In the face of environmental breakdown, this dissertation focuses on the emergent field of biomaking as a learning space to reflect on human-nature relationships. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore what occurs in interspecies creative encounters (particularly between humans and fungi) and how ethical engagement can be supported through the design of biomaking experiences, techniques, and materials. Building on a constructionist tradition of maker education and drawing from embodied cognition, I propose a learning design framework to support learning through creative engagement with other beings.
The Interspecies Creativity framework aims to (1) guide the design of constructionist experiences rooted in local ecologies and (2) foster mindful creative relations between learners and living systems. The design principles of the framework—grounding, listening, responding, and relating—invite learners to empathize with other living beings in their local landscapes to meet their needs while leveraging their behavior for collective creation.
Using a design-based research approach, I developed a six-session biomaking workshop to test and refine the affordances of the framework. In this program, twelve middle school students built living art pieces at a lab and installed them at a nearby park, where they continued growing after the implementation. I gathered multimodal data—including interviews, questionnaires, videos, photographs, drawings, and artifacts—and analyzed the creative process from an embodied cognition lens.
The study reveals that biomaking, intentionally framed as an interspecies creative practice, provides multiple entry points to deal with tensions and build relationships with living organisms and local ecosystems. I highlight critical events in the making process in which there was a shift in students' perception of the organism in their work. In these events, participants intentionally tested or where surprised by the organism's behavior, turning its agency apparent and decisive for the creative outcome. In closing, I offer practical and theoretical insights to guide the implementation of interspecies making and biomaking education to support learners in modulating creative interactions with their extended communities of life.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/qd3w-pd73 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Correa, Isabel |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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