In February 2023 I was invited to give a keynote at the Commons In Design conference organized as part of a 4-year research project on the same topic, carried out at the Institute of Contemporary Design Practices (ICDP), FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel, Switzerland:
“The retreat of industrial societies, the scarcity of resources, climate change, and the digitalisation of everyday life are aspects that have fueled the economy of sharing, swapping, and lending – principles of commoning. In addition to the economic motivation of sharing – as evident in the disruptive business models of Airbnb, Uber or Spotify – a change in values is emerging in creative societies, characterized by conviviality and community. This includes sharing in the sense of ecological sustainability and free cooperation, which is evident in collective offerings such as food sharing or the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.
In our conference, we aim to explore the relevance of commons and commoning within design as a discipline and field of research. It aims to shed light on the complexity of commons and commoning from a design perspective and to present future models and scenarios pointing towards a more sustainable, just and peaceful world. Central to this is the question of how principles of commoning can benefit design processes, methods, and ways of working, ultimately changing the way designers position themselves.”
I met very cool people working on various projects based all over the world.
Some days later senior researcher Christine Schranz, lead organiser of the conference, proposed me to write an article based on the lecture because she was curating the book coming out for Valiz publishing house and focused on networked, participatory, and open procedures based on the commons and commoning.
I contributed with a piece having the same title as my keynote “Lo-tech is the New Hi-tech” exploring the trajectory from open-source to open design and their relationship with the commons. Finally the book is accessible in paper copy but also in a free version in PDF!
ZOESCOPE 