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Julia Watson
Lo—TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism
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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, Julia Watson explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 18 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.
The tactile reading experience of Lo-TEK reflects the ingenuity of carefully selected projects with sophisticated design details: copper highlights the value of ancient knowledge, a cardboard hardcover echoes rawness, and the Swiss binding showcases an open spine and reveals the construction of the book, just as the book discloses hidden technological knowledge.
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, Julia Watson explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 18 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.
The tactile reading experience of Lo-TEK reflects the ingenuity of carefully selected projects with sophisticated design details: copper highlights the value of ancient knowledge, a cardboard hardcover echoes rawness, and the Swiss binding showcases an open spine and reveals the construction of the book, just as the book discloses hidden technological knowledge.
Extent: 420 pp
Format: Hardback
Publication date: 2019-12-13
Size: 25.1 x 17.9 cm
ISBN: 9783836578189
Praise for Julia Watson
Lo-TEK-a design movement to rebuild an understanding of indigenous philosophy and vernacular design that generates sustainable, climate-resilient technologies.
Julia Watson
If we can transform our relationship with the planet, we might actually get somewhere - and Lo-TEK provides 400 pages of inspiration.
Vogue
A beautiful work combining a little hard science and a lot of romanticism.
The World of Interiors
Can ancient fixes save our crisis-torn world?... [Lo-TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism] is the result of a decade of travelling to some of the most remote regions on the planet, interviewing anthropologists, scientists and tribe members. [Watson] carefully documented their indigenous innovations using the landscape architect's language of plans, cross-sections and exploded isometric diagrams to explain clearly how they work.
The Guardian
About the Authors
Berke Yazicioglu studied in Chicago before settling in London. Moving fluidly between digital drawing, painting, illustration, and design, he explores the tension between longing and order, reflecting on wider social and cultural currents. His visual narratives have featured in The New Yorker, Wired, Die Zeit, and Dezeen.
W-E studio is the multidisciplinary graphic design studio of Piera Wolf and Claudine Eriksson. Being based between Zurich and New York means bridging time and space is second nature to the practice. The studio is dedicated to creating meaningful and striking visual languages for clients within the arts, hospitality, fashion, music and other commercial sectors.
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