Blockchain Futures
Co-designing a Sustainable Food Justice System with Blockchain Futures
Partners
Project Type
Funded ProjectTo grow food successfully, humans require the help of other organisms – for example bees, or soil micro-organisms. This project explored how we can use new technologies to help avoid problems such as soil degradation and bee extinction that threaten life on earth and looked at an algorithmic approach to creating a sustainable food justice system through co-designing blockchain futures with urban agricultural communities in London. A speculative participatory design (SPD) approach was used to explore futures grounded in the values, needs and challenges of real communities.
The expertise of Furtherfield, a London-based arts organization who have developed an award-winning programme of engaging non-technical participants in blockchain futures, was drawn upon. The approach was interdisciplinary, drawing on methods from art and design, STS, and computer science. Activities included a multispecies Live Action Role Play (LARP), and paper prototyping of new blockchain-based systems.
The methods and approach developed have been adopted by Furtherfield, as part of their programming and through their work on the EU-funded Creatures project. In this work they continue to engage with diverse citizens on issues of equality, participation, and ecology. Future activities include a paper for Big Data and Society and a book on More-than-human smart cities.
Publications
Algorithmic Food Justice: Co-designing More-than-human blockchain futures for the food commons. CHI’21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference.
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