Design History in the Anthropocene
In recent years, the complex challenge came under the debates of the Anthropocene elicits a variety of responses in different fields in the Humanities. If, as some claim, the Anthropocene obliterates the distinction between geological time (deep time) and historical time, what does the geological discourse of the Anthropocene might mean for design history? How might it affect design history’s goals, methods, and forms of periodisation? Although we cannot fully grasp the epistemological uncertainties of the Anthropocene, it establishes a critical threshold, compelling us to interrogate scales of time and space to rethink design history.
This research addresses these questions by taking electronic products as the vehicle, examining the complex entanglements of geological time and design and its histories. More specifically, it analyses electronics through their material constitution, as well as a temporal range that is outside the established narratives of design history. By looking in particular at materials of rare earth elements which are essential for electronics, the analysis traces its life as what Jane Bennett calls vital material, from natural minerals that are sedimented for millions of years before being mined and processed to the deposition of material in the landfill.
Thinking about geological, extractive, and deposition processes requires thinking about alternative temporalities that design and its histories are involved in. By proposing a ‘new materialist’ understanding to the relationship between geological time and design and its histories beyond anthropocentrism, this research aims to produce new ways of navigating the interconnected trajectories of deep time and histories of design, and then new methodologies of how to unfold these large-scale processes, through connecting relevant fields like geology, geophysics, archaeology, and environmental humanities. Furthermore, it with the goal to offer a different insight to question established narratives and methods of design history.
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More about Naiyi
Biography
Naiyi Wang is a curator and researcher whose work concentrates on the juncture between ecology, technology, and expanded definitions of life and non-life from an intersectional perspective. She curated the inaugural Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) titled Synthetic Ecology (2022), which brings together 50 renowned artists, scientists and ecologists from all over the world. She serves as director and chief curator of Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB) and is currently curating the second edition, which will take place in September 2024.
She initiated Climate Care (2020–ongoing), an initiative dedicated to exploring the convergence of art, technology and climate change, while seeking to evoke action on the climate crisis in all its facets. She collaborated with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to curate WE ARE NATURE, which is programmed with the inaugural China Climate Action Week (2022). By encouraging the development of ecologically-conscious and collaborative practices in art+technology, she aims to nurture mutually beneficial relations among art, technology, and ecology through a transdisciplinary curatorial approach, providing unconventional responses to planetary challenges.
She was appointed co-curator (teaming up with Vicky Richardson, Stanley Wong, and Li Degeng) of the inaugural Guangzhou Design Triennial 2024. Previously, she curated Care Pavilion at 4th London Design Biennale 2023 in Somerset House, and edited the accompanying publication Care Manifesto (Hong Kong: Bauhinia, forthcoming). She was chief curator for 751 International Design Festival 2023 titled Narratives of Love in Beijing. She co-curated Material Tales: The Life of Things (in collaboration with Design Museum London) in 2021. Prior to that, she curated/co-curated exhibitions at 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, London Design Festival, Stanley Picker Gallery (London), Flux Factory (New York), Milan Design Week, among many others.
She is co-author of Design Beyond the Human: Transdisciplinary Conversations About the Planet (edited by Elio Caccavale and Prof Gordon Hush), which will be published by Bloomsbury. Her recent translations include The Curatorial: A Philosophy of Curating (Beijing: China Pictorial Publishing House, 2021), Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, 2023) and Sifting the Trash: A History of Design Criticism (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, forthcoming).
She is a lecturer in MA Design Criticism & Curatorial Studies at d-School of China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). She is a recipient of Sino-British Fellowship Trust (2023–26, 2016–17) and Design Trust Feature Grant (2023-24), and currently pursuing a PhD in V&A/RCA History of Design based in two of the world's leading institutions Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Royal College of Art (RCA), and divides her time between London and Beijing.
Degrees
MA Curating Contemporary Design (in partnership with Design Museum London), Kingston University London, 2016
BA Visual Communication, China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), 2008
Experience
Lecturer, MA Design Criticism & Curatorial Studies, d-School, China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), 2017-Now
Awards
Sino-British Fellowship Trust (2023–2026, 2016–2017)
Funding
Design Trust Feature Grant (2023-2024)
Exhibitions
2nd Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB)
798CUBE, Beijing, September 2024 - January 2025 (forthcoming)
1st Guangzhou Design Triennial (GDT)
GDMoA, Guangzhou, January - May 2024 (forthcoming)
Narratives of Love, 751 International Design Festival
751 D·PARK, Beijing, September 27 - October 6, 2023
Care Pavilion, 4th London Design Biennale (LDB)
Somerset House, London, 1-25 June, 2023
1st Beijing Art and Technology Biennale (BATB)
798CUBE, Beijing, September 22, 2022 - January 31, 2023
WE ARE NATURE (in collaboration with World Wide Fund for Nature WWF)
China Climate Action Week, Beijing, 10-25 September, 2022
Material Tales: The Life of Things (in partnership with Design Museum London)
CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, 2021
Publications
Wang, Naiyi, ‘Design and Deep Time’. In Design Beyond the Human: Transdisciplinary Conversations About the Planet, ed. by Elio Caccavale and Prof Gordon Hush (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming)
Twemlow, Alice, Sifting the Trash: A History of Design Criticism (Chinese edition), trans. by Naiyi Wang (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, forthcoming)
Attfield, Judy, Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life (Chinese edition), trans. by Naiyi Wang (Nanjing: Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, 2023)
Martinon, Jean-Paul, The Curatorial: A Philosophy of Curating (Chinese edition), trans. by Naiyi Wang (Beijing: China Pictorial Publishing House, 2021)