Act.4 Are we human? by Andrea Cortés López

a01659564_ — 2022-08-17 16:34:11 UTC

"The human might be the only species to have systematically designed its own extinction and seems to be getting close to accomplishing the goal.
Yet, it largely acts as if it cannot do anything about it, staring at the prospect of its own demise as if transfixed, even with a lingering sense of pride in this massive self-destructive accomplishment. It is as if the image of a vast sublime natural world overwhelming the human attempt to comprehend it has been reversed. The human itself is now the overwhelming spectacle." (Colombina & Wigley, p.15)

a01659564_ — 2022-08-17 16:34:49 UTC

"The unprecedented ability to collectively construct and share images does not mean that we all see the same thing. Our self- image is multiple and ever-shifting, as if we look into a vast multifaceted mirror in which the surface keeps moving. We are fixated on a reflection that is as strange as hearing a recording of one's own voice, continually wondering what we are becoming. "Are we human?" Is the most everyday question".
(Colombina & Wigley, p.16)

a01659564_ — 2022-08-17 16:35:24 UTC

"The ability to see so much more is equally the ability to be seen so much more. The human looks at itself looking at itself. Self monitoring is a huge part of human activity - and is inseparable from design". (Colombina & Wigley. p.17)

a01659564_ — 2022-08-17 16:36:02 UTC

"It is time that we become human again" - Sigfried Giedion

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:36:17 UTC

"We literally live inside design, like the spider lives inside the web constructed from inside its own body. But unlike the spider, we have spawned countless overlapping and interacting webs... Design has become the world" (Colombina & Wigley, p. 9)

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:36:42 UTC

"The archaeology of design is not simply about the history of the human animal as revealed in all the layers of artifacts. It uncovers the sedimented ways of reinventing the human. Design is the most human thing about us." (Colombina & Wigley, p. 10)

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:37:02 UTC

"There is no water whose temperature, movement and chemistry has not been affected. No air is unmarked. There is hardly any dimension of the natural world that has not been affected by human activity." (Colombina & Wigley, p. 12).

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:39:08 UTC

"The designs that mark human life are not just the cultural and technical artifacts that eventually make their way into museums. They are the precarious movements of refugees, the collapse of biodiversity, the global flows of information and resources, the whole in the ozone layer, the micro-plastic diffused through the oceans, the radioactive isotopes from atomic testing in the atmosphere and the black carbon everywhere in the air and soil." (Colombina & Wigley, p.12)

a017068881 — 2022-08-17 16:42:34 UTC

Human beings question the origin of our existence and everything that surrounds us

a017068881 — 2022-08-17 16:44:10 UTC

We have evolved depending on the needs that arise

a017068881 — 2022-08-17 16:46:44 UTC

the definition of human is design or the archeology of curiosity even the earth in which we exist is composed by previously created layers

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:48:44 UTC

From this part of the reading, we were able to understand that design has existed since long ago. It is part of our history; designing the things that surround us is just a part of us.
And these designs have helped us to understand how we used to live, because the previous designs show the kind of food that we ate, the tools we used, etc.
Every single thing helps us understand how we used to live, and how things have been changing through the years, with new technologies and inventions, learning from past designs.

a01659564_ — 2022-08-17 16:49:35 UTC

The person who you are is the result of a process of building the elements that make up eco you are. As humans we are in constant change, and example of this can be evolution, it also means constant innovation. To make artefacts to improve our lifestyle it is necessary to make a process on how it is going to work. To come up to the system we live in, economic or politic it design had an intervention and a result we have the system we nowadays live in .

a017068881 — 2022-08-17 16:52:14 UTC

we are a species that designs its self-destruction

a017068881 — 2022-08-17 16:54:03 UTC

the technology we have created connects us with what happens every day inside and even in the outside of the world

a014244111 — 2022-08-17 16:54:14 UTC

We've had an impact in EVERYTHING. While we develop more and more designs, we've covered more land, and used more resources. We have also find applications to things and places that might seem unuseful.
We strongly agree with this quote, because we consider that humanity has had a big influence in every single known piece of this world. This influence even reaches scales that are not known, for the good or for the bad.

a014244111 — 2022-08-18 16:55:44 UTC

As we read this part of the text, we felt that what it says is true. With all the designs we have made, and all the impact we have had in the world, it is getting destroyed by us, and a big part of humanity is not recognizing this. We say that it will solve by itself, but that is not going to happen, and it is already getting late for us to make something.
The same designs that have helped us have an easier life are harming our planet, and we are just looking away.

a014244111 — 2022-08-18 17:07:29 UTC

We agree on what this quote mentions, and we think that this is related to the concept of globalization. Globalization has allowed us to have more communication with other people, and interconnected the world increasingly more.
Besides this, new designs have enabled the part of "monitorizing" ourselves, since designs like cameras have been used to document our lives or certain actions or events, and this is something that has been happening for some years now.

a017068881 — 2022-08-19 16:30:15 UTC

life is a constantly changing cycle

a017068881 — 2022-08-19 16:34:19 UTC

the greatest fear of humans is boredom, reaching a time when we have the answer to everything, we are addicted to challenges

a017068881 — 2022-08-19 16:38:11 UTC

What makes our world continue to evolve and question itself is the diversity of points of view even when it is about the same thing or situation

a017068881 — 2022-08-19 16:42:54 UTC

_W_{e are a species that we have the privilege of being aware of everything around us, that we have the ability to question the cycle of life and everything that exists day by day, we create and innovate because of the need to have an occupation and to cover the needs that are presented in our planet.
We believe that sometimes our curiosity has led us to the limits of generating our own extinction, it may be that we are excited to know the answer of life or that we want to continue discovering new things to have a purpose in life so we ignore the cons of these actions}

a017068881 — 2022-08-20 22:32:05 UTC

Designs in the history of humanity are not only material things, it is also for the social events like migration. What we design for our world also has an effect on the social and environmental sphere. What we have planned to build up to improve our lifestyles has consequences which not only affects society but everything that surrounds us. Everything that has surrounded every single one of us has to do with who we are today and what we know. It isn't precisely about the physical things and features that surround us, its about what they represent and how we have evolved through history and various societies. It also lectures on everything that we have like our oceans and biodiversity in order to be more cautious in order to act now and not lose everything.

a017068881 — 2022-08-20 22:32:22 UTC

Even though we share some aspects like identity there are also elements that make us different from other people. For example, our background has built up our perspective depending on this. It is how we see things that we experience in our lives changes the way we see things. As humans we have the urge to find something that looks like our expectations and that fulfills them .

a017068881 — 2022-08-20 22:32:37 UTC

In this quote it says that as humans we should stop trying to control everything on our surroundings, changing every single thing about it just for us to be more comfortable . Instead of building a design that for example extracts more fossil fuels in less time we should be designing one that in a balanced way it extracts fossil fuels or looks for sustainable energy. It is true that humans affect the environment by just their existence, but finding an equilibrium on how we interact with nature might reach the goal of trying to control and change everything in the environment we live in.