Design Through Dogs’ World | Embodied Movement for Multispecies Design

UT Austin & NYU Game Center | 2024–2025

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This workshop explored how embodied movement can be used as a method in multispecies design by inviting participants to engage with the perceptual world (Umwelt) of dogs. Participants used sensory tools—such as dichromatic lenses simulating dog vision—and tactile materials to explore canine ways of sensing, playing, and moving.​

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UT Austin: conducted as part of Jiabao Li’s Ecocentric Design course, where students designed either a dog park or a pet-tech product focused on play, safety, or communication.

 

NYU Game Center: hosted by Eric Zimmerman as an open workshop, where participants designed dog toys and games. 

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The workshop included:

• Warm-up and guided movement prompts inspired by canine behavior

• Sensory exploration using altered vision, textures, and smells

• Open-ended embodied experimentation

• Design ideation before and after the movement session to track perceptual shifts

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Participants’ final designs moved from symbolic or anthropocentric logic toward behaviorally grounded, species-specific ideas. Across both workshops, the method emphasized the perceptual limits of human-centered design and offered a playful, body-based way to engage with more-than-human lifeworlds.

 

Through movement, sensing, and critical reflection, these sessions offered designers new tools to imagine interspecies coexistence and more inclusive design practices.