Opening up new cognitive perspectives on sustainability transitions
Author
Dutta, Ankit
Term
4. Term
Education
Publication year
2024
Abstract
Specialet undersøger, hvordan et nyt kognitivt perspektiv kan bruges til at fremme urbane bæredygtighedstransitioner. Udgangspunktet er worldmaking som en kunstbaseret, konstruktivistisk tilgang, der anvendes både beskrivende og provokerende til at åbne nye rum for tænkning og handling. Forfatteren kortlægger eksisterende worldmaking-indsatser hos fire urbane naturaktører i København og identificerer det urbane mikrobiom som et overset, men lovende objekt for worldmaking. Gennem en gennemgang af historiske og nutidige repræsentationer af mikrober viser specialet, at tidligere planlægningspraksisser ofte har givet mikrober negativ konnotation, mens nyere forskning peger på deres potentiale til at adressere aktuelle bymæssige bekymringer. Denne viden omsættes i en spekulativ design-tilrettelagt engagement i samarbejde med det københavnske urban nature designstudio SLA, hvor mikrober placeres centralt i udviklingen af mulige verdener for byomdannelse. Engagementet vækkede interesse hos SLA og mobiliserede det urbane mikrobiom som et designobjekt, hvilket demonstrerer, at worldmaking kan fungere som et kognitivt supplement til eksisterende teorier om bæredygtighedstransitioner. Arbejdet er eksplorativt og bygger på en konkret samarbejdssituation, men peger på, hvordan kunstnerisk verdensskabelse kan udvide planlægningens repertoire.
This thesis explores how a new cognitive perspective can support urban sustainability transitions by introducing worldmaking as an art-based, constructivist approach. Worldmaking is used both descriptively and provocatively to open conceptual space for alternative ways of seeing and acting in urban planning. The study maps existing worldmaking efforts by four urban nature agents in Copenhagen and identifies the urban microbiome as a promising yet overlooked object for worldmaking. Reviewing historical and contemporary representations of microbes shows that past planning practices often framed microbes negatively, while recent research highlights their potential to address current urban concerns. Building on these insights, the thesis designs and facilitates a speculative design engagement with the Copenhagen-based urban nature studio SLA, placing microbes at the center of imagined urban futures. The engagement sparked SLA’s interest and mobilized the urban microbiome as an object of design, illustrating how worldmaking can augment sustainability transition theories by activating cognitive elements that are typically underdeveloped. The work is exploratory and grounded in a single collaboration, but it points to how artistic worldmaking can broaden the repertoire of urban planning.
[This summary has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project (PDF)]
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