Lo-TEK : design by radical indigenism /
Three hundred years ago, intellectuals of the European Enlightenment constructed a mythology of technology. Influenced by a confluence of humanism, colonialism and racism, this mythology ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Today, we have slowly come to realize that...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cologne :
Taschen,
[2019]
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| Summary: | Three hundred years ago, intellectuals of the European Enlightenment constructed a mythology of technology. Influenced by a confluence of humanism, colonialism and racism, this mythology ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Today, we have slowly come to realize that the legacy of this mythology is haunting us. Designers understand the urgency of reducing humanity's negative environmental impact, yet perpetuate the same mythology of technology that relies on exploiting nature. Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous design, we are ignoring millennia-old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remain inherently unsustainable. 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 from technology. It is sophisticated and designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems. With a foreword by anthropologist Wade Davis and four chapters spanning Mountains, Forests, Deserts and Wetlands, this book explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from twenty countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature. |
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| Item Description: | Book has special binding with only one side fixed to cover. |
| Physical Description: | 419 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, plans ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographcal refereces and index. |
| ISBN: | 3836578182 9783836578189 |