CALL FOR PAPERS (Vol. 10, n. 20)

Designing with the World: Towards a New Relationship with Matter

Deadline for full papers: June 9, 2025 

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We propose the special issue Designing with the World: Towards a New Relationship with Matter (Vol 10, issue 20, December 2025) in relation to the exhibition Matter Matters. Designing with the world at Museu del Disseny-DHub ​​which explores our relationship with matter in a context of ecological crisis and overproduction. In a world where anthropogenic mass already exceeds Earth's biomass, design faces an unprecedented responsibility to reimagine its role.

This Call for Papers invites reflection on a design that not only acts "with" the world, but also questions the legacies and the present of colonialism, extractivism and museum representation. Inspired by the ideas of Karen Barad, Timothy Morton and institutional critique, we want to explore a non-binary future for matter, where the nature/culture and human/non-human dualisms dissolve, and materiality is seen as a network of kinship and shared responsibilities.

Fields of interest:

We are looking for, for example, but not exclusively, articles/projects on the following issues:

- Kinship with matter: Explorations on how to re-imagine matter not only as a resource, but as a relational entity and active agent in our environment. What does it mean to recognize the interconnectedness of all elements, including those produced by humans?

- Colonialism, extractivism and design: Projects that explore the relationship between design and the practices of extraction and domination, and that reflect on how to address these legacies and realities of our contemporary practices.

- Design museums and critical ecologies: Studies on the role of design museums in the representation of histories of exploitation and resistance. How can museums re-contextualize their relationship with objects and facilitate critical narratives about history and extractivism?

- Overcoming the nature/culture dualism: Articles that explore the possibility of a relational existence, where matter and culture are perceived as co-constituents of our reality.

 

Submissions must fit the categories and characteristics specified in our guidelines for authors: https://www.inmaterialdesign.com/INM/2. Doubts and prior queries about the fit of the proposals can be directed to info.inmaterialdesign@bau.cat.

 

Editors: Olga Subirós and Mariona Moncunill-Piñas