Gestures for interdependence: Expanding regenerative design through spatial dramaturgies for the unseen, the unheard, and the unfelt

Abstract

The reality of the Anthropocene performs on us through various esthetic spatial experiences. To undo the consequences of modernity, spatial designers are moving toward a regenerative (restorative and non-extractivist) way of thinking, doing, and being. Situated in the growing field of spatial dramaturgy, this article focuses on how esthetic experience can contribute to attitudes toward regenerative spatial design through collaborations with more-than-human entities. If spatial design moves towards a pluriversality based on relationships of interdependence, how can spatial design generate esthetic experiences of regeneration accordingly? How do we design experiences of interdependence? In this paper, we discuss the experimental practice of the TAAT arts collective, a transdisciplinary practice aimed at developing performative installations. The fieldwork (situated in Lithuania and the Netherlands) covers processes in which rivers — as more-than-human entities — are taking up a leading role as cocreators. In every location, the spatial dramaturgical development is based on methods of embodied experiences, scoring, cocreation, and written reflections. These methods are implemented to prototype “gestures of interdependence”. We will treat these as design gestures (attitudes and approaches) aimed at foregrounding unseen places (sites of extraction and exploitation) and unheard bodies (more-than-human entities that are silenced) in the field of regenerative spatial design. By revealing the agency of the unseen and the unheard in spatial design processes, we will broaden our understanding of “designing the unfelt”. In conclusion, a design score will summarize our findings. This score can be implemented in spatial design practices (ranging from scenography, installation art, architecture, and social practice) focused on generating embodied esthetic experiences of regeneration.