Invisible Conflicts: The Challenges of Design on a Planetary Scale

Abstract

The experience of the interconnected planet is the experience of an artificial totality, the result of the accelerated intersection of different invisible realms, topologies and layers that compete with one another following the irregular logics of rival interests, incompatible designs, non-human life form habits and rhythms, forms of resistance, errors, collateral effects and accidents. This issue of Temes de Disseny presents case studies and research practices that address the need to focus on these frictions from a variety of different perspectives in order to detect new forms of power and hidden inequalities as well as to envision unprecedented opportunities for intervention and counter-design.

Keywords

• Infrastructures
• Regimes of visibility
• Design on a planetary scale
• The agency of non-human actors
• Technologically mediated power structures
• Dissent and resistance