Seminar & Workshop with Anne Galloway

We’re delighted to invite you to the following two events with Anne Galloway, who’s leading the More-Than-Human Lab at the Victoria University of Wellington.

 

1. SEMINAR: Multispecies Ethnography & More-Than-Human Design

Thursday, 28 July 2016, 5pm | Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point campus, B Block Room 122

Our impact on the earth has been so significant that scientists have proposed that our current geological era be renamed the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. Regardless of whether or not the change is officially made, researchers across the social sciences and humanities are finding the concept a fruitful lens for “staying with the trouble of living and dying together” (Haraway 2010) in a wounded world. Despite, or perhaps because of, its problem-solving imperative, design has played a significant role in creating and maintaining many of the material and cultural problems associated with this new era. Even when product and object-centred design is replaced with people-centred and service design, human needs and desires are privileged above all else. But what if we refuse to uncouple nature and culture? What if we deny that human beings are exceptional? What if we stop speaking and listening only to ourselves? This presentation focuses on multispecies ethnography as a means to understand relations between humans and nonhumans, and question the potential of animism and vitalism to help us forge new relations. More-than-human design is then introduced as complementary ways of thinking, doing, and making that emphasise the practice of care and imagination—and challenge us to work with, not against, vulnerability, humility and interdependence.

 

Register online:
https://more-than-human-qutdesign.eventbrite.com.au

 
 

2. WORKSHOP: A Good Death? Storytelling Workshop 

Friday, 29 July 2016, 9am – 4pm |  Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point campus, D Block, Room 214

This workshop is part of a larger ethnographic research project into the deaths of farm animals. It has two primary aims: 1) To gain a broader understanding of what people consider a ‘good death’ for farm animals; and 2) To develop and assess a set of creative storytelling methods. Participants will be introduced to concerns about farm animal death, and presented with a range of visual and material narrative techniques. A set of storytelling constraints and a set of related farm animal figurines will be provided, and participants will use their own phones/cameras to create a brief image-based narrative that communicates their perspective on what constitutes a ‘good death’. The final narratives will be shared with the group for discussion, and after the workshop, anonymised narratives will be posted on the More-Than-Human Lab website, each with an anonymous questionnaire. This workshop has been approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee. Participation is completely voluntary, and participants may withdraw themselves and their information from the study, without having to provide a reason, by the end of the workshop session. All consenting participants are required to sign forms.

 

Apply to participate online:
https://a-good-death-qutdesign.eventbrite.com.au

 
 

BIO 

Anne Galloway is Senior Lecturer, Culture + Context Design, at Victoria University of Wellington. Leading the More-Than-Human Lab, her research examines intersections of people, nonhuman animals and technologies, and explores creative methods for public engagement around related matters of concern. Anne also spends as much time as possible at her rural home, where she shepherds small flocks of rare-breed sheep and ducks. 

 

twitter: @annegalloway | web: morethanhumanlab.org