Petra Lilja
Design Studio

The age of Entanglements

The Age of Entanglements is a two year long project funded by Kulturbryggan, where 8 international design studios are working with the planet Mars as a projection plane for critique and speculation to create spaces for discussion and debate about what it means being human on Earth today. The project, run between 2018-2020 resulted in two exhibitions, four workshops, two seminars, three public talks and a printed publication.

Responding to what could be called a new space hype within the design field, The Age of Entanglements project took a more critical stand point, asking the question: Is it easier to imagine life on Mars than to take care of life on Earth? For just over a year, the designers worked with the planet Mars as a projection plane for critique and speculation. The curatorial aim was to think outside the human-centered box, and focus on non-human others, overlooked in the current space narrative which is predominantly tech- and progression oriented. Instead of entrenching human exploitation of Mars, the designers have created scenarios and fictions that manage to put the spotlight back on Earth and its entangled life-enabling systems. Animals, plants, fungi, other living organisms and even non-sentient entities like rocks, come to the forefront in these design projects.