Energy Babble (2018)
Filed under book | Tags: · design, energy, sustainability, technology
“This is the story of a set of computational devices called Energy Babbles. The product of a collaboration between designers and STS researchers, Energy Babbles are like automated talk radios obsessed with energy. Synthesised voices, punctuated by occasional jingles, recount energy policy announcements, remarks about energy conservation made on social media, information about current energy demand and production, and comments entered by other Babble users.
Developed for members of UK community groups working to promote sustainable energy practices, the Energy Babbles were designed to reflect the complex situations they navigate, to provide information and encourage communication, and to help shed light on their engagements with energy policy and practice. This book tells the story of the Babbles from a mix of design and STS perspectives, suggesting how design may benefit from the perspectives of STS, and how STS may take an interventionist, design-led approach to the study of emerging technological issues.”
By Andy Boucher, Bill Gaver, Tobie Kerridge, Mike Michael, Liliana Ovalle, Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, and Alex Wilkie
Publisher Mattering Press, 2018
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License
ISBN 0995527725, 9780995527720
148 pages
PDF (16 MB)
Comment (0)Mark Boyle: The Moneyless Manifesto (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · ecology, economics, labour, life, money, sustainability
That we need money to live like it or not is a self-evident truism. Right? Not anymore. Drawing on almost three years of experience as The Moneyless Man, ex-businessman Mark Boyle not only demystifies money and the system that binds us to it, he also explains how liberating, easy and enjoyable it is to live with less of it. In this book, Mark takes us on an exploration that goes deeper into the thinking that pushed him to make the decision to go moneyless, and the philosophy he developed along the way. Bursting with radical new perspectives on some of the vital, yet often unquestioned, pillars of economic theory and what it really means to be ‘sustainable’ as well as creative and practical solutions for how we can live more with less Boyle offers us one of the world s most thought-provoking voices on economic and ecological ideas. Mark’s original, witty style will help simplify and diversify your personal economy, freeing you from the invisible ties that limit you, and making you more resilient to financial shocks. The Moneyless Manifesto will enable you to start your journey into a new world.
With Foreword by Charles Eisenstein
Publisher Permanent Publications, 29 Oct 2012
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license
ISBN 1856231011, 9781856231015
352 pages
via Cari Machet
film (5 min.)
Read online (HTML)
Comment (0)Alastair Fuad-Luke: Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · activism, bauhaus, crowdsourcing, design, ecology, environment, graphic design, metadesign, open source, participation, sustainability, sustainable design, technology, wikipedia
Design academics and practitioners are facing a multiplicity of challenges in a dynamic, complex, world moving faster than the current design paradigm which is largely tied to the values and imperatives of commercial enterprise. Current education and practice need to evolve to ensure that the discipline of design meets sustainability drivers and equips students, teachers and professionals for the near-future. New approaches, methods and tools are urgently required as sustainability expands the context for design and what it means to be a ‘designer’. Design activists, who comprise a diverse range of designers, teachers and other actors, are setting new ambitions for design. They seek to fundamentally challenge how, where and when design can catalyse positive impacts to address sustainability. They are also challenging who can utilise the power of the design process. To date, examination of contemporary and emergent design activism is poorly represented in the literature. This book will provide a rigorous exploration of design activism that will re-vitalise the design debate and provide a solid platform for students, teachers, design professionals and other disciplines interested in transformative (design) activism. Design Activism provides a comprehensive study of contemporary and emergent design activism. This activism has a dual aim – to make positive impacts towards more sustainable ways of living and working; and to challenge and reinvigorate design praxis,. It will collate, synthesise and analyse design activist approaches, processes, methods, tools and inspirational examples/outcomes from disparate sources and, in doing so, will create a specific canon of work to illuminate contemporary design discourse. Design Activism reveals the power of design for positive social and environmental change, design with a central activist role in the sustainability challenge. Inspired by past design activists and set against the context of global-local tensions, expressions of design activism are mapped. The nature of contemporary design activism is explored, from individual/collective action to the infrastructure that supports it generating powerful participatory design approaches, a diverse toolbox and inspirational outcomes. This is design as a political and social act, design to enable adaptive societal capacity for co-futuring.
Publisher Earthscan, 2009
ISBN 1844076458, 9781844076451
244 pages
interview with the author (Juha Huuskonen, April 2012)
PDF (updated on 2012-10-30)
Comment (0)