Skin Landscapes
Touch as a pathway to care Bachelor’s Thesis Spring 2020
Author: Suzanne Sköld
Supervisor: Eric Snodgrass & Åsa Ståhl Examiner: Mathilda Tham
Term: VT20
Subject: Design + change Level: Bachelor
Course code: 2DI67E
Abstract
This paper journeys through skin and touch as a form of storytelling and ritualistic bodily expression. It investigates how these elements and actions with the body can support humans in forging deeper connections and function as a catalyst for care.
This work builds on theories of slow design, ritual design and Body-Mind Centering. It studies embodied research within design and shares insights gained through experiential and explorative practices. Further it looks at the human nature bond within female bodies as a a way to strengthen women and dismantle
patriarchal structures. To conclude it explores how a booklet can be a medium for guiding women into their own bodies and invoking care with the self, other humans and more than human others.
Key words
Embodiment, rituals, skin, touch, care, movement, storytelling, female, design
Acknowledgments
I want to extend a wave of gratitude to my co-creators: Annika Olofsdotter Bergström + Cynthia Olinga Ibáñez + Agnieszka Madej + Wendy Fountain + Stephanie Föhr + Johanna Meier + Yana Deliyska + Sofia Kliukina + Zahra Shirazi + Stina Stomby + Fatma Latif. Without you this project would not be possible and thank you for joining me on this explorative journey so openly and compassionately.
Thank you to my tutors and supervisors: Mikael Blomkvist + Vera Maeder + Åsa Ståhl + Anna-Karin Arvidsson for your encouragement, support and challenging question.
Skin Landscapes;
touch as a pathway to care
SUZANNE SKÖLD BA THESIS - 2020 DESIGN +CHANGE LINNAEUS UNIVERSITY
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Softly slide your fingertips along this landscape.
The roots of sensation penetrating through the surface.
Enlivening each layer, with each touch, each movement.
Digging deeper, moving past the visible.
Deeper into the subtleness of presence.
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Guide
Introduction...4
Intention...6
Agency of + change...8
Foundation...10
bodily pathways; touch as a catalyst for care rituals and slowness; exploring sacred movement Story...16
unpicking care co-designing: women with women, for women skin: a gateway to self and embodied research the booklet: stories and rituals of touching sense Conclusion...31
References...32
Appendix...33
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Exploring skin landscapes
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Introduction
What does it mean to navigate one’s own wrapping? To move with the skin, from the skin? Digging deep into the cellular structure and patterns established at the start of life. Moulded through the conditioning of this structured society and shaped by cultural exposure and belonging. Through the primal language of touch opening up new pathways of communication with the own body and beyond, re-patterning the internal systems. This project explores how slow ritualistic movements with the skin as a tactile sense can unravel hidden connections and invite a deeper sense of all encompassing care.
This project does not aim to idealise nor proclaim skins and touch as an undiscov- ered path to utopia, rather it suggests and encourages skin and touch as a path of exploration. Exploring the boundaries of self and all that is contained within and beyond the body’s perimeters, untangling and carefully examining all the relations in-between, the perceivably invisible webs.
Unravelling these hidden networks through the embodiment of slowness, skin and touch the body becomes a conduit for new narratives to generate from the intuitive wisdom that resides within each and every one of our cells. It awakens the percep- tion of feeling and experiencing life through the body, one of the key teachings from the somatics study Body-Mind Centering, which has been highly influential within this research. As the founder of BMC, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen so beautifully explains it.
“Breathe.
We are earth people.
Feel the earth.
She is also breathing.
Breathe together.”
Skin Landscapes is embedded in layers of storytelling, female bodies, living networks, skin, touch, care, embodiment, rituals and slowness.
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Exploring skin landscapes
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Intention
My intention is to offer a path for women to connect with themselves through their bodies by bringing awareness to the neglected properties of their skin through the tactile sense. Initiating a sacred space where women feel safe to fully explore and experience what it means to be a woman and all that she is connected to. Inviting care into each of these interactions. I want to provide women with tools to deepen the intrinsic bonds existing underneath the layers of oppression and weaknesses that are placed upon her, as soon as she is birthed into the form of female. Labels and qualities that are meant to leave you with distaste, to strip her power, the power of claiming her own self.
The hope is to give women the opportunity to heal their wounds, to deepen their sense of feeling and connecting, bringing them home to their true essence. Forging a path to emancipation from the patriarchal structures dominating the world.
