Making Sense and Meaning¶
THOUGHTS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS FOR AN EVOLUTIVE REALITY¶
By: José Hirmas Stark
Abstract¶
What is a wave? My definition: a wave is the relationship between a specific amount of wind, a portion of the sea, and the location of the moon. In a way, these three things are aligned in a unique form that create what we humans call “wave”. What about other agents we are not aware of that affect the fabrication of this wave? How we find these invisible relations that make the reality possible?
To Design means to understand the relationship between humans and non- humans. In this matter, relationality is fundamental when describing the being. Exploring the interconnection between everyone and everything, and discovering hidden forces of ecology can be a trigger for shifting our role in the world. When I say “things” I mean “everything and everyone that exists”. Things do not exist without other things around. When changing this context where things emerge, new things appear. This is attached to the biography of each thing. Each biography is a story, and each story has a unique meaning due to a context. A thing is always an interconnected being, we see it or not. When this specific interconnection occurs, reality is created.
Senses are the human tools for creating and understanding reality. Each thing (interconnection in a context) is also a message. Messages construct narratives, and these narratives are usually curated by humans thanks to communication. The way we communicate in a traditional present or to “have voice” is primary human centered, and the reality is created from this empowered point of view.
What if we give voice to agents that usually do not have it? How to understand life, the world and reality from a “no voice” point of view? An interconnected being has a specific form of message which allows its existence. Redefining the communication concept plays a significant role as a tool for revealing new narratives and by consequence in creating alternative realities. This process can be driven for emergent outcomes. Radical doing is the main characteristic when constructing something that we do not imagine. We do not base in theoretic parameters because that builds walls that are difficult to break. We do not design for someone specific, because we need to allow participation in any form, so the unexpected can appear.
This paper explores the role of communication for existence, the emergent relationships between humans and non-humans and the boundaries of the message and the messenger for the appearance of a new being. Design can save the world, with empathy as a core value for relationships that go beyond any imagined scenario. Exploring these hidden relationships and finally revealing that reality has always meant to be a specific form of ordering things in a context, is a must for emergent futures. Design for no one and for nobody, do not take relationships for granted and be brave in rethinking things by changing context, because everything and everyone have something to say, to participate and to be.
New Relationships¶
Design is the understanding, exploration, and generation of new forms of relationships. Seeing connections between humans, between human and things and between things and things that usually we do not perceive.
As a designer I have been researching about the power of relationships, from a first-person perspective. Starting with paying attention to my social life and the way I feel and connect with others, considering myself a “social entity”. Being with others, or having people around makes me feel connected to what is happening. I feel the human energy trespassing my skin and are aware when a bad energy comes around. Since my childhood I have been always surrounded by people, first my parents, grandma and 3 brothers, then in school classmates and teachers, working partners and now living with my wife. The construction of my relationships is crucial for enjoying life and is not only about people I care or love. So, it can also be the bartender, the neighbor I meet in the elevator, the market owner where I buy groceries, the people sitting in the tables around when having a coffee, the people I cross by when walking in the street. Everyone affects everyone in different levels and the invisible connection between us, is the pillar of my existence as a social entity. Sometimes we do not notice everyone around or we take it for granted, so as individuality is our focus of development (selfishness and ambition is a human threat), collectiveness is what makes as humans’ part of a society. On the other hand, I do not think that being alone is bad, and we also need moments of loneliness to think, reflect, connect with our deeper beings. Feeling alone and being alone are very opposite. And as a matter of fact: we are never alone. Is just a perception or a feeling attached to our minds? We are always part of something.
On the year 2020, when global pandemic affected not only our health, but set boundaries to our proximity to others, many people felt depressed and seeking new ways of relating. Technology has been and incredible tool for communicating and making connection possible when distance is a barrier. I remember the first video call parties and meetings as an exciting new scenario for cultivating relationships. It is possible to generate a human relationship when people are far, rethinking what it means to have a relationship with another human.
Relationships are not only about humans. What about the other existing things that surround us, and that we relate with? In fact, humans give meaning to things depending on the context. So, for each individual a singular object can mean or can be used for something totally unique, based on culture and the emotionality we sense. It is the common that humans, among all others, have the authority to perceive, and define the things itself. Everything has a voice, but this is limited by the way communication has been defined and understood. For this reason, is always a human that “translates” what the thing is expressing or communicating. What if we seek different forms of communication between things? By this, maybe we will find new connections for imagining alternative presents that shift the relationship humans have with things. Things are always trying to say something. What if this language for saying is not perceived by humans? “We can experience things – can touch, hear, and taste things- only because, as bodies, we are ourselves included in the sensible field, and have our own textures, sounds and tastes. We can perceive things at all only because we ourselves are entirely a part of the sensible world that we perceive! We might as well say that we are organs of this world, flesh of its flesh, and that the world is perceiving itself through us.”(1) Perception of reality is explored by our senses and is constructed by our minds, to simplify and understand the world. All things have the capacity of speech, and language is just a small part of this human invention to attach meaning to these things. Storytelling is a powerful and necessary tool when understanding relationships. The stories are told by humans, so is reality emerging from language.
