Fields of Coexistence

In her research, Susanne Wieland investigates how non-human actors use, appropriate, and co-shape human-made urban environments. The starting point is the observation that, in the Anthropocene, ecological systems do not passively respond to anthropogenic interventions but actively react to them, giving rise to new forms of urban ecosystems. From a design perspective, the project examines these processes by understanding design not solely as a human practice of control, but as a relational assemblage between human and more-than-human actors.

The focus of the research lies on spontaneous urban ecosystems and ruderal vegetation developing in sidewalk cracks, wall crevices, and other interstitial urban spaces (Wieland 2026). Through long-term observation, empirical case studies, and design-based interventions, the project explores how ecological processes of appropriation and transformation emerge, and what implications these have for future design practices. Methodologically, the work combines approaches from design research, urban ecology, and anthropology, drawing in particular on discourses of more-than-human design and multispecies coexistence.

On the 3rd of June, Wieland conducts a Fieldtrip/Workshop and invites students (or others who are interested), to perceive the HfG campus as a living environment. Together, participate will dedicate themselves to observing the living beings that use and shape the campus alongside us. From plants and insects to spontaneous vegetation, as well as birds and mammals, the group will investigate who and what lives in, on, and around the site. Using magnifying glasses, microscopes, and binoculars, the fieldtrip will document and analyze traces, habitats, and relationships between different living beings and human-made infrastructure.

The focus will be on observation, exchange, and discussion: Which life forms share this space? How do they make use of the artificial environment? How can artistic and design practices respond to urban ecological actors? In doing so, reference will be made to discourses such as “more-than-human” and “multispecies thinking,” as shaped by thinkers such as Donna Haraway and Anna Tsing.

The workshop is understood as an open approach to questions of biodiversity, ecological entanglement, and their significance for artistic and design practice. The workshop is funded by the green.office.fonds.

“Fields of Coexistence”
Workshop and Fieldtrip

3rd June 2026, 2–5 pm
Main Building, Room 312
Registration via Susanne Wieland: wieland(at)hfg-offenbach.de

The Workshop is limited to 8 participants.