Inviting practices considered feminine and honing in on her “weaknesses”, that which makes her, her in an attempt o reform, re-pattern and reclaim these weaknesses as strengths. Strengthening them on a cellular level by using the body as a bridge between inner and outer worlds. Paving the way through the hidden language of the skin, moving further than its perceived and overlooked function.
While I aim this project towards women, I am not suggesting that it is only the gender form of woman that can tune into this bodily knowledge and wisdom, rather that we have been branded with this closeness to nature already, by the patriarchal structures and dominating powers. This close link to nature and these “female”
characteristics of sensitivity, nurturing and natural intuitive abilities that have portrayed women as weak are discussed in Val Plumwood’s Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, where she questions these ideas as outdated and invites critiques fo them (Plumwood 1993, p. 20.). Plumwood offers great value in presenting various perspectives on ecofeminist theory that has brought greater understanding of where this project is situated within the feminist
movement, how some embrace women as an inherent part of nature while others oppose it, claiming it is used as an argument to further oppress (Plumwood 1993, p.
20.). This project is positioned within the first category and investigates this bond through embodied research methods.
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Collage: skin landscapes
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Agency of + Change
This is a co-creative project primarily situated within the sphere of sociological and cultural change, based on an ideology drawn from a simple yet profound quote by Matt Khan.
“You can only meet others to the depth of which you have met yourself.”
(Khan n.d.)
To address sustainability we must first address ourselves. It is not the earth that is unsustainable or destructive it is us humans. That means that we are the ones who need to change, our narratives and our conditioned patterns that are being
reinforced by the patriarchal systems we all uphold. This concept laid the
foundation for this project, to attempt to evoke change from the only place we can enforce it, within ourselves. We many times, especially as designers look outside ourselves for problems to fix, for innovative solutions that can tackle one problem but then creates another. To be a designer does not only mean to create, it also means to disassemble and unmake. It is imagining potential futures and
internalising the changes we wish to be a part of. Design can be a way of touching people with words, objects, spaces, experiences etc and that is why designer must embody their own practices and be honest about what they are making or unmaking. Here design is used to guide women home to their own bodies as a way to strengthen their positioning in society by first strengthening the bonds to themselves. This is meant to awaken a deeper sense of care that has the
potential to ripple beyond the bodies of female and humaness. Change happens over time, and we need time in-between to reflect upon what we are doing and what our intentions are and where they are coming from, that is what slowness and embodying practices allows.
My role in this project has been multifaceted; aspiring change agent and designer, storyteller, facilitator, guide and co-creator. I see stories as a way to challenge current narratives, inspire change by sharing our own with the possibility to weave new collective narratives.
Design is world making. Design is choices we make everyday. a compilation and outcome of those choices. It is the stories we tell, spread and engage with. The voices we favour and how deeply we meet ourselves. This is my interpretation and expression of design and sustainable change and with this project I invite other to find their path through the fluid motion of the body. With this I aim to broaden the notion of what design is and what it could potentially be.
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Collage: skin landscapes
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Foundation
Questions have always been a tool for me to grasp my ideas and reflect upon how they can be realised and what the potential impact could be. It is a way to organise my thoughts and clear my mind as a way to reveal new territories of exploration.
The following questions have guided me throughout this project and continuously brought me back to the core of this project.
How can co-created rituals of touching movement with the skin forge deeper con- nections between human to self, human to human and human to more than human, thus developing a deeper sense of care?
How can words and imagery as stories plant small seeds of change that can slowly grow, to expand, question and transcend current paradigms?
How do we interact with the world through the layers of our skin and sense of touch?
How can rituals of slow movement from the layers of our skin and sense of touch connect us to ourselves and all that lies beyond our own bodies?
To further contextualise my work within the field of design I started to explore works of other designers in relation to the topics I was working with myself. I also include works of practitioners within other fields that have heavily influenced this work and gifting it with substance and depth. These are fields and practices I also wish to be anchored within design research, methods and practices. Furthermore it is important to mention that the research and development of this project is
primarily viewed through an experiential and experimental lens. Although the work is anchored in certain theories, I aim to invite a certain amount of mystery and magic into the academic room, which is often excluded or dismissed.
body wisdom; touch as a catalyst for care
The initial idea was born out of the intuitive knowledge residing within my body discovered through my own experience of somatics and embodiment practices.
These interactions have mainly taken place within the space of yogic teachings, both as a student and teacher, where I have been able to observe the bodies of others.
