LOUISE PERMIIN

Design researcher, educator and consultancy

What if multispecies design could help approach soil and its inhabitants as active actors in future design practices?


CO-ACT – Multispecies Design in Practice – Artistic research, 2023

CO-ACT – Multispecies Design in Practice is an artistic research project and book that explores various sensory approaches comprising visual, auditory, tactile, and kinaesthetic methods, tools, and recipes for encouraging ethical co-actions among multispecies actors engaged in a design process.

As a case, the CO-ACT project examines soil conditions at former and current textile dye sites in Denmark. The purpose of this investigation is to bring attention to the challenges that arise from the intra-action between soils and wastewater generated by textile dye production. Its objective is to advocate for transformative action, particularly in the realm of sensory and multispecies design, to nurture future co-production. Rather than viewing production as a static system, the CO-ACT project embraces the concept of co-production as dynamic and alive, acknowledging the significance of the multispecies actors involved in the design process.

With developed learning materials such as the CO-ACT methods and tools, as well as traveling exhibitions, the CO-ACT project advocates for a re-evaluation of design practices, urging the adoption of holistic approaches that foster caring relationships among multispecies actors involved in the design process. Explore the CO-ACT Methods.

The CO-ACT project is underpinned by posthuman and regenerative design thinking. These theories have guided the CO-ACT project’s explorations, which aim to examine co-action with multispecies actors in practice. With this book, I encourage you to use and further develop the methods and tools presented here. By sharing new perspectives, experiences, knowledge, and learnings, I aim to inspire you to physically explore multispecies co-action in your process and stimulate your curiosity about using these insights to evolve your practice. Explore the CO-ACT book.

Design; Book, illustrations of the CO-ACT research project’s theoretical and methodological framework.


Question ?

Look down, what do you see?
Who cultivates who?

The CO-ACT research project questions how sensory and multispecies design methods can facilitate human perception and understanding of sites and the life beneath human feeds as vibrant, living entities and equal actors? And how the use of sensory and multispecies design methods and tools can affect future co-existence amongst multispecies actors?

Design

Design; Method, image of examined participants, from the conference – Get Restarted 2022, testing the developed method ‘Co-act co-production‘. The method build on the CO-ACT research project’s Manifest:

Think of
Who you disrupt before disrupting,
Why it is useful before you start using,
What you leave behind when you are leaving,
As weel as what and how you give back when you are taking.
Design; Method, ‘Relating through bodily co-action‘ is a method that draws attention to the lives of multispecies by physically embodying their movements and behaviours. Image of the Design for Planet students testing the method in Geographical garden, Kolding, DK, the 08.02.2022
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  1. Method, ‘Soil painting‘ is a method to draw attention to the life beneath our feet, bringing curiosity and care to the often overseen.
  2. Method, ‘String figures‘ an old game – here used as a method to bring orientation to co-existence and interconnected networks of both human and non-human agency.

“The method ‘Relating trhough bodily co-action’ helped me gain a deeper understanding and empathy for various user typologies in my project, including living and non-living entities.“

– Participant from the Design for Planet MA course, Preferred futures, at Designschool Kolding, 2022.


“The method ‘Co-active co-produciton’ made me realise the complexity of my own practice use of materials and gave me a renewed orientation on how to involve regenerative strategies in my practice.“

– Participant from the CO-ACT workshop in the Get-restarted conference at the Royal Academy, 2022.


Project management by

  • Artistic researcher Louise Permiin

Supervised by 

Collaboration

Funded by

  • Designskolen Kolding, Lab for sustainability and design

Publications