Juan Montalván Lume is a Peruvian Design Researcher specialized in Latin American Critical Studies in Design, Systemic Design Approaches, and Design Philosophy, Theory and Methodology. In this talk, Juan will present a novel theoretical framework developed to aid designers/educators/individuals to imagine what lies beyond “design” as known by academia. The ‘Transcultural Relationality’ framework helps us think of “design” as an “other practice” among many, setting the ground for a more coherent understanding that surfaces design’s relationality with Latin American territories and cultures, and their diverse epistemologies of creation. From there, new ontologies for hybrid ‘modes of relationality and creation’ Juan calls ‘Transemas’ (Transems in English) emerge, challenging preconceived notions about design. These constitute part of the conceptual foundations of ‘Socionatural’ a Center for research and critical learning based in Latin America, that is exploring research, education, learning, relationality with the territory, and creation, beyond the cultural boundaries of “design”.
