Upstream/Downstream

“Upstream/Downstream” proposes upstreaming as a process to enhance conviviality by translating natural self-interest into empathy and mutual benefit. Several modes of upstreaming are explored, from the tectonics of a watershed and site management, to the awareness of history and one’s own position in it, and the reconceptualization of a product by the flows of its supply chain and lifecycle. I retrace the origins of this notion – a walk upstream through a troubled watershed during a torrential rainstorm – and follow its influences on several object lessons and project-based exercises conducted at Parsons The New School for Design. For all images download the pdf of the entire issue of Cuaderno 53 and proceed to pages 215-29.

“Upstream/Downstream,” Cuaderno 53: Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, eds. Marisa Cuervo, Marcia Veneziani and Steven Faerm (Buenos Aires: University of Palermo UP, 2014).