Aesthetics in Designing with the Living: A Systematic Review of Critical Perspectives and Artefacts

Research Background and Issues

• What problems or challenges did the authors identify?

  • Current design aesthetics primarily focus on the form of artifacts and human experiences. This human-centered perspective is insufficient to address the ethical and ecological complexities involving non-human life, especially in the context of increasing emphasis on posthumanism and "design beyond the human."
  • Existing frameworks and theories for exploring aesthetic experiences of non-human entities and ecological ethics are fragmented, leaving designers without systematic tools for deep reflection and practice.

• Why is this issue important?

  • Design is shifting from addressing human needs to considering the holistic relationship between humans and non-human ecologies. Traditional aesthetics fail to capture the complexity of non-human experiences, potentially resulting in designs that lack ecological and ethical sensitivity, exacerbating environmental issues or neglecting the needs of non-human entities.

• Research Motivation and Related Work

  • Inspired by the fields of "Bio-HCI" and "design beyond the human," the authors aim to fill the knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive framework to help designers explore non-human aesthetics.
  • The authors integrate interdisciplinary research findings from art, human-animal interaction geography, and other fields to inspire broader design practices.

Solution

• What methods or solutions did the authors propose?

  • They propose three key directions to explore broader design aesthetics—phenomenological, ontological, and conceptual dimensions—which can serve as theoretical foundations for design practice.
  • Through systematic literature review, they analyze a series of design artifacts (from biological and posthuman domains) and elaborate on how these directions can guide design practices.

• What is innovative about this solution?

  • Expanding design aesthetics beyond traditional human-centric experiences and forms to include sensory experiences of non-human entities, ecological relationships, and discussions of ethical and political issues.
  • Providing a critical framework that enables designers to better integrate aesthetics with ecological ethics through the study of specific artifact examples.

• What are the implementation steps and key technologies used?

  1. Literature Review: Analyzing research literature from art, geography, human-animal interaction, and other fields to construct a critical aesthetic perspective.
  2. Artifact Analysis: Categorizing and examining artifacts in design and HCI to explore how they align with the three aesthetic directions.
  3. Framework Integration: Generating three questions to stimulate design thinking, offering guiding tools to support designers in focusing on non-human experiences and participation.
  4. Emphasizing the use of technologies (e.g., biosensors, machine learning) in the design process to understand the sensory experiences of non-human entities.

Research Outcomes

• What specific outcomes were achieved?

  • Proposed three key aesthetic directions: Perception and Experience (focusing on the sensory experiences of non-human entities), Relational Participation (emphasizing interactions between humans and non-humans), and Ethical and Political Critique (artistic critique of ethical issues concerning non-human entities).
  • Analyzed 83 artifact examples, demonstrating how these directions can be applied in practical design.

• What advantages does this solution have compared to existing ones?

  • Compared to traditional design aesthetics, this research emphasizes ecological ethics, relationality, and participation, providing a framework that enables designers to deeply explore the social and environmental impacts of design.
  • Integrates interdisciplinary perspectives (art, animal studies, geography, etc.), offering theoretical support and practical guidance for non-human-centered design.

• What were the experimental or evaluation results?

  • Through artifact analysis, the study clarified how technologies can mediate human understanding of non-human experiences, how design can generate new concepts through collaboration with non-human entities, and how design can provoke public discussions on ethical and political issues.

• Limitations and Future Directions

  • The study primarily focuses on design cases involving microorganisms and plants, lacking broader coverage of other non-human categories such as reptiles and amphibians.
  • It does not extensively include non-English literature or broader non-Western perspectives. Future research could incorporate traditional and indigenous knowledge systems to enrich design practices.
  • Suggests emphasizing more transparent design reporting and multidisciplinary collaboration in future research to better interpret aesthetic issues in design amidst the trend of blurring the distinction between process and outcome.