The Futures Archive S2E6: The Bug Zapper

Note: This episode addresses topics significantly sensitive in light of this week’s faculty taking pictures in Texas. While Design Observer has by no means shied away from tough conversations, the editors acknowledge that this content material could also be troublesome for some listeners. Content Warning: Violence, killing, and demise are mentioned on this episode. It could be exhausting to search out someone who needs to share house with a mosquito. Hence, the creation of the Zappify Bug Zapper brand rechargeable bug zapper. But as designers, how do 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 always mirror humanity. With further insights from David MacNeal, Juliano Morimoto, Spee Kosloff, Paula Antonelli, and Lindsay Garcia. There is a need for humans to exert their authority, but there can be a need for us to exert our love. The thing that I hope we hold space for is: That is all apply because it’s not going to be resolved, and it shouldn’t be.



That might create some sort of stagnancy. Life is definitely about holding area for dynamism, modifications 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 are the founding father of FLOX Studio, a community design and technique studio. David MacNeal is a author and the writer of Bugged: The Insects Who Rule the World and the People Obsessed with Them. Dr. Juliano Morimoto is an entomologist and lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Spee Kosloff is an affiliate professor of psychology at California State University in Fresno and co-writer of "Killing Begets Killing: Evidence From a electric bug zapper-Killing Paradigm That Initial Killing Fuels Subsequent Killing". Paola Antonelli is an author, architect, and the Senior Curator within the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, Zappify Bug Zapper as well as MoMA’s founding director of Research and Development.



Lindsay Garcia is an artist, scholar, and an assistant dean at Brown University. Kathleen Fu created the illustrations for Zappify Bug Zapper brand every episode. An enormous thanks to this season’s sponsor, Automattic. Hi, everyone, that is Lee. Every week is somewhat totally different on this present. And this week, while we’re nonetheless talking about design, we’re going to be speaking about some fairly serious points. And so I need to make sure that everybody who’s listening is conscious of that is in a superb place when they’re listening. And i encourage you to verify our show notes previous to listening to the episode so that you understand the context of what we’re talking about and put together ourselves a bit. Beyond that, I welcome you to the conversation and that i hope you discover this conversation as powerful because it was for us. And that i thank you for listening. Welcome to The Futures Archive, a show about human centered design the place this season, we’ll take an object, search for the human at the center and keep asking questions.



… and I am Sloan Leo. On each episode we’re going to start out with an object with power. Today the item is the bug zapper. We’ll look on the history of that object from our perspective, as designers who’ve carried out work in human centered design. Not simply how it seems and feels and sounds and smells, but also the relationship between that object and the individuals it was designed for… … and with other people too. The Futures Archive is brought to you by the design workforce 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 again. Thanks for becoming a member of us. Lee, it's a thrill to be here. So I’m wondering-bug zapper for patio this particular episode, I’m questioning if you can inform me a little bit bit about your historical past as a child with bugs and insects. Where you this sort of like, like kid that like cherished the creepy crawly stuff?