Conversations With the Sea: How Localised Design-Things Can Sensitise Communities to the Conditions of the Anthropocene

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aut.embargoNoen_NZ
aut.thirdpc.containsYesen_NZ
aut.thirdpc.permissionYesen_NZ
dc.contributor.advisorRanderson, Janine
dc.contributor.advisorEngels-Schwarzpaul, Tina
dc.contributor.authorWaldner, Lisa
dc.date.accessioned2021-02-05T03:35:12Z
dc.date.available2021-02-05T03:35:12Z
dc.date.copyright2021
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2021-02-05T03:30:45Z
dc.description.abstractAs we attempt to sidestep ecological collapse, new creative methods of engaging publics with the Anthropocene are urgently required. Yet, public indifference and even climate change denial persist, despite the overwhelming evidence that we are irreversibly changing our ecosphere. Meanwhile, traditional models of communication design do little to motivate collective action and behavioural changes at multi-national, governmental and individual levels. Instead, emotive pleas to “save the planet” or visualisations of scientific information cause us to recoil from the overwhelming scale of the crisis. People then often cognitively distance themselves from a causal relationship between human behaviours and the effects of climate change, including their fundamental interdependency on the earth systems it is altering. Nonetheless, communication design, as a generator and mediator of culture, can actively connect communities with our ecological moment when combined with emerging lay-design and participatory design practices. This research investigates how a relational design approach can generate local forms of ecological understanding and agency by asking: how can participatory communication-design tools help us to comprehend and become responsive to the Anthropogenic conditions that are altering our world? To test the efficacy of such an approach, an invitation was issued, in the community of Waiheke Island in Aotearoa New Zealand, to enter into a dialogue with the sea, a key figure and non-human other in the climate-change narrative. Through public video projections and social media at first, I explored how communication design can bring people into closer connection with the sea. From this, participatory workshops evolved to engage community members in design activities founded in more-than-anthropocentric approaches. I combined a situated design inquiry with Haraway’s (2016) notion of sympoiesis, or making-with, as a frame to investigate how participatory communication design might invite us to ‘digest’ climate change. I organised public design events on Waiheke and observed what conditions and interactions became possible through visual communication practices – and what productive crossings occurred during the making of communication 'design things' (Atelier, 2011). The research asks how communication design can sensitise us to the urgency of reimagining human and non-human relations (Boehnert, 2018). Notably, this research emerges from a particular island setting; it is a localised effort to offer a model of relational communication design that encourages social change.en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/13969
dc.language.isoenen_NZ
dc.publisherAuckland University of Technology
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.subjectCommunication designen_NZ
dc.subjectGraphic designen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory communication designen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory graphic designen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory design methodsen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory design workshopsen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory workshopsen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipationen_NZ
dc.subjectCommunity design eventsen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign thingsen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign-thingsen_NZ
dc.subjectCommunication design-thingsen_NZ
dc.subjectRelational communication designen_NZ
dc.subjectRelational designen_NZ
dc.subjectRelationalityen_NZ
dc.subjectLay designen_NZ
dc.subjectLay-designen_NZ
dc.subjectLay-communication designen_NZ
dc.subjectLay communication designen_NZ
dc.subjectLay graphic designen_NZ
dc.subjectUser generateden_NZ
dc.subjectUser-generated communication designen_NZ
dc.subjectUser-generated graphic designen_NZ
dc.subjectAnthropoceneen_NZ
dc.subjectAnthrodecentricen_NZ
dc.subjectGlobal warmingen_NZ
dc.subjectClimate changeen_NZ
dc.subjectClimate crisisen_NZ
dc.subjectClimate actionen_NZ
dc.subjectHuman non-human relationsen_NZ
dc.subjectOther-than-humanen_NZ
dc.subjectPublic engagementen_NZ
dc.subjectCommunity engagementen_NZ
dc.subjectCommunity-based workshopsen_NZ
dc.subjectGenerative design researchen_NZ
dc.subjectMake-toolsen_NZ
dc.subjectMake toolen_NZ
dc.subjectParticipatory design toolsen_NZ
dc.subjectSympoiesisen_NZ
dc.subjectMaking-withen_NZ
dc.subjectMaking-doen_NZ
dc.subjectSituated knowledgeen_NZ
dc.subjectSituated knowingen_NZ
dc.subjectPractice-based design researchen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign-based researchen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign-led researchen_NZ
dc.subjectInsider researchen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign modesen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign knowingen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign knowledgeen_NZ
dc.subjectDesign methodsen_NZ
dc.subjectLearning through doingen_NZ
dc.subjectIterationen_NZ
dc.subjectIdeationen_NZ
dc.subjectReflectionen_NZ
dc.subjectEmergenceen_NZ
dc.subjectRoleplayen_NZ
dc.subjectEnactmenten_NZ
dc.subjectDialogic utteranceen_NZ
dc.subjectVisual utteranceen_NZ
dc.subjectPublic video projectionen_NZ
dc.subjectKinetic typographyen_NZ
dc.subjectHybrid kinetic typographyen_NZ
dc.subjectVisual hybriden_NZ
dc.subjectMoving image projectionen_NZ
dc.titleConversations With the Sea: How Localised Design-Things Can Sensitise Communities to the Conditions of the Anthropoceneen_NZ
dc.typeThesisen_NZ
thesis.degree.grantorAuckland University of Technology
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral Theses
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_NZ
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