The Man in a Shell (2022), Course Project by Xu Hongxin, Wu Kaidong, Liu Tianyu, Peng Linzheng, Yuan Qianhui, and Ma Yuying
Towards Biophilia
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Students:
L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique Joint Institute, China Academy of Art
Claire Qi, Frank Cong, Jeff Zhang
Spring 2021 - 2022
Innovative Thinking and Practice
20 hours / week, 9 weeks / semester
404, China Academy of Art (Nanshan Campus)
None
By appointment
MDes/MA Students
Course Overview
This course explores a new pedagogy of design education that challenges design thinking to move towards a biophilic perspective. By applying ‘symbiosis’ as the topic, we developed an experimental teaching structure that shapes new bio-inspired design practices.
We examine the key design methods informed by biology through discussion of important cases of biomimicry, bionics, bio-design, and speculative design as well as correspondent social and technological backgrounds. Understanding such contexts helps us better evaluate what is required to design and young designers in this decade. We used the human-animal relationship as the starting point and applied embodied transfiguration design practice to identify certain bio subjects for further research. By isolating the key feature, students developed a design concept and a solution to the corresponding problem. The students were from different backgrounds. Their projects divert from media design, installation, product design, space design, AR storytelling, etc. Preliminary output from the course suggests that design education becomes a way to reshape human-nonhuman relationships — the cross-species solution could be reliable in the near future. Furthermore, the course emphasized a bio-positive-centered design strategy.
Learning Objectives
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Understand enhanced humans, hybrids, and chimeras in cultural, natural, and technological contexts
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Understand key bioethical arguments concerning human cloning, human enhancement, and human-nonhuman chimeras
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Know concepts of ableism, speciesism, and anthropocentrism
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Learn speculative design / design fiction as an investigative approach
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Develop theoretical and hands-on practice related to project conceptualization, research, and development methods
