LCD Weekly Issue - 048 Exploring Non-Human Personas in Vermont
⛰️ Words from the mountains
Exploring non-human personas as an essential element in design strategy, is a meaningful tactic to analyse insights.
The Life Centered Design School is taking its Non-Human Persona Workshop next month to an in-person experience across the Atlantic Ocean, and into the western part of the world. This time around, we will be facilitating a four hour session in the little green mountain state of Vermont, USA.
Why a Non-Human Persona Workshop?
In our modern life, we seem to constantly be doing something. Tapping on our phones before bed, getting stuck in traffic, skipping physical activity, not taking enough breaks during the day, making impulse shopping purchases online, etc. Whatever the case may be, many of our modern day habits are simply not centered around our own needs, the needs of nature and the needs of our communities. How might we make the shift in our daily lives to make our mindset, habits, work, life and leisure centered around our experiences into healthier and more joyful experiences?
The Non-Human Persona Workshop was designed to reconnect. This actionable workshop brings design approaches to professionals, creative professionals, leaders, makers, teachers and more, and invites a new mindset, new opportunities, the ability to include all life forms in their work, and advocate for biological ecosystems and invisible communities. Through a holistic lens, we will explore next month, insights on:
Can nature also be a user of design?
Can invisible communities also be users of design?
What mental concepts can we explore to create holistic and joyful experiences?
We invite our friends in New England to visualize the wholeness, iterate on your designs, and release them into the wild. This experience will be an opportunity to learn approaches to how and why we can identify, create, and execute regenerative strategies.
🐅 LCD In The Wild : Rethinking a New Rurality
Italian theorist and curator Leandro Pisano, and Australian sound artist Philip Samartzis collaborate to present ‘A Manifesto of Rural Futurism’, a lecture supported by series of recordings exploring the sounds of remote southern Italian communities. The Manifesto provides a critical perspective in which multiple points of view converge to afford new and striking ways to rethink ‘rurality’.
🐅 : The Island of Missing Trees - Book
Our fellow LCD School volunteer Yağmur Güngör recommends Elif Shafak’s novel: The Island of Missing Trees.
“I’m reading this novel which has fantastic chapters through the perspective of a Fig Tree that was carried from Cyprus to London. It’s making me think about Non-Human Personas”.
–Yağmur Güngör
🐅 : The Future End of Design Work: A Critical Overview of Managerialism, Generative AI, and the Nature of Knowledge Work, and Why Craft Remains Relevant - Article
Great read found on She Ji journal exploring creativity, design work, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), knowledge work, managerialism and the notion of “nourishing designers” as a means to understand why craft remains relevant to the future end of design work.
Read article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872624000960#bfn69
🔥 Hot in the School Non-Human Persona Workshop in Vermont!
Join us at the Non-Human Persona Workshop as we engage in life-centered & regenerative design and skill sets, creating a shift from human to life-centered design, promoting positive impacts for nature, communities and organizations.
Empower nature’s voice in your design journey by creating your unique Non-Human Persona. Embrace flexibility and, awareness, navigate ambiguity and uncover the most impactful ways to breathe life into your design mindset and projects.
What: Life-Centered Design School - Non-Human Persona Workshop
When: Saturday, April 26th 2025, 10-2 pm (in-person event)
Where: Specs, 7 W Canal St, Winooski, Vermont, USA
Non-Human Persona Workshop - bundled package
4hr design + skill set workshop
Life-Centered Design Guide to Slow Down | 14 Exercises | Frameworks | Ecosystem Mindmap
2 speciality coffees + Catered lunch
Full access to our nurturing Life-Centered Design online community
Discover our global community of life-centered design practitioners committed to creating a better future for all.
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Big thanks to our amazing volunteer, Catherine Bianca Lima, for writing this week’s newsletter!
Until next Monday!
