Non-Human-Centred Research / Visual Storytelling
Context Seminar Course, Köln International School of Design (KISD)
Course Envisioning Non-Human Centered Perspectives
Instructor Prof. Katrin Müller-Russo
Type Individual research project
Role Research, conceptual development, visual storytelling and illustration
Methods Theoretical research, species research, storyboard, visual mapping
Output Illustrated storyboard and course presentation
Becomıng wıth Storks explores how design can shift from a human-centred perspective toward the spatial experience of another species. Using storks as a case study, the project examines migration, nesting, urban infrastructure and cultural symbolism through questions of scale, movement and coexistence.
The research draws on animal studies and Donna Haraway’s thinking on interspecies relations, asking how theory can help a designer understand environments beyond human perception. Storks became a way to move between very different scales- from nests on utility poles and urban rooftops to migration routes spanning thousands of kilometres.
Presented through an illustrated storyboard, the project connects biological, spatial and cultural narratives, including the stork’s symbolic presence in both Turkish and European contexts. Rather than attempting to fully “represent” a non-human perspective, the work reflects on the limits of human perception and asks how design might become more attentive to other forms of inhabiting space.