Explorations of the natural world often focus on an element of environmental guilt or awestruck wonder. Being (rather than talking about) in pathless, tangled places quicken the eye and body to wholly different and complex languages. As the relationship between the manufactured and natural worlds reaches a crisis point, how might humans unlearn from pre- and post-industrial approaches to problem-solving?
If wild _ _ ness situates itself apart from the cultivated world—untamed, unrestrained, unruly—and weird_ness draws its roots from a supernatural state, what do we need to do to suspend belief? Is there something to being in wild_ _ness that offers an alternative to the design process? Can design bewilder?
For the second of DesignInquiry’s 2016 topics, WILD_ _NESS/WEIRD_NESS, we meet in a house in West Bamfield, British Columbia, Canada on the west coast of Vancouver Island, accessible by cargo ship, or, logging road + water taxi. Suits 16-20 Inquirers.
WILD _ _ NESS/WEIRD_NESS
August 7-13, 2016
Cost: $750 includes registration, housing, food, some drinks and some materials. (Does not include travel to West Bamfield. Participants may want to arrive in Port Alberni the night before.)
To participate, please email info@designinquiry.net to request a questionnaire. The framing team will review and provide feedback to questionnaires to assemble a diverse and informed approach to the topic.