The Way We Approach Technology

Contextual Engineering recognizes the value of place-based knowledge and the imperative upon the technology designer to align their own design with the practices, values, capabilities, and constraints of the population for whom it’s intended. Examples emerged throughout The Consilience Project of technical innovations that serve the users but may not align with Western standards of innovation. By observing both the indigenous knowledge holders and the Western visitors during The Consilience Project, truths emerged about how readily we as Western technology scholars trivialize the lessons we can learn from others. Because knowledges don’t align with our own training and expertise, we easily disregard them as unsophisticated, without recognizing they offer a new paradigm for understanding both physical and artistic principles.