The Garden that Sees, Smells and Hears

Titel: The garden that sees, smells and hears
By Annemarie Piscaer
Published: Caradt

ABSTRACT:

The Garden that Sees, Smells, and Hears is a research project initiating a living learning laboratory in the garden of St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda. The garden as a model for learning. In its present state, the garden might appear classically perfect, its lawn neatly mown and plants maintained. The garden menial to our needs. Living in the Anthropocene, dominant human (Western) cultures have placed humans at the centre or above the ecosystem, rather than inextricably entangled within and across it: actors -as coined by Latour, among many actors, enmeshed across scales. Alternative visualisations are needed to change this dominant human perspective, changing from an outside view to an inside view. This is a role for design. Learning and thus education should play an essential role in this shift. Learning future designers to have a creative practice from within.

This report describes pedagogical principles based on case studying outlines how a more-than-human view can be implemented in the curriculum of design education. Intended as a transferable guide and compass aimed to support way-finding, (un)learning, and different ways of relating, the document describes four principles, augmented senses to notice nonhumans, interaction as a flux between the actors, zooming in and out of nonhumans and mapping the invisible habitats. Research results are derived from the main case study: the Minor Art and Interaction at St. Joost.