Constituency as a Matter of Practice: Moving a Plant Studio

Research Background and Issues

• What problems or challenges did the authors identify?
  This paper highlights the lack of understanding in the current design research field regarding "more-than-human" assemblages, particularly how these assemblages are configured and evolve to support design work. Traditional design approaches tend to focus on human-centered tools, technologies, and spaces, neglecting the roles and participation of non-human agents.

• Why is this issue important?
  Understanding multi-species design practices can help designers collaborate more effectively with non-human entities in complex ecosystems and environments, expand the boundaries of design objects, and provide new perspectives for addressing sustainability issues. Moreover, it challenges the human-centered role in design processes, driving transformation in design theory and practice.

• Research Motivation and Related Work
  This study is inspired by Ron Wakkary's theory of "designing-with," which posits that design should be a shared collaborative process between humans and non-human entities. These assemblages are referred to as "constituencies" and are maintained through dynamic governance and negotiation. Additionally, this research draws on related work in multi-species ecology, agricultural practices, and the participation of non-human agents in design.

Solutions

• What methods or solutions did the authors propose?
  The authors explored the dynamic practices of constituencies by analyzing the cross-city relocation process of a "plant studio" containing over 250 plants. The study employed the analytical framework of "design events" to reveal the diversity and temporality within these practices.

• What are the innovative aspects of this solution?

  1. Introduced "design events" as an analytical tool to refine and reflect on the temporal dynamics in more-than-human design.
  2. Outlined "constituencies" and "speaking subjects" as core concepts of multi-species design theory, proposing five "repertoires" to support interactions between speaking subjects and constituencies.
  3. Operationalized design theory and concretized how non-human agents participate in the design process.

• What are the implementation steps and key techniques used?

  1. Data Collection: Recorded various events during the cross-city relocation through logs, social media posts, reflections, and annotations.
  2. Design Event Analysis: Categorized events on a whiteboard, such as pauses, transitions, encounters, and spatiotemporal asynchrony, systematically analyzing these events and their impact on constituency dynamics.
  3. Collaborative Analysis: The three authors jointly analyzed the data to extract five core repertoires:
     • Negotiating boundaries and membership
     • Embracing unanticipated encounters
     • Allocating time and space
     • Tuning to multiple temporal rhythms
     • Reflecting on inclusion and exclusion

Research Outcomes

• What specific outcomes were achieved?

  1. Proposed five actionable design repertoires to describe how speaking subjects interact with constituencies:
     • Negotiating boundaries and membership: Dynamically defining internal relationships and adjusting them as needed.
     • Embracing encounters: Learning from non-human interactions and discovering new opportunities.
     • Allocating time and space: Providing non-human agents with sufficient time and space to grow and coexist.
     • Tuning to multiple temporal rhythms: Adapting to and balancing diverse temporal needs within the constituency.
     • Reflecting on inclusion and exclusion: Driving internal transformation by reflecting on past exclusionary choices.
  2. Provided an example of using the "design events" tool to analyze complex design practices.

• What are the advantages compared to existing solutions?

  1. Moves beyond traditional human-centered design approaches by focusing on the dynamics of more-than-human design and non-human agents.
  2. Combines theoretical concepts with practical applications, offering actionable tools and frameworks.
  3. Deepens the understanding of complex design processes through temporal and spatial perspectives.

• What are the experimental or evaluation results?
  Through the analysis of events during the plant studio's relocation, the study revealed how constituency members (e.g., plants, environments, technical infrastructures) participate in the design process and form dynamic relationships. These findings further enrich the theory of designing-with.

• Limitations and Future Directions

  1. Limitations:

     • The design event method may focus more on temporality while overlooking long-term stability or macro-ecological frameworks.
     • Some terms used in the analysis (e.g., "temporal dislocation" and "rhythms") were applied less frequently and require further exploration.

  2. Future Directions:

     • Extend the research to other types of constituencies (e.g., laboratories, bio-design collaboration frameworks).
     • Combine long-term practices to explore the application value of design events in observing deep time and ecological stability.
     • Further refine the theory of the five repertoires and develop additional application scenarios.

This paper provides an integrated example of theory and practice in more-than-human design. Through the analysis of the "plant studio" relocation case, it reveals the dynamic role of non-human agents in design practices and proposes broadly applicable design tools and insights. The five proposed repertoires offer directions and reference frameworks for future multi-species design research.