YuanYuan Hu (CN)
Whispers from the Still imagines a speculative future without wind, depicted from a non-human perspective. This intimate installation consists of fabrics adorned with poems, inviting the visitor into a contemplative space. Touching these poems elicits desperate sounds from the living beings.
London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (GB)
MA Interaction Design at the London College of Communication, part of the University of the Arts London, offers participants an opportunity for experimental and interdisciplinary practice exploring contemporary issues around digital, networked technologies and their intersection with the anthropocene, climate crisis and social and economic inequality.
Credits
Curatorial Text: Sabina Otela
Original Exhibition Organization and Curation Team: Demi Abiru, Sagar Bhat, Shiqing Ge, Zero Minglin He, Hsiang Ting Hsu, Daian Alexa Muñoz De La Hoz, Sabina Otela, Mia Ribic, Elmira Selinova, Adza Tarka