Multispecies + Future-making = Un/Making Pollination
Reports, observations, predictions and speculation tell us stories about a limited future. In this design research project we have engaged in one particular prediction of a thin future: the alarming loss of pollinators, and along with that many of the fruits, vegetables, berries and more that we take for granted today.
How do these (often) thin predictions and speculations of the future influence the way we act in the present and the here and now? How do they influence how we relate to, prepare for, and intervene into the future? And in what way might design/ers work and intervene into such concerning issues?
As one response, we have created a set of graphical visualisations that attempt to thicken the story by bringing different times and aspects into present. This includes images of how pollination has been made and unmade in the past through more-than-human co-living.
To further the designerly responses of un/intentional human involvement in pollination we invite participants at Southern Swedish Design Days to make brushes and other tools for hand pollination with us. These tools are not to be understood as final or universal solutions to issues of pollination, but as a means to sensitise ourselves to the complexities of particular relationships of pollination, and to collectively imagine how things could be otherwise.
Maximum 6 participants. Sign up by emailing hello@unmakingstudio.se First come, first serve.
Illustration by Saskia Gullstrand. Published with courtesy of the artist.
