Making Energy Matter: Soma Design for Ethical Relations in Energy Systems

Abstract

There is a need to reframe our relationship to energy, particularly in Western energy contexts, where we have plentiful access and no meaningful barriers to use. This paper outlines a first-person engagement with energy systems and shows how somaesthetic design is one possible means to cultivate and design for new ways of ethical being with energy systems. Early autobiographical design work focused on designing for 'sustainability' revealed a trajectory of fatalism and restriction. A turn towards enacting material relations, co-performed with others, opened into a more holistic relationship with energy. Reflecting on how this process unfolded, we argue that sustainability is not, in itself, a somaesthetic sensibility, and remains constrained within rational framings. We develop this argument to contribute to a new understanding of how we somatically relate to energy and how relational ethics in interaction design research and practice can encourage a felt sense for the materiality of energy.