Exploring the Complex Eco-Ethical Dimensions of Art and Design Research

Workshop Ethics in Minor Key at TU Eindhoven 

On February 21, 2025, a one-day hybrid workshop titled Ethics in Minor Key: Art and Design Research Alongside the Complexity of Climate Justice took place at TU Eindhoven, with online participation available. Organized by Gabriele Ferri and Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca, the workshop brought together artists and researchers from institutions including AHK, HA, GRA, TU Eindhoven, Fonts, CARADT / Avans, and UvA, as well as students from the Transforming Practices studio at TU/E (BA, MA, and PhD levels).

The event addressed the limitations of institutional ethics frameworks, which often align with what Tim Ingold, drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, describes as a “major key” approach—emphasizing standardization and control. Such frameworks can be at odds with the dynamic, situated, and experimental nature of artistic and design research.  

The workshop aimed to explore “minor key” ethics, which offer tools for addressing complexity, fostering openness, and supporting context-sensitive practices. It specifically focused on how art and design research can be conducted as an ethical praxis alongside the complexity of climate injustices in the more-than-human world. 

Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Professor Regenerative Art and Design at CARADT, participated in the event and engaged in a conversation with Professor Ron Wakkary, exploring the complexity, ethics, and significance of designers working with the more-than-human world. 

The workshop highlighted the necessity of moving beyond standardized institutional practices toward more dynamic, context-sensitive approaches that can address the complexities of climate justice. 

Recent Guest Lectures

Delfina Fantini van Ditmar’s participation in the “Ethics in Minor Key” workshop at TU Eindhoven is part of her broader engagement with the complex eco-ethical dimensions of art and design research. Her recent guest lectures further illustrate this ongoing inquiry.  

• Delfina delivered a presentation titled “Regenerative Futures” to master students at Politecnico di Milano. The talk introduced the regenerative paradigm and explored critical questions about how designers can integrate regenerative principles and more than human consideration to respond creatively and meaningfully to the urgent realities of environmental collapse.  

• Delfina was a crit for the “Systems Thinking and Design” module for the Master of Design Furniture & Interior Design program at the National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad. Students background included design, biotechnology, architecture, engineering and English literature among others. 

• Delfina was invited to be a guest for the session “How to Think/Act in Dark Times: Exploring a Critical Praxis. Terra Incognita –examining human and non-human relationality” a PhD seminar at Parsons (NYC)organized by Eduardo Staszowski and Virginia Tassinari. Drawing from Giorgio Agamben’s reflections on the concept of “stanza,” the session explored its dual meanings. For Agamben, the stanza is more than just a poetic structure or a physical room—it is a space of suspension, a gap between different modes of thinking and acting. This in-between space becomes a site of intersection, where disciplines converge, and poetry and philosophy engage in a dynamic exchange, generating new meanings. The seminar included PhD students from The New School, Erasmus University, TU Delft and Politecnico di Milano. 

• She also delivered the lecture “Get Off the Motorcycle! Becoming ‘Realists of a Larger Reality’ (Ursula Le Guin)” for all Bachelor Design programmes at Manchester School of Art. In this talk, Delfina explored the value of the regenerative paradigm in design, engaging in conversation with biomimicry expert and author Michael Pawlyn.