Petra Lilja

Cultivating Caring Coexistence - designing anthropo-de-centric futures



The paradigm of human exceptionality has set in motion a machinery of global effects of which design, by adding to mass-production and consumption, can be argued to be one principal cog.

In my work I explore ways to critically examine the role of the designer and the connections between design and global extractivism as a key factor in our troubled presents where a myriad of species is overlooked and becoming extinct.

I explore ways to disrupt human-centeredness, unpack unequal power hierarchies and open up for reconfigurations of design practices, by questioning the constructed boundaries between living and non-living matter.

My aim is to co-create collective multispecies-inclusive narratives and strategies for engaging and empowering scales of actors, agencies and knowledges otherwise unaddressed. My practical work is based on material design approaches as well as curatorial strategies, informed by theory from, for example, the feminist posthumanities.

Petra Lilja is an industrial designer and curator. Since graduating from Pratt Institute, New York, she has explored different ways to combine her creative driving force with her deep concern about designs negative impact on the planet. She worked as design lecturer and program director of the Design + Change Programs at Linnaeus University. For four years she ran an eponymous galley in Malmö displaying art, design and research. She is a member of the jury of the annual Swedish Design award UNG and its equivalent in South Korea.

Principal supervisor: Martín Ávila
Assistant supervisor: Meike Schalk och Ola Ståhl
Admitted to Kungliga tekniska högskolan, KTH
Project period: 2019-2022