What does Ecological Design look like to you?

Hi everyone, we’ve been thinking about the EDC and what it could be. Last week, we invited you all to reflect on the words that make up our name: Ecological, Design, and Collective. Here are some of the wonderful ideas you shared:

We had an informal and intimate online meetup last Thursday about these themes. One of the most exciting ideas that came up was the metaphor of a “potluck”: the collective as a convivial space, where different people are welcome to bring and share what they know, what they have. We’ll be thinking on this, maybe host a real potluck or two sometime soon as well.

This week, we’d like to ask you:

What does ecological design look like to you?

We invite you to share an image this time. How do you visualize this question? Is there anything around you, something that you’ve seen or even made yourself, that speaks to this idea?

We’re interested in your lens on the world, how you see ecological design: what comes to mind if you close your eyes and imagine that idea; if you take a walk and stumble across something resonant; if you put a pencil to paper and see what happens.

Here are some interesting stories that have popped up so far.

The image of the leaves in the water signifies the interwoven cycle of ecological design – up is down, decay becomes what is created, near is far underground is as important as above ground, water is air. Also how the subtle complexity of nature is a miracle and something we will never completely understand.

- Jordan Tierney (artist)

Black soldier fly consumes organic food waste and serves as protein rich animal feed. Thickening loops of metabolic interconnection.

- Michael Degani (anthropologist)

We’re making a gallery for such images on our website, a small place to host them. You can drop your image into this folder here. We invite you to share your name (or any other key detail instead) as an identifying filename. In framing and identifying your image, please also keep in mind what is owed to those who made what it represents. Feel free to write via curators@ecodesigncollective.org with any further details or questions.

As before, we will meet next Thursday, April 21st at 6 pm EST at this video link to talk about the images that people share, and what they could mean for this community. You’ll also find the video link once again in the Chat channel on our Commons. We’re looking forward to your visions!