Glenn Deliège, Mirte van Aalst, Bert De Roo, Giliam Ganzevles
Decentering Design wins gold Henry van de Velde Award
“A contemporary and relevant project that fundamentally broadens the discourse on design”: this is how the jury of the Henry van de Velde Awards describes Decentering Design, a project by the HOGENT research center Futures Through Design. On January 27, it won the gold award in the Design Research category. The Henry van de Velde Awards from Flanders District of Creativity highlight projects, products, and services that create a positive impact through design.
The Decentering Design project had already been selected as one of three nominees, and now it has also won the public prize, resulting in a gold award. The jury was full of praise: "Decentering Design is an inspiring quest for a design culture in which people are no longer the only benchmark. In text and images, a rich, layered story unfolds that invites reflection and action. The publication is convincing not only in terms of content, but also graphically: carefully crafted with images and paper types that make the polyphony of the research tangible. It is a contemporary and relevant project that fundamentally broadens the discourse around design."
The researchers behind the project and the book Decentering Design - Practice in a More-than-human World are Glenn Deliège, Mirte van Aalst, and Bert De Roo (Futures Through Design research center at HOGENT / KASK & Conservatorium) and Giliam Ganzevles (researcher at Devine HOWEST). The publication presents a collection of perspectives, insights, and methods that are primarily intended as guidelines for designers.
Researcher Bert De Roo explains the project in this video.
Two research projects
The book is the result of two research projects that were launched in 2020. Both projects question the classic human-centered thinking in design and art practices. They explore how design can contribute to an inclusive future by no longer placing humans at the center, but understanding them as part of a more-than-human network. Bert De Roo explains: "The idea arose from the observation that our environment is shaped by actors other than humans—other living beings, ecological systems, and technological networks. Yet we often approach this intrinsic connectedness in a purely functional way. In the projects, we investigated how we can evolve towards a more relational design attitude in which we emphasize that the human perspective and human needs are only one of many."
In other words, the researchers wanted to ‘decenter’ that human-centered perspective: what happens when more-than-human actors become full partners in the design process? How can designers develop methods that take into account our connectedness to all other life, organisms, and technologies?
The publication Decentering Design encourages us to approach places differently, explains Bert De Roo: "We often tend to view nature as something external, something we are not part of. How can we blur the hard line we draw between humans and nature and question our position as humans?
How can we change that mindset and ask ourselves, for example, what a bat would think of our design proposal? That may sound a little naive, but it does encourage you to look at space and design from a completely different angle."
No ready-made solutions
Decentering Design does not offer ready-made solutions, but allows the reader to wander through the landscape, as it were, and discover new insights. The book reflects the quest to find out how designers can take a critical look at space. It combines theoretical insights with practical examples and includes interviews with experts from various fields, including art, design, policy, and academic research. It challenges readers to take a critical look at their own practice and encourages experimentation in design and art processes through hands-on tools.
It certainly impressed the jury of the Henry van de Velde Awards and the public, resulting in a gold award. Researcher Bert De Roo is particularly delighted with the recognition: "The award is both a confirmation for everyone who is committed to this subject and emphasizes its urgency. We hope that this appreciation will inspire others to get started with their own practice: to ask new questions, and perhaps even to completely rethink their design process."
Disobedient Bodiesresearch presentationAgendaArtistic activitiesThree recently completed book projects inspire an evening of reflection. From very different angles these projects look for ways to think and act beyond anthropocentrism. They challenge the idea of the human as a singular, dominant maker of the world, seeking to demonstrate a rich plurality of perspectives instead. How can artists and designers be receptive in their work to the voices of the non-human entities we live among?
Disobedient Bodies marks the first public moment for two newly formed research clusters at KASK & Conservatorium: The Body Plural and Disobedient Practices. Members of both clusters will present their work and engage in dialogue around these themes, inviting new ways of imagining our relationships with the entities around us.
The event will consist of a small exhibition, informal presentations and an in-depth conversation about the areas where the books and the research clusters overlap. The evening will be moderated by curator and researcher Edith Doove.
The following books will be subject of discussion:
- Tju|ho – Thoughtful Ways of Making and Walking
Published by Jap Sam Books, Tju|ho – Thoughtful Ways of Making and Walking is a fully bilingual (English and Ju|’hoan) publication that explores thoughtful design, showing how place and community shape sustainable ways of making and walking.
The book centres on the re-creation of the traditional hunting sandal N!ang N|osi in Nhoma, Namibia, and its true owner, the Eland. Since 2021, the project has evolved through close collaboration with the Ju|’hoan communities of Nhoma and Tsumkwe.
