Agentic design: An emergent approach to generative justice

Abstract

The extractive economy of mass production has resulted in the design of a vast array of destructive technologies. Labor value is extracted from poorly paid workers; ecological value is stripped from nature, and social value extracted by the commodification of nearly every communication form we encounter. What alternative design approach might provide a more generative economy, one in which value is circulated in unalienated forms rather than extracted? With that end in mind, I propose agentic design (AD), a framework for allowing human, non-human, and social agencies to collaborate in an emergent process. The case study in this paper is focused on quilting, an artisanal design practice that has been tied to more egalitarian and sustainable lifeways (Kuhn, 2016). I begin with a discussion on how traditional quilting itself can be understood as an emergent process. I then examine how these attributes can be merged with computational capabilities in the context of underserved educational communities, and report on the design process that develops from these intersections. Together these domains indicate that agentic design can offer more than just hybridity; with the right guidance, it can offer pathways to a more just and generative future.