Keller Easterling's 'Medium Design' Proposes Complication Over Solutions for Global Challenges

Architect Keller Easterling's book 'Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World' argues against seeking ideological coherence, which she describes as a damaging cultural addiction. Published by Verso, the work originated from a 2018 essay and reflects the political climate of the early Trump era. Easterling critiques modern thinking's vulnerability to binary approaches that create polarization on issues like inequality, migration, and climate change. Her concept of 'medium design' involves examining objects—human, corporate, infrastructural, or economic—within their spatial contexts to alter their interplay. She suggests reframing migration as 'cosmopolitan mobility' and emphasizes adaptability through complication, interdependence, and redundancy. The book targets all people, not just designers, proposing new narratives to replace outdated ones. Easterling teaches at Yale and positions her approach as hopeful despite acknowledging its ambitious nature.