DESIGN 231 BLOG 3: THE PLURIVERSE

PLURIVERSAL DESIGN

WHAT IS PLURIVERSE?

A pluriverse is a world that allows multiple worlds that are being oppressed by coloniality to flourish (Letiao, 2020). Pluriversal design is a design practice that aims to design for diversity. Unlike other design methods that only focus on designing for one type of audience. Pluriversal design is about designing many worlds that celebrate the indigenous roots of all individuals. Pluriversal design breaks the regular "one-size fits all" type of design methodology that requires the target audience to adjust themselves to suit the design, pluriversal design creates multiple solutions for different individuals and connects different "worlds" together by having one underlying core at the center.

Leitao (2020), A world for one Centers vs. A world for many Centers

Going beyond a universal point of view and embracing pluriversal values and cultures could refine some of the limitations of speculative design. As Boaventura de Sousa Santos(2007) stated that modern patriarchal-capitalist worldview has divided society into two split realms. On the one side is the eurocentric, so-called developed world at the center, and another being the rest of the world which are outside of the 'dominant' design culture. Excluding the 'non-dominant' point of view has been seen as one of the major criticism of the speculative design. And yet pluriversal design provides a lens to design from a place-based perspective, getting the inspiration from a grassroots PoV. Combining the lens of these two design methods when speculating for a possible future could prevent the final design from being too detached from other cultures while being able to depict a future of diversity instead of a hegemony society full of biases. Meanwhile, pluriversal design opens up more doors of inspiration because it creates an inclusive environment for all cultures. Designers could reflect their ideas by digging back into their cultural background when speculating a unique future that belongs to their true selves.

CASE STUDY: RED SILK OF FATE--THE SHRINE

The Red Silk of Fate is a series of works by Japanese Designer Sputniko! (Hiromi Ozaki), the reason why I chose this series as the case study for this blog is that this work ensembles the combination of speculative design and pluriversal design.

Red Silk of Fate--Tamaki's Crush by Sputniko! (2016)

Her work was inspired by traditional East Asia mythology, where a god called 月老 (literally translates to the elder of the moon, the god of love ) would tie the people destined to be together with the red silk of fate (運命の赤い糸), Sputniko works with researchers at the University of Tokyo, they extracted oxytocin. Oxytocin is a special hormone secreted by humans when they fall in love. Sputniko and the researchers then injected the oxytocin along with a coral-red natural die that emits red light to ensemble the Red Silk of Fate into the silkworm's body, making the silkworm spit out the "red thread" carrying human hormones. After she acquired the silk that contains hormones, Sputniko then collaborated with several other embroidery designers to create a shrine-like installation made from the special silk.

Besides the Shrine made of the red silk of Fate, Sputniko and her team also created a storyboard for the project, which was filmed in an elaborate music video. In the music video, a genetic researcher named 豊田玉姫 (Toyoda Tamahime, A Japanese mythological goddess, who later married "Yukihiko") has a crush on fellow researcher 山 田 幸彦 (Yamada Yukihiko, a Japanese mythological character), so she created her own "red string of fate" and sewed it into her scarf.

Red Silk of Fate--The Shrine by Sputniko! (2021)

From both the storyboard and the shrine, Sputniko explored the future of biotechnology and love. She recreated the traditional story through science and proposed the question If we live in a future where love could be engineered genetically, how will our perception of love change? And the way that she presented this question is quite interesting, as technology advances, we often see some of the mythologies being "reincarnated" through technology, which means that the past could be re-appeared in another way in the future. Sputniko's work challenged the idea of speculating the feasible future using a present standpoint by designing for a possible future based on the past. Not only that, the starting point of her design is also different from Dunne and Raby's definition of modern days design methods. The Red Silk of Fate is designed based on human desire rather than need, and it is something that critical design often overlooked in its design process. Desire is an emotion based on the fulfillment of needs, and in a critical lens, desire is excluded from the purpose because it is somehow selfish in its nature. However, desire is one of the main components that trigger innovation. It is our imperfect feeling that drive us, as humans to transform and create a better world that satisfied our desire. In other words, desire is part of the humanity that embodies in all creative activities. As Letiao (2020) wrote "There is no design without desire; it is fundamental to any process of creation and change. ""

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REFERENCES

Santos, B.d.S. (2007). Beyond abyssal thinking: From global lines to ecologies of knowledges. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 30(1), 45–89.

Iwabuchi, M. (2020, July 4). Emerging design attitudes: Speculative, transitional, and Pluriversal Design. Medium. Retrieved August 13, 2022, from https://uxplanet.org/design-attitudes-for-this-century-speculative-transitional-and-pluriversal-design-fb55c9d401e6

Napp Studio & Architects, & Sputniko! (2021, December). Red Silk of Fate---The Shrine. deTour2021 Design Festival. other. Retrieved August 5, 2022, from International Design Festival HK.

Sputniko! Studio. (2016). Red Silk of Fate - Tamaki's Crush. Vimeo. Retrieved August 13, 2022, from https://vimeo.com/698918882.

Leitão, Renata. (2020). Pluriversal design and desire-based design: desire as the impulse for human flourishing. 10.21606/pluriversal.2020.011.