Insects and Design
This project will discuss the relationship between design and insects
Cf. Insects
Preconceptions to challenge:
- the lack of sentience
- the need for animal protein
- the extent of human knowledge
- the robustness of insect species
- the need for killing (pesticides, etc.). Are pesticides really needed? Even if they are 'organic pesticides'? Killing is not just, it is harmful to make life forms, it also actively breeds resistant organisms.
UN experts denounce 'myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world | Pesticides | The Guardian Pesticides are detrimental to the 'right to food'.
Mahmood, Isra, Sameen Ruqia Imadi, Kanwal Shazadi, Alvina Gul, and Khalid Rehman Hakeem. “Effects of Pesticides on Environment.” In Plant, Soil and Microbes: Volume 1: Implications in Crop Science, edited by Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Mohd Sayeed Akhtar, and Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah, 253–69. Cham: Springer, 2016.
Rani, Lata, Komal Thapa, Neha Kanojia, Neelam Sharma, Sukhbir Singh, Ajmer Singh Grewal, Arun Lal Srivastav, and Jyotsna Kaushal. “An Extensive Review on the Consequences of Chemical Pesticides on Human Health and Environment.” Journal of Cleaner Production 283 (2021): 124657. https://doi.org/10/gnqh3b.
Objectives to achieve:
- justice (consideration, proportionality)
- net-positive objectives that go beyond mitigation of harm and generate positive impacts that can increase biomass, biodiversity, etc.
Topics to consider:
- insects as agents
- design by insects
- ecological niches
- insects in communities (mutualisms, parasitism, mimicry, food chains, etc.)
- design by insects
- processes (growing food, rearing food, defence, climate control, nomadism, etc.)
- states and conditions (homeostasis/homeoresis, behaviour to manage local climatic change, etc.)
- spaces, structures, objects, and materials (termite mounds on the ground and arboreal, bee structures) Insect Architecture, by James Rennie, a Project Gutenberg eBook.
- knowledge transfer (bio-informed design by humans for humans or other nonhuman non-insect clients, technology transfer and out-of-context use)
- support for autonomy (colonisation, sexual selection, evolution, capabilities)
- design for insects
- bioregional design
- whole ecology design (urban ecology, holistic management, net-positive design)
- ecocentric and interspecies design (for and by insects)
- design for interspecies communities
- interspecies cultures
Ethics
Draney, Michael L. “Ethical Obligations Toward Insect Pests.” Ethics and the Environment 2, no. 1 (1997): 5–23.
Examples
Architecture Avoids Flooding, Creates Microclimates — Biological Strategy — AskNature
Walter Tschinkel's Aluminum Casts of Ant Colonies Reveals Insect Architecture - Core77