In Post Human Design, I am working on speculative design projects that incorporate emerging technology, natural systems, and design fictions to investigate the question of what it might look like if Lakota people had greater digital agency and access to technologies. Lakota people, traditionally, had a very post human perspective regarding our relationship to the environment and other beings, both physical and metaphysical. Our highest value was the concept of living in balance with natural ecosystems, there was no hierarchy of importance amongst beings in the universe. The project I worked on envisions the use of quantum computing, cybernetics, cloud networks, gene editing, and geographically embedded media from a traditional Lakota cultural perspective. These ideas are explored through a series of design investigations: 1) a two-volume publication with my own writing and perspective about post human design for people who have been treated as sub human and speculative design fiction; 2) prototypes of embedded sensory apparati for geographically embedded media; 3) poster and website about autonomous media entities. The prototypes were built in conjunction with RISD students studying Industrial Design. The design investigations were exhibited in a show on post human design in the Graphic Design Commons at RISD.
Post Human Design
