#136 - Design As Participation - with Kevin Slavin

About this episode

Kevin Slavin discusses the role of design in interconnected systems and the importance of participation in shaping the future.

Kevin Slavin - designer and entrepreneur working across technology, biology, and culture joins us on this episode to reflect on what it means to design within living, interconnected systems, and how technology moves forward not just through invention, but through the social and cultural conditions that allow ideas to take root in the world. Known for his article ‘Design as Participation’, he explores how design changes when “the system is the subject, and you’re downstream of it,” shifting the designer’s role away from control and speed toward humility and participation in complex systems. He also reflects on the limits of regulation and policy, and shares how his company Fairfield Bio is building marketplace and platform models - using rules, access controls, contracts, and incentive design to build trust and enable fair access to non-human genomic data even when trust is low. This episode is a reminder that design always encodes the future we choose to optimise for and the role each of us plays in shaping it. In this episode, Kevin Slavin, whose work spans institutions like MIT Media Lab and New York University, reflects on his shift from working on digital systems to engaging…

People in this episode

Guest: Kevin Slavin

Topics covered

• design
• technology
• biological systems
• social conditions
• trust
• participation

Keywords

• design as participation
• interconnected systems
• biological research
• trust
• genomic data

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fairfield Bio, MIT Media Lab, New York University

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