This research project explores the connections and controversies between human-centeredness in design and ultimately human survival on Earth. Drawing from posthuman theory in combination with metadesign and speculative design tools, Petra Lilja will ideate ways that the designer can engage with and acknowledge other-than-human actors to equalize current hierarchies and promote more caring coexistence.

The paradigm of human exceptionality has set in motion a machinery of global effects of which design, by adding to mass-production and consumption, can be argued to be a principal cog. As one response to environmental decay and increasing material scarcity on Earth, scientists and the space industry are investing in the potential of asteroid mining, planetary engineering and in-space manufacturing to meet the demands of our growing population. Designers are now challenged by these entangled environmental and technological changes to focus on complex socio-technical systems, not only on global but at multiplanetary scale.

By juxtaposing the need to acknowledge mankind’s dependency on other species with the extreme conditions for humans on Mars, this project initially seeks to critically explore what a speculative Martian future can teach us regarding how to cultivate caring coexistence between species. What stories of circularity can humans as “consumers” learn from “producing” organisms in order to add to instead of just take from the ecological system? This research project will explore multispecies-inclusive narratives with the aim to find designerly strategies and processes for engaging and empowering scales of actors and knowledges otherwise unaddressed.