Iterating through Feeling-with Nonhuman Things: Exploring repertoires for design iteration in more-than-human design

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the notion of sympathy in the context of more-than-human design to include nonhuman participation in a design iteration process in an ongoing project named the Morse Things. We explore ways in which nonhuman agency, particularly breakage, can participate in an assembly of human and nonhuman designers. Motivated by Ron Wakkary's theory of designing-with and the concept of repertoires, we propose feeling-with as a potential repertoire for increasing nonhuman participation before, during, and after the design process. Finally, we explore four instances of sympathy and how breakage as a nonhuman force can lead us to new design iterations to redesign the new set of Morse Things.