Pedagogical Impugnation: Interspecies Prototyping and Cosmopolitical Encounters

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Pablo Hermansen
Martín Tironi

Abstract

In this article we will analyze the epistemological displacements experienced in the Interaction Design Workshop of the Design School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile during an intervention carried out in the first semester of 2016 at the National Zoo of Chile (NZC). First, we describe the process of transformation of the pedagogical practices raised in the Design School at the beginning of the 21st Century and the adoption of the ethnographic turn; then, we show how the intervention in the NZC became an impugnation to the epistemological and methodological frameworks of user-centered design and problem-solving design. Through the notion of ’cosmopolitical encounters’, inspired by the work of the philosopher Isabelle Stengers, and the interspecies experience in the NZC, we conclude that prototyping is a pedagogical tool that allows us to question epistemologies and hegemonic methods, encouraging the possibility of developing a ’cosmopolitical design’.

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How to Cite
Hermansen, P., & Tironi, M. (2018). Pedagogical Impugnation: Interspecies Prototyping and Cosmopolitical Encounters. Diseña, (12), 196–227. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.12.196-227
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
Author Biographies

Pablo Hermansen, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Designer and Doctor in Architecture and Urban Studies, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). Teacher and researcher at the PUCSchool of Design. He works on the role of photography in qualitative research and explores cosmopolitical prototyping and action research for public health. Some of his recent publications are: ‘Cosmopolitical Implications in the Prototyping Process: Ethnographic Design Practice at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile’ (with M. Tironi, Journal of Cultural Economy, in press) and ‘Controversias y problemas cosmopolíticos: una aproximación a escala de la experiencia de los individuos’ (with M. Tironi, in Nueva gobernabilidad: Emergencia y gestión de conflictos, controversias y disyuntivas públicas en Chile (IDRC- T&A, 2017).

Martín Tironi, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Sociologist, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). Master in Sociology, Université Paris-Sorbonne V. PhD and Post-Doctorate, Center for Sociology of Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris. Researcher and Professor, School of Design PUC. He is currently Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths. His research areas are design anthropology, digital technologies and mobility, and urban infrastructures. Some of his recent publications are: ‘Unpacking a Citizen Self-tracking Device: Smartness and Idiocy in the Accumulation of Cycling Mobility Data’ (with M. Valderrama, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2017) and ‘Cosmopolitical Implications in the Prototyping Process: Ethnographic Design Practice at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile’ (with P. Hermansen, Journal of Cultural Economy, in press).