At its heart, Tju|ho is a living process of annotation and re-narration, aimed at showing different ways of perceiving and relating to the environment.
The publication is edited by Catherine Willems, Festus Soroab, Anca Ușurelu, and the Ju|’hoan Transcription Group in Tsumkwe, Namibia. Catherine Willems is affiliated with the research cluster The Body Plural.
- Decentering Design – Practice in a More-than-human World
An invitation to journey beyondhuman-centric thinking and into the more-than-human world. By merging theory with practice, the publication offers strategies, insights, and exercises that cultivate a deeper sensitivity to the interconnected more-than-human community we form with all living beings. With diverse contributions by architects, landscape architects, product- and interaction designers, artists, photographers, philosophers, academics, curators, policy makers and policy officers. Contributions include FormaFantasma, Superflux, Eva Meijer, Clemens Driessen, Mihnea Tanasescu, Dries Segers and Jacopo Leveratto, among others.
This publication is the outcome of a research project by Bert De Roo, Giliam Ganzevles, Mirte van Aalst and Glenn Deliège, and edited and designed by Jurgen Maelfeyt. Published by APE (Art Paper Editions). A new project, Intermediate Zones, by Bert De Roo, Giliam Ganzevles and Jerry Galle Galle is affiliated with the research cluster Disobedient Practices.
- Liberate the Machines!
A personal experience of a dialogue with machines, narrated through the making of the experimental film Mechanisms Common to Disparate Phenomena; #59. Through this narration the book develops a view on how humans can learn from the devices they constructed. The human technical milieu is a collective product, a long-term external memory to which each generation contributes and the design and development of technology is therefore a form of politics. Media archaeology is presented as a method to investigate this collective construction.
By Joost Rekveld, design by Isabelle Vigier. Published by Studio Joost Rekveld and KASK & Conservatorium. Joost Rekveld is affiliated with the research cluster Disobedient Practices.
Lange Steenstraat 14
9000 Gent
start: 20:30
Design × More-than-Human, Design DialogueslectureAgendaArtistic activitieswith Marlène Huissoud (FR) & Decentering Design (BE), moderated by Anna Luyten (BE)
Design x More-than-Human delves into the growing realisation that we humans are not the sole inhabitants of this planet with a unique perspective. More and more designers and artists are exploring what we can learn from the non-human entities with whom we share our planet and how we can establish an inter-species dialogue. Next to that, we will also discuss the urgent need for design to confront its exploitation of non-human species and their materials we extract for human use. We are at a pivotal moment, calling for a rethinking of design that takes into account the more-than-human world.
Marlène Huissoud (FR)
Marlène Huissoud is a Paris-based experimental designer working in the art and design world. In 2014, she received a MA in Material Futures from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London with From Insects, a research project on materials derived from insects, such as the honey bee and the Indian silkworm. Marlène’s work challenges conventional design norms, prompting us to ponder the ethical implications of our relationship with natural resources and the role of design in today’s world. By uniting the chaos of nature with the human tendency to put meaning in everything, she dares us to consider whether it might be better to just let the world be. Her creations invite us to reconsider our human impact on Earth and advocate for responsible action.
Decentering Design (BE) | represented by Glenn Deliège
Decentering Design is a research unit exploring how designers can get to grips with working in and for a more-than-human world. Their basic intuition is that designing for a more-than-human world entails decentering the human experience within the design process. This is a necessary step towards recognising our world as a shared environment composed of a multitude of perspectives. Paradoxically, such a decentralisation of human experience starts with a rediscovery of our own sensoriality. Our senses are not passive sensors registering the environment, but active organs through which we can participate in a world of which we are clearly a part, but which at the same time always transcends ourselves: a shared, more-than-human reality. Through using and developing speculative design methodologies, Decentering Design aims to map out ways in which designers can take the more-than-human world into account.
Decentering Design is part of the research center Futures through Design by HOGENT & Howest, supported by KASK & Conservatorium.
Design Dialogues
Design x More-than-Human is part of the curated lecture series Design Dialogues organised by KASK & Conservatorium / HOGENT and Howest, and Design Museum Gent. Distinctive voices from the broad field of design are invited to reflect on the role and future of design in a changing world. Each Design Dialogue starts with in-depth presentations by the speakers around a specific theme, followed by a critical, moderated discussion and concludes with an open conversation between the speakers and the audience. Our mission: to provide engaging perspectives that could help us meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
