EMPiD
Embodying Mutispecies in Design | Movement Based Practices
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About the Project
Project Overview
This project introduces a movement-based design method to expand how designers engage with the perceptual worlds of other-than-human species. Through workshops focused on dogs, pigeons, and deer, participants disrupted anthropocentric habits and experimented with designing from more-than-human perspectives. Using tools like dichromatic lenses, beak masks, and guided movement exercises, the work encourages designers to approach design as a practice of attunement—asking: how can we design through relationships rather than control?
Goal
The goal of this project is to challenge human-centered assumptions in design by introducing embodied movement as a method for cultivating multispecies awareness. Through experiential workshops, it seeks to expand empathy beyond the human, develop tools and techniques for designing with other species in mind, and encourage designers to engage with more-than-human worlds not as passive subjects, but as co-creators in shared environments.
Outcome
Through a series of embodied workshops with design and architecture students, this project surfaced new ways of sensing, moving, and thinking through more-than-human perspectives. Participants engaged in crawling, flocking, foraging, and alert listening—using tools like beak prosthetics, antler headpieces, and dichromatic lenses to unsettle human norms. The methodology resulted in design shifts: from visual aesthetics to scent trails, from human convenience to interspecies needs. Alongside the workshops, a set of templates, scores, and facilitation strategies were developed to make the method repeatable, adaptable, and teachable.
External Resources
Links to your thesis/presentation……
Dog Workshop
01. Participants explored canine movement—crawling, sniffing, chasing
02. Initial Design for Dogs
03. Sketch Itself: A Design of a Dog Park
04. Dichromatic lenses to simulate dog vision
05. Social Interactions and Play
Four workshops, Three species.
From dogs to deer, each session explored embodied methods to rethink design from a more-than-human perspective.
What Took Me Here
Process
Designing Before and After Embodiment
Participants first sketched design concepts based on human logic—prioritizing visual aesthetics, spatial organization, and amenities like seating areas, open fields, and agility zones.
After experiencing the world through movement—crawling, sniffing, and guarding like dogs—they returned to their designs with new insights. Their focus shifted toward sensory-driven, interaction-based experiences.
In the example below, we see this transformation:
Before, zoning and layout dominated.
After, design emphasized scent trails, texture, nonlinear paths, and dog behaviors like biting, marking, and resting.
“I initially designed a pretty abstract big picture of a dog park focusing on layouts and amenities. After the workshop, I realized those large planning details wouldn’t even be noticed by the dog…”
Pigeon Workshop
In the pigeon workshop, participants explored what it means to navigate a city as a small, often disregarded being. They embodied pigeon-like movement—quick starts, erratic shifts, and hyper-vigilant alertness. Through guided prompts, they practiced pecking, scanning for threats, and group foraging. Beak masks and movement constraints helped participants feel into the precarity and adaptability pigeons live with. This workshop encouraged a rethinking of public space, focusing on survival, movement patterns, and cohabitation under constant risk.
Beak prosthetics used to mimic nest-building.
Pigeon foraging is reenacted with scattered food and social tension.
Roosting postures practiced while scanning for safety.
Deer Workshop
Held on a working farm, the deer workshop invited architecture students to slow down and engage in cautious, rhythmic movement. Participants wore antler props and used scent-based tools to heighten awareness of presence, proximity, and environmental cues. The session emphasized how deer perceive humans—through sudden movement, sound, and spatial encroachment. By inhabiting the role of prey, participants reconsidered visibility, path-making, and non-verbal communication in design. This workshop pushed students to design not just for animals, but with a heightened sensitivity to their sensory world.
Students sketch ideas for human-deer coexistence at Urban Roots Farm.
Antlers and dichromatic lenses simulate deer perception.
Participants embody deer behaviors—slow steps, freezing, group alertness.
What's Next
Conclusion
Designing this methodology was more than creating a set of workshops—it was about crafting experiences that invited designers to pause, shift, and reorient. Each session became a space of experimentation, where movement replaced assumption, and play invited perceptual humility. From dogs to pigeons to deer, participants stepped into unfamiliar logics and reimagined design from the ground up—literally.
The work extended far beyond theory. From developing tools like beak and antler prosthetics to choreographing movement prompts that balanced curiosity with care, every detail shaped how participants could open up to new ways of sensing and relating. What stayed with me most were not the final sketches, but the moments of recognition: a participant hiding behind a bush, suddenly aware of being seen like prey; another struggling to grip a branch with a beak prosthetic, laughing as they embodied the difficulty of daily survival.
These workshops do not aim to simulate animal lives, but to disrupt human-centered habits. By engaging the body—through scent, vision, rhythm, and interaction—designers experienced brief yet powerful shifts in perception. The results were meaningful: over 88% of participants reported increased empathy toward dogs, pigeons, and deer, and over 80% felt more creative in their second round of designs. The impact was visible—in their sketches, their movements, and their reflections.
This approach doesn’t belong only in design studios or classrooms. Its adaptability across species, sites, and disciplines shows its potential to travel—to new places, new publics, and new futures.
EMPiD offers a mindset as much as a method: design as relationship, not control; awareness, not assumption; coexistence, not dominance.
How might we design not just for humans, but for all beings that move through and shape our shared world?