Human-Nature-Technology Entanglements
As part of the excursion to Corte, Corsica, Ines Weigand organised the kick-off workshop on ecological humanities, systematic design and human-nature relationships.
Collaborators
- research associate
Ines Weigand graduated in 2020 from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) with a Master’s degree in Communication in Social and Economic Contexts. In her collaborative Master’s thesis, she investigated potentials of the Open Science movement for a change in the relationship between humans and nature. In order to investigate this problem, which is typical for the Anthropocene, she used methods of critical making and experiential learning.
After gaining experience in (knowledge) transfer and participatory urban development for two years at the University of the Arts and the public innovation lab CityLAB Berlin, she returned to the University of the Arts in October 2022. Here, she conducts research in the project “Design, Diversity and New Commons“, at the UdK Berlin / Weizenbaum Institute.
Ines Weigand builds bridges between science, society and politics and benefits from her interdisciplinary background and pragmatic attitude.
She is interested in alternative learning environments, new forms of knowledge production and concepts of sustainability that lead to a socio-ecological transformation.
- research associate
Ines Weigand graduated in 2020 from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) with a Master’s degree in Communication in Social and Economic Contexts. In her collaborative Master’s thesis, she investigated potentials of the Open Science movement for a change in the relationship between humans and nature. In order to investigate this problem, which is typical for the Anthropocene, she used methods of critical making and experiential learning.
After gaining experience in (knowledge) transfer and participatory urban development for two years at the University of the Arts and the public innovation lab CityLAB Berlin, she returned to the University of the Arts in October 2022. Here, she conducts research in the project “Design, Diversity and New Commons“, at the UdK Berlin / Weizenbaum Institute.
Ines Weigand builds bridges between science, society and politics and benefits from her interdisciplinary background and pragmatic attitude.
She is interested in alternative learning environments, new forms of knowledge production and concepts of sustainability that lead to a socio-ecological transformation.
In the workshop, students engaged with current discourses in the environmental humanities that address the underlying paradigms of human-nature relationships that characterise our lifestyles, the need to reintegrate human cultures and economies with ecological systems, and the ethical, political and design questions that arise. These questions were linked to systemic design approaches that, by incorporating systems theory and an understanding of complexity, explore regenerative design approaches that model ecosystem functioning and discuss regenerative practices and cultures based on ecologically literate choices. As eco-literacy is described as the ability to understand the organisation of natural systems and the processes that maintain the healthy functioning of living systems, students were introduced to and played with basic principles of ecological systems. By exploring these principles on site in Corsica at different scales, the workshop took a place-based approach to these issues. In the second part of the workshop, the students delved deeper into what it means to think and act with and within these systems. Questions they explored included: How can we intervene in these systems without disrupting their basic functions? If these principles have proven to be regenerative and resilient throughout evolution, what can we learn from them for our human coexistence, practices and design? How can we mimic nature’s patterns, and how can this understanding inform the practices of the Reallabor Wald project?
The ecological principles they explored were:
Nested Systems
Networks
Dynamic Balance and Feedback Loops
Cycles
Development