Atmosphere Design & Spiral Dynamics
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Transcript of Atmosphere Design & Spiral Dynamics
a t m o s p h e r e
Mind, Body, Soul, Space
Research into the historic socio-cultural contexts using Spiral Dynamics as a guiding framework
Slava Kozlov, Summ( )n
Background
The following are the slides from a relatively old project (circa 2008), aimed at supporting a design research into the concept of atmosphere.
The scope of this design research was defined (perhaps deliberately) very vaguely, and gravitated around such things as multisensorial, immersive, interactive and poetic.
Eventually a working definition of the atmosphere concept was suggested, as ‘Mind-Body-Soul in Space’. I decided to inform this definition it with a broad historic socio-cultural contexts, using the Spiral Dynamics approach as the main guiding framework.
The team was inspired by a definition or, rather, a description of atmosphere suggested by Ezio Manzini (to my best knowledge - but I may be wrong with this attribution):
“Imagine that you enter into an old cathedral - you feel its atmosphere immediately, through its architecture, interiors, light, sound… The very time speaks to you.”
(I was actually shocked, not by the quote itself, but by the naivety with which it was taken as a guiding principle by a design team. Oh, well…)
Another inspirational example was taken from the Poème electronique pavilion at the Brussels 1958 Expo (by Le Corbusier and Edgard Varèse) where a combination of light and sound distributed in the space over time reportedly created an amazingly powerful atmosphere.
NB: I need to warn that both here and further in the presentation I don’t attribute the images, only because I didn’t know their authors/copyright holders. Please let me know if you are one of those, so I can attribute the work (or remove it in case of your objection).
Spiral Dynamics
Spiral Dynamics is both a theory and a practical framework introduced by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, based on the studies of human psychology of Clare Graves; Ken Wilber further popularized these ideas in a series of his books.
According to this approach, human nature is not fixed: humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their environments by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models of the world, that allow them to handle the new problems more efficiently.
The term vMeme refers to a core value system of any given stage that acts as an organizing principle and expresses itself through various memes (self-propagating ideas, habits, or cultural practices).
vMemes: 1st and 2nd Tiers
1st Tier vMemes(antagonistic)
2nd Tier vMemes(integral)
Beige Purple Red Blue Orange Turquoise YellowGreen
We are somewhere here at the moment
A few main vMemes evolved during human evolution (they are all color-coded in this theory - see above). Every time the next appearing vMeme is in conflict with its predecessor (although in reality it does not necessarily replace it, but rather builds upon it. The new emerging ‘integral’ vMemes behave differently, trying to encompass all the previous vMemes into a more holistic system.
More on each specific vMeme will be explained further.
The Matrix
Mind
Body
Soul
Space
atmosphere
I clustered all the examples and illustration in a matrix of some sort, which can be read either ‘by column’ (illustrating the concepts under consideration for the given vMeme), or ‘by row’, showing an evolution of the concept over time.
The matrix builds up one vMeme after another, and is assembled in full at the end of the presentation.
Beige• Instinctive / Survivialistic vMeme• Started 100.000 years ago
- Uses instincts and habits just to survive
- Distinct self is barely awaked or sustained
- Food, water, warmth, sex and safety have priority
- Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life
- Lives ‘off the land’ much as other animals
Do what you must
just to stay alive
Basic Theme:
Beige Minds
Looking around for resources
Doing nearly all activities together
Close family relationships
Food, water, warmth, sex and safety have priority
Beige Bodies
Protection of the naked body
Strong, robust – but suffering - bodies
Supporting each other
Uses instincts and habits just to survive
Beige Souls
Simple joys among many fears
Tokens and amulets
Collective story-telling
Distinct self is barely awaked or sustained
Beige Spaces
Living in the spaces, not in places
No borders yet, placements are opportunistic
Protective constructions
Lives ‘off the land’ much as other animals
Beige atmosphere
Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life
Warmth of fire in the night
Tribal dances
Rituals of a wise shaman
Beige Symbol
Purple• Magical/Animistic vMeme• Started 50.000 years ago
- Obey the desires of the spirits
- Show allegiance to the chief, elders, ancestors
- Individual subsumed in a group
