More Than Human Design Framework

Created: Fri Feb 06 2026

From what I understand, this new shift in design framework is to move away from humans as the only sole agent interacting with design and to de-center ourselves and consider all other non-human agents as well. This is a slightly different approach to susitainable design since SD is looking at the environmental impact and of course, through this process you are considering how a design system or process is affecting the environment and in turn the non-human agents, where SD is concerned about reduction of harm of the environment, MtHD is looking at how our designs can co-exist and perhaps also improve the environment. Through this co-existence, and improvement, it's also taking into consideration that Earth is not just for humans.

Notes from A More Than Human Design Manifesto

Avoids binaries like culture/nature, self/environment, digital/physical, human/technology. Reminds me of feminist aesthetics. A question I have, which came up in another entry is how then do we move beyond binaries, especially these are used to understand relationships around us. When it comes to digital/physical, it seems like a clear division but I suppose it's more so being nuanced and to say that they are not opposing forces on the opposite end of a pole, but maybe thinking about them being the same side of the coin. In the case of digital, this wouldn't exist without physical infrastructures and for us to interact with the digital, there's still hardware and our material bodies.

"More-than-human design focuses on this mutual interdependence."

Highlights intellegince from non-humans and supports their agency. If we design something, how are they interacting with the object?

Being aware of technology's potential but also harm.

Co-creation with more than human and relational systems. Nothing exists in a silo.

Recognizing a wide range of temporalities, meaning going beyond our own circadian rhythm, our own 24h, 365 day time.

Regenerative design is apart of this framework. That is, designing so that the object also benefits the environment such as rehabitating a location. An example is Marco Barotti's Coral Sonic Resilence where sounds of healthy corals are used to attract wildlife and repair damaged ones. In this sense, the designer would need to collaborate with scientist or conduct their own research.

Perfection doesn't exist and instead, the shift in focus is in survival. Not always about finding answers but instead it's critical reflection. I wonder how speculative design would fit into this. If MtHD is about critical reflection, then spec des. would fall into this category.

Hiearchy automatically creates suffering, not just among humans but more than humans too. When we see ourselves above the more than human world, then we separate ourselves. We see them as objects, rather than subjects.

The online manifesto says this is the first part, and the second part of the manifesto is outside our front door. We need to get out and interact with the more than human and take in what its saying to us through all of our senses.

Last night, I went to a typography event in Toronto about activist typography and one speaker, Sean Martindale, spoke about the word nature and how he thinks we are part of nature. And if that's the case, then what does this word serve and what does it mean if we are apart of nature? Perhaps this is a reason why we say more than human, or non-human to describe what's in "nature".

Natura naturans in Digital Vision and the Ecological Aesthetic by Lisa Fitzgerald

Spinoza's natura naturans (wild nature) and natura naturata (nature produced by God). As the author notes, there's still a division between the two. Although, by using nature in both terms, it does highlight that we are one, but with a hierarchy.

Other-than-human. I'm wondering if I prefer this term more over more-than-human. Because when we say more than, is this also creating a hierarchy? That what's out there is also at a higher hierachy? While other-than-human, then creates another separation through otherness. I haven't come to terms on the term yet. Maybe just simply non-human?

Osmose (1995). Early example of VR where body and nature are challenged. As anyone has tried VR before, it's a medium that's trippy AF and can cause severe motion sickness. It's disorienting to be cutoff from the physical world, then be transported to a virutal world where your body is still grounded in the physical world. This relates that there is a strong connection between our mind/body and when there's a disconnect it makes us feel disoriented.

The artist Davies is pointing to what is nature. For her, she sees what we are born with is nature.

Electronic fossils. Term by Jennifer Gabrys.

Nature in early video games as resource base (Willis) -> Heidegger poesis and seeing nature as a standing reserve.

"Natural systems design has certainly influenced gaming, but it replicates a line of nature representation that is often either pastoral or apocalyptic." (67).

Bibliography

a more-than-human design manifesto – DESIGN+POSTHUMANISM NETWORK, [online]. Retrieved from : https://designandposthumanism.org/2024/05/14/a-more-than-human-design-manifesto/ [accessed 10 November 2025].

FITZGERALD, Lisa, 2022. Digital vision and the ecological aesthetic (1968-2018). Paperback edition. London New York : Bloomsbury Academic. Environmental cultures. ISBN 978-1-350-05183-6.