Un/Making Matters that Emerge in the Aftermath
Kristina Lindström, Åsa Ståhl

Lindström and Ståhl present their writings within the context of design research. Their fabulations explore caring for what emerges in the aftermath of prior makings that engage with ethnography and design, such as the still ongoing plastic age and glass production in the Kingdom of Crystal in southern Sweden. They read, perform, and screen two fabulations that move from plastic imaginaries to un/making soil communities involving the figures of the ragpicker, composter, and undisciplined daughters of Linnaeus. In discussing the relationships between ethnographic and speculative material, they reflect on how these fabulations can trouble modernist imaginaries. In addition, they consider how big stories should be and their relation to care.

Åsa Ståhl, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Design, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden. Kristina Lindström is a Senior Lecturer in design at the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University. In 2014 they defended their collaborative PhD thesis across the disciplines of Media and Communication Studies and Interaction Design at Malmö University. Since then they have also done a joint postdoc at Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University and conducted artistic research in the project HYBRID MATTERs, where they explore past, present, and future imaginaries of plastics. Ståhl and Lindström currently run the Un/Making Studio, exploring alternatives to progressivist and anthropocentric ways of thinking and making within design. With a base in participatory and speculative design in combination with feminist technoscience, their work engages with publics in many ways through their research process and exhibition making. Their ongoing research project Un/Making Matters engages with maintenance, repair, and composting. unmakingstudio.se