How do women use critical design to craft new visions of human's relationship with nature?

At its core, the environmental crisis demands humans to critically reflect on their relationship with nature. This low-tech maker workshop invited mothers and daughters from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to explore their relationship with nature. Using Critical Constructionist Design they connected back to personal and family histories reflected on present personal circumstances and projected alternative futures were the current state of human-nature relationships was questioned and disrupted. This research contributes to foreground women’s perspectives on today’s pressing environmental challenges. It also aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of hands-on pedagogical approaches to critical thinking.

A project supported by Snow Day Learning Lab

Developed with Professor Nathan Holbert, Teachers College, Columbia University.
With the collaboration of Zhou Yuan, Laura Bloch, and my daughter Fiore.

In a Critical Constructionist Design practice, learners engage in a cycle of connecting back to personal and family histories, reflecting on present experiences and local systems in order to project forward and create alternative futures

From left to right: Nan/Mimi, Trista/Zita, and Paula/Antonia’s models of the places where mothers grew up. Black was used for human-made things and brown for nature.

From left to right: Nan/Mimi, Trista/Zita, and Paula/Antonia’s re-shaped models of the places where mothers grew up as they look today.

From left to right: Nan/Mimi, Trista/Zita, and Paula/Antonia’s future-thinking artifacts representing the possible ways in which humans and nature will coexist.