Speaker: Maria Cristina Ibarra
Friday, May 28 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Orlando Fals Borda, Colombian sociologist, proposed the neologism 'sentipensar' that he heard in a conversation with a farmer in the Colombian Caribbean. According to this author, this term denotes 'that person who tries to combine the mind with the heart, to guide life along the right path and endure its multiple stumbles' (2015). I perceive 'sentient' beings as those who place themselves in the world in order to think about it, that is, who besides objectifying it, let the world grow in him/her, let it transform them. Fals Borda, in his life and work, proposed a sociology that combines academic research with a living and practical commitment to build another society. From design, what might that mean?
In the talk I seek to broaden the discussion on a sentipensante design, placing in dialogue different authors, among them, the Colombian anthropologist, Arturo Escobar (2018), who has recently taken up the term proposed by Fals Borda. I reflect on this concept from a field experience, as a designer, with a group of residents of a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro and with the lens of what is known as Design Anthropology, an area of methodological mixtures that seek to rethink conceptions of design and anthropology.