Decentering ≠ Disconnecting

Abstract

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Although there is a growing interest in the more-than-human, human-centred approaches are still dominant in HCI and design research. Emerging more-than-human approaches aim at decentring the human perspective in the design process while connecting human and non-human actors. This workshop explores strategies to bridge more-than-human with human-centred design and emphasises that decentring is not equal to disconnecting the human designer from being a human. Instead, we intend to elaborate on how our being in the world –co-shaped by non-human entities– can be experienced through decentring our individual human perspectives and re-connecting us to other perspectives, be they human or non-human. We start tackling the following questions: How do designers position themselves in more-than-human approaches? How does decentring the human perspective lead to growing empathy and care? What is a designer’s responsibility within more-than-human approaches?