SOILMATE: An open source tool for a just transition towards food sovereignty
2025 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master of Fine Arts (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis [Artistic work]
Abstract [en]
SOILMATE is a modular multifunctional, ergonomic trolley designed to address the the labor demands and bodily constraints faced by small-scale farmers, peasants and land workers with particular attention to the needs of women and other marginalized groups within agriculture. SOILMATE is designed as a modular, open source system to facilitate key agricultural task, such as transport, soil preparation, and harvesting, while prioritizing ease of repair, material accessibility, simplicity, and user autonomy. Drawing from personal experience as a small-scale vegetable producer and informed by collaborations with farmers across Sweden, Europe, and the Global South, SOILMATE emerges from lived practice and participatory design. The project situates itself within broader critiques of industrial agriculture and fossil-fuel dependency, proposing a material framework for farmer-led innovation, ecological resilience, and reappropriation of technical knowledge in the context of peasant agroecology.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 21
Keywords [en]
Participatory design, Critical design, Design ecologies, Community-driven innovation, Appropriate technology, Open source, Food sovereignty, Peasant agroecology, Small-scale farming, Accessibility, Repairability, Technological autonomy, Modular, Multi-functionality, Trolley, Ergonomics, Gender and labor in agriculture, Tools, Soil management, Ecological resilience
National Category
Design
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:konstfack:diva-10495OAI: oai:DiVA.org:konstfack-10495DiVA, id: diva2:1978837
Educational program
Design Ecologies (Master)
Presentation
2025-05-22, Konstfack, LM Ericssons väg 14, 126 26 Stockholm, 19:58 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
2025-08-142025-06-282025-09-26Bibliographically approved