Crossings Between the Proximate and Remote

Irrational Management: Designing for and Against Nature

Fall Conference Proceedings

Author(s): Jesse LeCavalier & Tei Carpenter

This paper uses the case study of a Salmon Cannonto describe a non-binary nature, one neither fullynatural nor fully generated by human intervention,extracted from managerial approaches towards theenvironment. Through a close reading of the SalmonCannon, we suggest that rational approaches to thecontrol and management of nature can produce irrational,absurd, or even comical outcomes and canpoint towards opportunities for design that engagethe friction produced within Anthropocenic conditions.If an emerging environmental consciousnessin the 1960s and 1970s generated correspondingarchitectural outcomes, and if we are currently inthe middle of an equally significant transformationof environmental conditions, what might the strategiesbe for a resulting design response? Within thisspace, we develop initial points and approaches todesign with and for these entangled states.

Volume Editors
Urs Peter Flueckiger & Victoria McReynolds

ISBN
978-1-944214-16-6