Toward a Convivial Design model with the Whanganui River, a legal person

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K18315
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 90010:Design-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: INAMURA TOKUSHU 九州大学, 芸術工学研究院, 助教 (70796458)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: meditative design / legal personhood / post human-centred / Whanganui

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Starting with the Whanganui River, the first river to gain legal personhood, multiple bodies of water in Finland, and the Naka River, which flows through Fukuoka Prefecture were engaged as living bodies of water. Particularly inspired by Maori worldview, the investigator devised an embodied and biomimetic method of living inwith the river, building entry to empathy and imagination with pluriversality; contributing to practice on the Nakagawa. Participating in events and dialogues including a crucial climate forum in Whanganui, the investigator engaged with communities including local peoples, researchers, and Canadian tribal leadership. built relationships and dialogues with an active community in the Whanganui River basin. Through engaging with multiple places, and disciplines, transversing art, design, and science and policy; this project explored flows of engagement, toward an ongoing collaborative inquiry into living with bodies of water.

Free Research Field

デザインエンジニアリング

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究はデザイン学の視点から身体的に川との共生関係を育む実践と理論を行き来する研究であり、法的人格化を得たワンガヌイ川でのコミュニティと繋がり今後も継続する関係を構築した。また本研究はポスト人間中心の共生を行うための発想法の開発につながった点も重要な意義がある。さらに本研究はDESISや世界デザイン会議という国際的デザイン研究コミュニティに注目を受け、ポスト人間中心のデザイン学に向けて研究体制を構築する上で意義があったと言える。さらにこのような研究を反映する国内のプロトタイプを進め、二級河川である那珂川で試行を行うことで社会に向けて一定の応用、展開へとつながった。