Speculating Relationships

Abstract: In this thesis the idea of relationship-centered design is proposed based on a speculative design project which is grounded in an understanding of post-anthropocentrism. To facilitate post-anthropocentric human-artifact relationships, that don’t favor living actors over non-living actor, objects may appear to have a life-like agency based on needs and therefore must be empathized with which can be achieved through object characters. Through the discussion of materiality, object behaviors, and object characters, the philosophy of object-oriented ontology and the social-theory of actor-network theory are connected to concepts from interaction design and reveal that materiality, object characters, and object behaviors “meet” in the interaction of humans and artifacts. The phenomenological approach of the Research through Design methodology has shown how the applied methods, that were focussed on the perceived experience of the designer, helped to identify possible correlations of materiality, object behavior and object characters that might affect the human-artifact relationship. Further, the research identified possible implications of post-anthropocentric design, which suggests, that further investigation of how post-anthropocentrism as an approach to design might influence aspects as understandings of equality, consent, and consumption behavior which eventually might have an influence on socio-political structures.