Living with living artefacts

Paper publication in proceedings of DRS2022: Bilbao

Bio-designers are exploring how living organisms can be incorporated into design and operation. These new living artefacts have qualities, needs, design opportunities, and relations with users, that differ from those of non-living artefacts. To design living artefacts into daily life, designers must know why users would want to live with these living artefacts, and subsequently to understand why humans have historically lived with other living things. In response to these research questions, a semi-systematic review has been conducted on literature from diverse fields, questioning why humans live with other living things. Through qualitative thematic analysis, it was found that existing literature attributes several motivations for living with other beings. These motivations include hedonic benefits; biophilia; care, meaning, and utilitarian benefits; performance; material provision; knowledge and skill. Based on these six concepts, this paper proposes eight guidelines for designers who wish to foster user acceptance of living artefacts in daily life.