Pluriversal Ecologies: Empathy, Intersubjectivity, and More-than-Human Design

Description

Can human cognition and sensitivity truly perceive and meaningfully engage with nonhuman’s lifeworlds? And if so, to what extent are they necessary or even desirable?

In this session, Annan Zuo shares his journey into cybernetics through a series of interwoven design-research projects on empathy, intersubjectivity, and more-than-human ecologies with their multitude of lifeworlds. From architectural explorations of multispecies care in the Satoyama landscapes of Kyoto, to sound-based experiments that construct auditory loops with a more-than-human Umwelt, and theoretical work on enactive biosemiotic domains, Annan’s work explores the role of human subjectivity in sensing, interpreting, and relating to other-than-human forms of life.

A persistent question recurs throughout Annan’s work: If the (full) understanding of the other—whether human or nonhuman—is ultimately unattainable, how can we conceive intersubjectivity? Can empathetic engagement serve not as a means of comprehension, but as a mode of attunement, co-presence, and ethical responsiveness?

Annan Zuo is joined by Claudia Westermann and Frederick Steier in a conversational exploration of the resonances between cybernetic theory, empathy, and more-than-human design. Drawing on key ideas from Gregory Bateson and Humberto Maturana, the discussion explores how systems thinking and pluralist ecologies might accommodate subjectivity, empathetic entanglement, and communicative gaps between species.

Period	13 Apr 2025
Event type	Seminar
Degree of Recognition	International