After a week of studying, I would like to further discuss the relationship between humans, design, and the environment, starting with this week’s workshop content and debate topics.
火与文明推进：告别对黑夜的恐惧. Available at: https://m2.allhistory.com/ah/article/5f23da9e85139100017d0e76 (Accessed: 01 December 2024).
I observed and contemplated the seemingly everyday or ordinary elements on the workshop sheet.I have some of my own thoughts about the element of fire.The use of fire is inseparable from human behavior.Kelly (2020) stated that fire has always been a source of global biodiversity.Fire is both a symbol of civilizational progress, but it has also become a catalyst for environmental degradation. And humans, as the primary species capable of utilizing fire, have brought negative impacts on the environment due to their over-reliance on fire as a technological tool. For instance, anthropogenic drivers like climate change, land use, and invasive species are altering the nature of fire activities and their impacts (Kelly, 2020). This has led to the unstable frequency of wildfires in many ecosystems, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.Of course, this also encompasses the greenhouse effects resulting from excessive burning. Therefore, Kelly (2020) believes that in the Anthropocene, it is necessary for conservation planning to explicitly include the combined impacts of human activities and fire regulations.Before this workshop, my understanding was limited to the fact that the factors causing massive wildfires were just the ‘fire’ itself, but I never delved deeper to realize that it was actually the human use of these natural resources that caused it. From this, I deeply realized that landscapes are not purely natural and that humans intervene in natural processes and even reshape them.
澳大利亚山林大火跨年连烧四个月 ‘以火防火’是否可行 (no date) BBC News 中文. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-51092542 (Accessed: 01 December 2024).
Returning to design, the relationship between designers and the environment is actually analogous to the element of ‘fire.’The goal of design itself is to be positive and meaningful rather than deliberately create destruction. Previous studies have clearly shown that designers play a crucial role in addressing environmental issues. Therefore, it further proves that designers are both participants in environmental destruction and changers who rectify all of it.Baldassarre (2024) found that the main focus of design thinking is on economic impact rather than social and environmental impact.So I believe that, given the current situation, designers have played a role in both unsustainable design itself and excessive consumerism. This is like us changing the nature of something that was originally beautiful.
Fortunately, our situation is not as dire as it seems; the workshop sheets mention that not all factors have suffered negative impacts. In society, there are already quite a few designers and brands that have begun to learn and possess ecological literacy, focusing on circular design and the use of sustainable materials, among other things.Just like I mentioned in my week 1 blog, the brand hearO embodies and conveys excellent environmental protection concepts.The ability of the design industry to support sustainable transformation depends on the severity of these changes in undergraduate design education. Boehnert (2022) mentioned that the rigors of transformations in undergraduate design education directly affect the design industry’s ability to support sustainable transitions. Indeed, with the establishment of our course, the school has already begun to respond to this call. Designers must learn to strike a balance between existing unsustainable design work and supporting sustainability goals when confronted with diverse cases of duality. So I believe that even though sustainable design practices have not yet been fully implemented, as long as environmental issues remain at the forefront of public attention, more designers will join this transformation. This will be a continuous process of improvement.
Bibliography:
1.Baldassarre, B. et al. (2024) ‘Responsible design thinking for sustainable development: Critical literature review, New Conceptual Framework, and Research Agenda’, Journal of Business Ethics, 195(1), pp. 25–46. doi:10.1007/s10551-023-05600-z.
2.Boehnert, J., Sinclair, M. and Dewberry, E. (2022) ‘Sustainable and Responsible Design Education: Tensions in transitions’, Sustainability, 14(11), p. 6397. doi:10.3390/su14116397.
3.Kelly, L.T. et al. (2020) ‘Fire and biodiversity in the anthropocene’, Science, 370(6519). doi:10.1126/science.abb0355.
