TENTACULAR: More-than-Human Ecologies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Historically, the notion of human habitability has been at the core of design and architecture. The epistemological foundations of these disciplines have been based on the idea of human exceptionality, understanding the planet and its other-than-human inhabitants as resources for our consumption, putting them at our service for our better development. In other words, the frameworks of meaning have been configured from and for a "club of humans" with certain characteristics, prioritizing their interests and relegating to the background the interdependent relationships that sustain life on the planet. Under this paradigm, the practice of design has been directed mainly towards inhabiting exclusively human subjectivity and rationality, turning the idea of the planet into yet another project of humanocentrism. A clear example of this approach is human-centered design, which proposes to conceive every project (product, building, system, landscape, etc.) according to our desires and needs.

However, given the complexity of current challenges, such as the ecological crisis and the irruption of automated intelligence, it is urgent to decenter this anthropocentric matrix on which our design practices have been based. The analytical and methodological categories of design and architecture today face an uncertain and profoundly redefining scenario, a world where the boundaries between the natural and the artificial are blurred. Phenomena such as artificial intelligence, ecological disasters, and the loss of biodiversity question the traditional position of humans as the sole agency, forcing us to explore new approaches that enable us to relate to other entities that allow us to exist on the planet.

The complex problems we face go beyond satisfying our needs and desires. The challenge is, therefore, to decentralize the privileged ontological position of the human as the sole designer of the world, and to start designing by recognizing the worldmaking capacity of the different materials and life forms that co-design our environment. As the planetary computing agenda and environmental disasters continue to be relevant, it is crucial to renew our tools to reimagine other ways of relating to the more-than-human. Incorporating non-linear methodologies, futuristic fiction, and speculation will be explored as political stances from which to propose realities or systems of decentralization, expanding both human and more-than-human experiences and incorporating other botanical, mineral, fungal, territorial, or stellar intelligence.