Feeling-Thinking with the Land. Transitions

Transatlantic bridges for designing networks between Souths and Norths

Abstract

This text seeks to invert the established logic in the hierarchies of knowledge, and it argues that the proposals of some social movements (of and for indigenous and Afro-descendent people, environmentalists, campesinos and women), regarding matters of land and territory, are in fact at the cutting-edge of current thinking on these issues (and other issues too, such as food autonomy and alternative models for development), and are not relics of the past, nor romantic expressions that reality will duly unpick. With this as the starting point, I suggest the creation of something which, for now, I refer to as a space for thinking about transitions. More than a “center” or a “school”, the notion of a space (which is widely used in the fields of art and design, giving it thus a somewhat more open and experimental feel) implies the creation of a platform (or perhaps an “ontology”, as this concept is understood in the digital field, as well as in the so-called semantic web) for the construction of thinking, research and praxis for the transitions to the pluriverse. One of the objectives of this space would be to contribute to the creation of lexicons for these transitions, and encourage a perception of design as a critical praxis for them (ontological design).