Connection to Post Growth

The Post Growth Sandbox helped us put the abstractness of post growth and, for our group, primarily regeneration-related theories like discussed in a previous course (Sustainability & Design) such as the 12 principles in permaculture in actual context, like giving back to nature what we take. Mainly through crafting tangible aspects of our imagined post-growth life. Our house was created specifically to be able to be part of the stream of water. Water gets used by humans but then also gets sent back into the garden and nature after the human aspect of its use is over. Our crafted aspects we see as ways in which we designers can connect very tangibly to the theory of Post Growth as we try to visualize in the context our inhabitants would have.

Connected to the 2500 Lumen assignment, we went beyond visualizing but also learned to try and live in the context, which we did through the speculative interview and creative ideas it helped nurture. We learned even more from critically reflecting on it, which the coach feedback during the presentation sessions helped a lot with. Designing the lamp module for the lumen 2500 assignment relied on this. Through feedback we managed to think of ways in which we can use "dumb" electronics more effectively for the same purpose as a lot of smart (home) products. We noticed a large amount of people fell into this pitfall due to the modern context being overly reliant on the "techno-hedonist" approach which we got used to through our modern-day context and most real-life examples, such as the Philips lamps showcased in class.

Friction of Context

What was very hard to overcome, and something that requires getting used to a lot, is the fact that we tend to think a lot in terms of practicality. A large part of our group had trouble getting more comfortable with allowing more speculative and absurd systems or rituals. This is where our metaphors of water and light came into play. Water is a very practical need for humans, and we tried to connect most technologies and advances to this concept; primary examples are the algae system, water capture system, bio-reactors, and usage in the garden of water, our Sandbox assignments mainly focused on this part, especially within the House and World group, which looked at solving very practical needs Post Growth inhabitants have in our world. Light on the other hand is the spiritual and very human part of our Post Growth experience. We quickly realized that these people, just like us, will probably not spend all hours of the day doing very practical things and thinking only of practical solutions. They are humans like us after all. That's where we started speculating on rituals and culture, and focusing more on the internal needs of the inhabitants. Mental health. Real emotions such as mourning (the dead) and celebrating (life) became key ingredients in our 2500 Lumen assignment, which, of course, focused a lot on this light metaphor aspect we devised.

Focus on Practice

Another important aspect that was connected to this module and we wish to continue is the importance of sustainable and post-growth related design practices. It would be quite strange to design a sustainable future using unsustainable methods, and another important question we thought of is, what would design itself even look like in the post-growth world? By using materials such as the naturally sourced clay in the house part of the sandbox, we realized we can much easier get an experience of what our post-growth inhabitants would deal or potentially struggle with, within the material domain. It would be interesting to continue this idea and be able to immerse oneself with materials and practices of these future worlds. A more complex form of materials we see is gastronomy, and we tried to incorporate it a lot within the 2500 Lumen assignment. If allowed more time it would have been interesting and immersive to try out our recipes and tea ceremonies using locally foraged ingredients. We believe this could give an even better insight into our world. This idea could also be applied into other tangents such as what inhabitants would wear, or how they would be transported. It is interesting to speculate on and even more insightful to experience and immerse oneself in.

Post-Growth & Sustainability

We realize that post-growth and sustainability are often used quite interchangeably, though this is not exactly the case. Moving from the course Sustainability & Design a lot of us had to figure out the nuance that this new perspective offers. Sustainability is integral to post-growth, but sustainability can also be interpreted in different ways adjacent or opposite of post-growth, such as green-growth. The primary idea we see behind post-growth through the assignments and in-class activities is the focus on scarcity of resources and the idea that only what is necessary should be taken or consumed. Also, how this is possible even at the cost of, usually arbitrary, "quality" of life improvements such as more light, electronics, and goods. This was mostly made clear to us through the eco-harmonist approach as opposed to the techno-hedonist which is the status-quo. People are willing to contribute to a better living, and better does not necessarily mean more comfortable. The contribution in this case is a post-growth approach, and the better living means sustainability. This is how these two ideas interplay.

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