- Preserve sacred objects, places, events, memories
- Observe rites of passage, seasonal cycles, customs
Basic Theme:
Keep the spirit happy,
and the settlement
warm, safe and in order
Purple Minds
Higher forces and powers, gods and pharaohs
Strict and unchanging social order
The world is known, described, prescribed
Obey the desires of the spirit
Purple Bodies
Show allegiance to the chief, elders, ancestors
Subordinated and serving
Obeying orders and rules
Manifesting stratification
Purple Souls
Worshipping, revering and devoting your life
Coding and decoding symbolic meanings
Working towards enlightenment and nirvana
Preserve sacred objects, places, evens, memories
Purple Spaces
Observe rites of passage, seasonal cycles, customs
Erecting walls and fences
Dividing and separating
Guarding access
Purple atmosphere
Individual subsumed in group
Mystical light and silence
Uplifting and elevating
Harmonious and uniting
Purple Symbol
Red• Impulsive/Egocentric vMeme• Started 10.000 years ago
- The world is a jungle full of threats and predators
- Break free from any domination or constraint
- Stand tall, demand respect, and call the shot
- Enjoys self to the fullest right now without any guilt
- Conquer, out-smart, dominate others
Basic Theme:
Be what you are
and do what you want,
regardless
Red Minds
Break free from any domination or constraint
Fight and conquer
Dominate and suppress
Fear (and be feared)
Red Bodies
Expand and transgress
Armour your body and threaten your enemy
Fight, kill, die
Stand tall, demand respect, and call the shot
Red Souls
Enjoys self to the fullest right now without any guilt
Ranks and positions
Executing unlimited will
Honour: gaining, manifesting, defending
Red Spaces
Conquer, out-smart, dominate others
Dominate, threaten, protect
Barriers, obstacles, trenches, barricades
Locks, bars, latches
Red atmosphere
Demonstrate your power and might
Loud, shining, grand performances
Humiliate and execute enemies
The world is a jungle full of threats and predators
Red Symbol
Blue• Purposeful/Authoritarian vMeme • Started 5.000 years ago
- One sacrifices self to the transcendent Cause, Truth or righteous Pathway
- The Order enforces Code of Conduct based on eternal, absolute principles
- Righteous living produces stability now – and guarantees future reward
- Laws, regulations and discipline build moral fibre
- Impulsivity is controlled through guilt
Basic Theme:
Life has meaning,
direction and purpose
with predetermined
outcome
Blue Mind
Discover transcendent Cause and Truth
Explore, probe, discover
Hypothesize, question, inquire
Formulate the true Laws of Nature
Blue Bodies
Laws, regulations and discipline build moral fibre
Dissecting bodies, revealing inner organs
Understand – and improve – body functioning
Design and build life through knowledge
Blue Souls
Enforces Code of Conduct based on eternal, absolute principles
Write down your knowledge, read the knowledge of others
Imagine and innovate
Deconstruct the world around you
Blue Spaces
Impulsivity is controlled through discipline/guilt
Construct rational knowledge spaces
Functionality regulates design
Technological sophistication (often for the sake of technological sophistication)
Blue (Artificial) Spaces
Constructing artificial places and spaces
Expanding the scope of habitat prescribed for humans
Building new worlds
Blue atmosphere
Righteous living produces stability now – and guarantees future reward
Well designed and perfectly functioning spaces
Complex, sophisticated performances
Technology saturated environments
Blue Symbol
Orange
• Achieist/Strategic vMeme• Started 300 years ago
- Change and advancement are inherent within the scheme of things
- Progress by learning nature’s secrets and seeking the best solutions
- Manipulate Earth’s resources to create and spread abundant good life
- Optimistic, risk-taking, self-reliant people deserve success
- Societies prosper through strategy, technology, and competition
Basic Theme:
Act in your own self-interests
by playing the game
to win
Orange Minds
Optimistic, risk-taking, self-reliant people deserve success
To be the first and the best is the key motivation
Rely on yourself, exploit everything around, win
Never give up, keep moving, just do it
Orange Bodies
Change and advancement are inherent
Everybody should be famous – at least for 15 min
Beautify and expose your body
Body as yet another device to drive you to success
Orange Souls
Materials wealth – gained by whatever means – is the criterion of success
The only place worth being at is the top one
The more the better
Prosper through strategy, technology and competition
Orange Spaces
Manipulate Earth’s resources to create and spread abundant good life
Greed is good
The shinier the better
Shopping bag is my space
Orange atmosphere
Radiating wealth and success; seven stars
Abundance of choices
Exclusive and elitist
Progress by learning nature’s secrets and seeking the best solutions
