The Futures Archive S2E6: The Bug Zapper

Note: This episode addresses topics notably sensitive in light of this week’s faculty capturing in Texas. While Design Observer has never shied away from troublesome conversations, the editors acknowledge that this content could also be difficult for some listeners. Content Warning: Violence, killing, and death are discussed on this episode. It can be hard to search out somebody who desires to share space with a mosquito. Hence, Zap Zone Defender the creation of the bug zapper. But as designers, how will we tackle what lives and what doesn’t? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo go deep on how human-centered design doesn’t at all times reflect humanity. With additional insights from David MacNeal, Juliano Morimoto, Spee Kosloff, Paula Antonelli, and Lindsay Garcia. There may be a necessity for humans to exert their authority, but there can be a need for us to exert our love. The factor that I hope we hold house for is: This is all apply as a result of it’s not going to be resolved, and it shouldn’t be.



That might create some form of stagnancy. Life is actually about holding house for dynamism, adjustments and cycles. Lee Moreau is President of Other Tomorrows, a design and innovation consultancy primarily based in Boston, and a Professor of Practice in Design at Northeastern University. Sloan Leo (they/he) is a Community Design theorist, educator, and practitioner. They're the founder of FLOX Studio, a neighborhood design and technique studio. David MacNeal is a writer and the author of Bugged: The Insects Who Rule the World and the People Obsessed with Them. Dr. Juliano Morimoto is an entomologist and lecturer on the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Spee Kosloff is an affiliate professor of psychology at California State University in Fresno and co-author of "Killing Begets Killing: Evidence From a Bug-Killing Paradigm That Initial Killing Fuels Subsequent Killing". Paola Antonelli is an writer, architect, and the Senior Curator within the Department of Architecture and Design on the Museum of Modern Art, as well as MoMA’s founding director of Research and Development.



Lindsay Garcia is an artist, scholar, Defender by Zap Zone and an assistant dean at Brown University. Kathleen Fu created the illustrations for each episode. An enormous due to this season’s sponsor, Automattic. Hi, everybody, this is Lee. Every week is a bit totally different on this show. And this week, whereas we’re still speaking about design, Zap Zone Defender we’re going to be speaking about some fairly critical issues. And so I want to make sure that everybody who’s listening is aware of that's in an excellent place when they’re listening. And i encourage you to check our show notes prior to listening to the episode so you understand the context of what we’re talking about and put together ourselves a bit. Beyond that, I welcome you to the dialog and that i hope you find this conversation as highly effective because it was for us. And i thanks for listening. Welcome to The Futures Archive, a present about human centered design where this season, we’ll take an object, search for the human at the middle and keep asking questions.



… and I'm Sloan Leo. On every episode we’re going to start with an object with energy. Today the item is the bug zapper. We’ll look at the historical past of that object from our perspective, as designers who’ve carried out work in human centered design. Not just the way it looks and feels and sounds and smells, but additionally the relationship between that object and the individuals it was designed for… … and with different people too. The Futures Archive is brought to you Defender by Zap Zone the design crew at Automattic. Later on, we’ll hear from Vanessa Riley Thurman, a member of Automattic’s Designer Experience Team. Sloan Leo, it’s great to see you once more. Thanks for joining us. Lee, it's a thrill to be right here. So I’m wondering-for this explicit episode, I’m questioning if you may tell me a bit of bit about your historical past as a toddler with bugs and insects. Where you this kind of like, like child that like beloved the creepy crawly stuff?