Hi, all! Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

#1 The Ethics of an Aesthetics of Wonder for Planetary Care, our new journal article led by Karey Helms, is now available in English and Spanish! Here’s what it’s about: “In design, the expression of values through form and experience is often referred to as aesthetics. In response to the ecological crisis, we explore wonder as a design aesthetics for planetary care. This exploration occurs through the presentation and critique of three seasonal activities with children in Sweden, aimed at inspiring local ecological curiosity: Appreciating the Wind, Looking for Frog Eggs, and Making Natural Perfumes. From these activities, we reflect upon the ethics of an aesthetics of wonder. This includes addressing the prioritization of human experience and the commodification of nature in design. We offer three contributions: defining and positioning wonder as a possible design aesthetics for planetary care, presenting three seasonal activities that situate wonder as an aesthetics in practice, and offering reflections on the ethics of wonder based on a critique of the activities.”

#2 Our dear colleague Patricia Ciobanu will defend her doctoral thesis Designing to Care for Nature on February 19 at 1pm, with Sara Heitlinger as her opponent.

#3 AI Red-Teaming Is a Sociotechnical Problem, by Tarleton Gillespie, Ryland Shaw, Mary L. Gray, and Jina Suh, is well worth a read: “It makes little difference whether we discard this phantasmic notion of full automation entirely, or just concede that data labor will be with us for the foreseeable future. Either way, research today can help structure this work in ways that are more attentive to the well-being and labor rights of the people doing the work right now.”

#4 Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by Michael Lewis, was a nice, quick book to enjoy. While it’s focused on the US, I read it in praise of the many unsung heroes working for the public sector around the world.

-A