The bread without form : attuning to relational ways of making through convivial baking practice

Abstract

This paper investigates the notion of form as a relational process rather than a fixed attribute of things. Through the lenses of contemporary design theory and symbiotic conviviality, we present a snapshot of the first author’s bakery practice, where the ever-emerging form of sourdough bread is used to discuss ways of attuning differently to dominant understandings of design, making, and materiality. The case presented here follows a practice-led research approach, with different sources of data captured through documentation and reflection. Our findings illustrate the methodological potential of baking to explore form-making as a convivial and symbiotic process. We conclude by laying out a few implications of employing practices of ‘making-with’ as a guiding principle to anchor design activity in an ethos of regenerative, evolutionary, and co-existence-based survival, thus prioritising care and signaling a shift away from the domesticating role of the designer.