DfCC — Week 3 Reflection

Not to diminish the rest of this this week’s engaging reading, but the Design Activism excerpt particularly stuck with me.

As my second semester flies by, I find myself thinking more and more about how I want to show up in the world as a designer.

Fuad-Luke’s diagrams presented as the topographical map for a journey that has usually felt more like bushwhacking than following a trail.

The above diagrams elegantly capture and distill an immensely complicated relationship between the designer and planet Earth.

For instance, how often do we recognize the primacy of solar income (merely the source of all energy on the planet)?

But Fuad-Luke’s view of capitals effortlessly explains how all that designers (professional or otherwise) shape is nested within Earth’s capacity and resources.

As I consider where I’d like to pursue work after finishing my MA, these diagrams reaffirmed my interest for designing for renewable energy adoption. Built squarely upon the capital of solar income, it’s a field where many types of capital can flourish, and many of the “things & systems” of greatest personal interest intersect.

To me, designing for renewables adoption is as much about technological innovation as it is about behavioral change — 9 in 10 Americans support the expansion of solar, but just 2% of homes are installed.

I want to live in a world that respects that nested dependence, so I hope my work as a designer can bring the world a little closer to that reality.