Abstract:

This article presents an empirical reflection about the design of prototypes and the individualization of some animals at the National Zoo in Santiago, Chile. Using the material produced by design students, we describe how the process of prototyping

contributes to singularize those animals, therefore becoming a cosmopolitical device. The environmental enrichment for chimpanzees case will demonstrate how prototyping displays a truly ontological vocation, establishing open processes of

dialogue and experimentation. Its provisional, malleable and fragile nature turns the prototype into a locus for inquiry and exploration; its cosmopolitical qualities derived from its many forms of ontological diplomacy: instead of stabilizing properties, it

constantly re-specifies its conditions for verification. Finally, we attempt to develop the thesis of the prototype as a cosmopolitical device and its implications on design research as well as a way to intervene the world.