One Step Back¶
Design means collectiveness, empathy, and relationality. Being aware of the relations between anything and everyone, and the potential agency of things. It is accepting that we are not alone, and moreover allowing other species and non-living to have a space in the world. This is not an easy task due to our human centered form of understanding life. But what if we are only part of something, just a piece of a big puzzle, where mountains, trees, bees, dogs, apples, soil, ants, water, oxygen, sun, and other things of nature also co-habit and where things created by humans: chairs, bicycles, computers, food, thoughts, and dreams have also real validation among life, part of the puzzle called reality. But this puzzle does not have bigger or smaller pieces, so every piece is important and connected to another one. So, existence becomes without hierarchies and equality is the base. How do we cohabit this ’more than human’ world?
“In the nature of the case, an explorer can never know what he is exploring until it has been explored”(2) In a world where reality is validated by science, and by the overwhelming information that is not just in libraries but in internet and all around, communicating what is popular versus what is more significant, where knowledge has been democratized, and everyone feels expert in something, with rationality as our main path… as designers we need to step back. It is the time to observe. It is the moment to unlearn what we think we know. Not only opening our eyes but experiencing with our whole senses and soul, reconnecting with nature.
I remember one summer going to Torres del Paine in the deeper south of Chile to build paths for the park’s visitors. During that time, stayed at a very simple camping site, with no baths, energy, nor connection to another place. I just had my bag with some warm cloth, an individual tent, and some food they gave me two times in a day. Is important to mention that I was not alone, the group of volunteers was joyful and committed. Although the landscape was incredible beautiful, I needed to charge my phone, go to the bathroom, sleep in a bed, and have light to read. So, the first 2 days where super though as a city boy, moreover after waking up in the middle of the night entirely wet because my tent was placed in a worn position and rain came in. Also, I think I had technology abstinence crisis with led myself to increase my anxiety. But I stayed there and try to go for my tasks and work. I had made a commitment to the park, the other people and more specially to myself. The third day I started to enjoy sleeping on the tent, hearing the birds singing at sunset and the sound of deep silence. At morning I woke up with the sunlight, wen to the river to wash my face, have some fruits and tea with the group and started my working day. That day everything changed, and start to perceive nature from a different perspective, feeling humble and vulnerable, but very attached as part of it. The days passed and I lived the present. I felt rested, energetic, light, connected and proud. I felt alive. Why have we disconnected from this? It is about going alone to stay surrounded by nature, getting rid of material things? Or maybe is about going one step back, remembering that with are part of nature.
In Constant Movement¶
The “designing with”(3) makes sense to my position as designer. We are all interconnected and co-creating biographies that have meaning in a context. When a thing disappears or another thing appears, the context shifts, and a new biography or a new story is co-created. And also, each thing has data embedded to themselves, so you could understand many things about the environment or the context just by analyzing deeper a thing that is part of that context. Nothing is casual, all things have a matter and a purpose and a story. In life, everyone and everything are constantly moving or changing, so as the biographies are developing, so as the stories are moving. Sometimes we forget that we are always moving, trying to stay attached to definitions and biographies that are dead, also feeling scared about uncertainty, and grasping to a truth that is not true anymore.
When I think of myself, I had always been struggling to define who am I because the perception of changing (or evoluting) all the time is present. After reflecting on this identity issue, I have managed to ensure that I am because of the relationships that I have, so I exist.
Design means bravery. Designers do not hold on to a fixed reality. To be brave is also to feel vulnerable because you are doing something you do not know the outcome and are exposing yourself to that process. When you have the courage not only to ask yourself “what if” but also take the chance, and act, because you believe in that. There are times where intuition is the one that makes the decision. Is in that cases that new relationships and new realities emerge.
Never forget to be honest. What is honesty? Free of deceit; truthful and sincere (4). By taking this simple definition as a real action we could re-define the world principles and how we are now as a society. Being honest to our biology, to our feelings and thoughts, to our darkest fears, to the people we love, to the things we need. We have the responsibility to be what we are. With others. For others. For us. I take my time to look to myself. Make pauses. Observe my surroundings, think of the existence, of life and dead, and try to discover the relationships between humans, non-humans, because everyone and everything have something to say. The only thing is we have not understood it at all.
Notes:
(1) Touching and being touched: The Reprocity of the Sensuous (page 49). The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram. (2) Gregory Bateson, The Ecology of the Mind, (3) Ron Wakkary’s concept: the practice of design in a world in which humans share center stage with nonhumans, and in which we are bound together materially, ethically, and existentially (4) Wikipedia’s definition of “Honesty”
Bibliography:
- The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram
- Ecologies of the Mind, Gregory Bateson
- Things we Could Design, Ron Wakkary
- Emotional Design, Don Norman