Contemporary designers understand the urgency of reducing humanity’s negative environmental impact, yet most perpetuate a dependence upon of technology that relies upon the exploitation of nature. The justification of this has been the confluence of humanism, colonialism, and racism, which allowed the intellectuals of the European Enlightenment to construct a mythology of technology that ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Lo–TEK, derived from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs, countering the idea that indigenous innovation is primitive and exists isolated in technology. It is sophisticated and designed to work sustainably with complex ecosystem. - - - ETH Social Media Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eth/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethzurich/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eth_en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/eth-zurich/ https://www.ethz.ch

Dialogue series: Spencer Reeder meets Julia Watson

Erica Blair, Associate Director at Burning Man Projects Julia Watson, Designer, activist, academic and author Sarah Ichioka, Co-Author of Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency Chaired by Hattie Hartman, Sustainability Editor at The Architects' Journal

Designer, activist, and academic, Julia Watson is a leading expert on indigenous technologies. Her new book with Taschen, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism is a bestseller and has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, The Washington Post, just to name a few. Julia teaches Urban Design at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Columbia University. She’s the Principal of Julia Watson, a landscape and urban design studio with a focus on indigenous design, and co-director of A Future Studio, a collective of eco-conscious designers. She has written for an array of platforms including ArchDaily, Blueprint, loARCH and Kerb, as well as co-author of A Spiritual Guide to Bali’s UNESCO World Heritage. This year she will be speaking at TED, COP 26, Venice Biennale and Dubai Expo 2020. What Design Can Do Live What Design Can Do organises annual conferences on design and innovation in different cities across the world. With a shot of positivity we facilitate unique exchanges through an international line-up of visionary speakers and interactive workshops. Each WDCD Live event is a bee hive of change makers from a multi-disciplinary background, where connections are made and a cross pollination of ideas take place. From makers to marketeers, designers to diplomats, activists to architects, and more. Learn more here: https://www.whatdesigncando.com/wdcd-live-events/