Making and Unmaking Pluriversal Privacy

Abstract

In an age where technology reigns supreme, our daily existence is intricately woven with an abundance of choices, each bearing unforeseen societal repercussions. As an increasing number of such challenges arise, the responsibility also lies with design to contribute to a better quality of life holistically. One particularly intertwined issue within this landscape is that of privacy. Whether knowingly or unwittingly, we regularly disclose a significant amount of our information verbally, digitally, and physically, sometimes even through our silence when there is someone to listen to. This study investigates the de-familiarization of the concept of privacy by navigating through historical societal paradigms and languages across Spain and India. It further augments this exploration by scrutinising through the multifaceted prism of pluriversality, specifically examining and contrasting legal regulations from a Spanish and Indian culture point of view since 1900. The study draws on the Transition Design approach to create an insightful dialogue encompassing the comprehension of ‘Pluriversal Privacy,’ its associated challenges, and the prospects it holds for the future. Additionally, this article probes the nuanced gradients of privacy, collective imagination and design fiction to try to imagine future scenarios and proposes a participatory speculative artefact on fictions of pluriversal privacy thereby stating the need to start from people.