Orange Symbol
1
Green
• Communitarian/Egalitarian vMeme• Started 150 years ago
- The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness
- Feeling, sensitivity and caring supersede cold rationality
- Spread the Earth’s resources and opportunities among all
- Reaches decisions through consensus and reconciliation
- Endorses spirituality, seeks harmony, enriches human development
Basic Theme:
Seek peace within
the inner self,
and explore, with others,
caring dimensions
of community
Green Minds
The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness
Communal practice and activities
Inner peace and search for harmonious balance
Golden rule of ethics applies
Green Bodies
Feeling, sensitivity and caring supersede cold rationality
Caring about your own health, both physical and mental
Caring about people around you
Caring about the Planet
Green Souls
All-connecting spiritual search
Harmonious living for all human beings (and preferable for all living creatures)
Embracing tolerance, encouraging diversity
Endorses spirituality, seeks harmony, enriches human development
Green Spaces
Spread the Earth’s resources and opportunities among all
The Planet is our Home, let’s care about it
Eco-friendly and eco-responsible spaces
Nature-resembling design and functionalities
Green atmosphere
Reaches decisions through consensus and reconciliation
Being close to nature, embedded into it
Embracing sustainable lifestyle
Shaming all non-green
Green Symbol
Reading Matrix by vMeme
Mind
Body
Soul
Space
Atmosphere
From 1st to 2nd Tier vMemes
1st vMemes(antagonistic)
2nd Tier vMemes(integral)
“What I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiralling process, marked by progressive subordination of older lower-ordered systems to newer, higher-ordered systems”.- Clare Graves
‘cold’
‘warm’
Changing worldviews: From one to many truths
OneTruth
manytruths
I
We
Yellow
• Integrative vMeme• Started 50 years ago
- Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies, systems and forms
- The magnificence of existence is valued via material possessions and immaterial experiences
- Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority
- Differences can be integrated into interdependent natural flows
- Understand that chaos and changes are natural
Basic Theme:
Live fully and responsibly
as what you are
and learn to become
Yellow Minds
Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies, systems and forms
Joyfully coping with uncertainties and ambiguities
Operating in turbulent, complex and chaotic mediums
Developing new mental capabilities
Yellow Bodies
The magnificence of existence is valued via material possessions and immaterial experiences
Multiplicity of identities, multiplicity of bodies
From avatars to cyborgs
Enhancing life experiences with diverse technologies
Yellow Souls
Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority
Surfing through life using abundant opportunities
Mixing & Meshing multiple streams of meaning
Paving unique personal trajectories
Yellow Spaces
Understand that chaos and changes are natural
Flexible and dynamic environments
Smart and interactive spaces
Personalized spatial arrangements
Yellow atmosphere
Differences can be integrated into interdependent natural flows
Interactive, playful, stimulating, multisensorial
Co-authoring and involving
Emerging and non-predictable
Yellow Sign
Turquoise• Holistic vMeme• Started 30 years ago
- The world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind
- Self is both distinct and blended part of a larger, compassionate whole
- Everything connects to everything in ecological alignments
- Energy and information permeate the Earth's total environment
- Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions prevail
Basic Theme:
Experience
the wholeness
of existence
through body,
mind and spirit
Turquoise Minds
Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions prevail
Collective intelligence
Open source practices
Wiki-consciousness
Turquoise Bodies
Self is both distinct and blended part of a larger, compassionate whole
Swarming, distributed bodies
Eco-somatic awareness and self-regulation
Transformative practices
Turquoise Souls
Everything connects to everything in ecological alignments
Let’s make the universe better
Transformation through empowered passion
Holistic, integral thinking
Turquoise Spaces
Networked and interconnected
Systemic interactions
Evolving, emerging, generative
The world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind
Turquoise atmosphere
Global collective actions
Collaborative art
Co-creative encounters
Energy and information permeate the Earth's total environment
Turquoise SymbolRhizome allows for multiple, non-
hierarchical entry and exit points,
trans-connections and interactions,
networked hyper-structures
without vertical domination.
Reading Matrix by vMeme
Mind
Body
Soul
Space
Atmosphere