Within yogic philosophy there are a set of theoretical and practical guidelines for how to engage with oneself and the outside world called Yamas and Niyamas.
These are part of the eight limbed path presented in the ‘Yoga sutras of Patanjali’.
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Collage: skin landscapes
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Through my training in Authentic flow, created by Satu Tuomela I was introduced to embodiment and Body-Mind Centering. It was during this training that I fully experienced being grounded in my body and could clearly perceive the body-mind connection and this idea of the mind influencing how the body moves (Hartley 1995 p. xxiv). Essentially this is what this work aims at, exploring and observing the mind of the skin. By using this primal language it exposes the channel which we already communicate through; the nerve endings embedded within our skin. It is through these as a form of ritualistic movement we can shift awareness to these connec- tions that are already existent. I recognise that without the embodied knowledge of these teachings this project would not have been possible to articulate.
Grounding is key to experience the body fully and this can be done in many ways, through meditation, spending time in nature, walking with bare feet etc.
These were some of the tools I used during the process of making and
investigating. One of my supervisors introduced me to Natasha Myers’s “Sensing Botanical Sensoria: A kriya for cultivating your inner plant” meditation. Through a beautifully worded and visual journey she guides an experience of gradually shapeshifting from human to plant. Inviting the experience of another Parallel reality. Similar in our offers of experience, they both necessitate from embodying an experience that has the potential to transform ones internal and external experience. Myers offers a metamorphosis while I aim to reveal, searching within the own perimeters to fully be in the body. At the end of the Kriya she gradually guides the human back to its original form, in my case the aim is to revel within the space that has unravelled, there is nothing to go back to, as one has not become but has always been.
Being grounded means being in the body. In yogic practice this relates to the root chakra located at the base of the spine connecting us to the earth. It represents our sense of stability and safety, our sense of home and belonging. These teachings have also played a big part in the development of this project both through theory and practice as a student of yoga for the past sixteen years and a teacher since 2016. In my understanding the intentions of Myers and myself are the same, we are merely using different paths to facilitate an embodied experience.
Within the Niyamas (Sanskrit which translates as observances) one of the guidelines Svadhyaya (self-study), refers to the practice of studying the self.
Essentially this is what yoga is to me, a study of the self. A way to peel back the layers of oneself to discover ones true essence. It is coming home, home to the body. This does not mean it is all “love and light” as many might think, it includes dealing with the parts of ourselves we condemn and so desperately try to hide and it forces us to continuously question our belief systems. It is partially these
teachings that I weave into this work and explore paths of embodying to evoke change from within, a sort of micro to macro approach.
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These are all tools to investigate if touch can be a catalyst for care. This close connection between touch and care is supported by Dacher Keltner’s research, in his article ‘Hands On Research: The Science of Touch’ where he explains, “Touch provides its own language of compassion, a language that is essential to what it means to be human.” (Keltner 2010). This also proves that this is not a new concept and this project is exploring one potential path within this research. To further explain the link between care and touch keltner poses that it is an “action of compassion”. (Keltner 2010) Further, Bellacasa similarly picks up on this idea in her book ‘Matters of Care’ where she poses that through the experience of touch there is a potential to a deeper sense of connectedness that can impact proximity between ‘subjects and objects, knowledge and the world, affects and facts, politics and science.’ (Bellacasa 2017 p.97.) This provides an understanding that this project has the potential to have an impact beyond its initial scope and encompassing a larger scale of change with time. This ripple effect I so wish to initiate.
What is a ritual? According to the Oxford Lexicon ritual is defined as “a series of actions or type of behaviour regularly and invariably followed by someone” or
“Relating to or done as a religious or solemn rite” (OUP 2019).
rituals and slowness; exploring sacred movement
What do I mean by rituals? My interpretation of ritual is intentional action with emphasis on the journey instead of the destination. Each movement equally valuable as a part of the whole, just like our organs have their own tasks, together they are vital for the body’s survival. Each movement becomes an offering to the present moment. This intentional service to self and beyond opens up a space of awareness wherein the body moves evoking a meditative state. In this case rituals are conveyed as gateways into the depths of the body. Therefore the rituals offered are not static, they are fluid and in motion just like nature and the human body.
Essentially it is not about offering solutions or answers rather it is becoming more intimate with the self to find the answers we seek within. Constantly allowing these tools and practises to guide us home. Home to this vessel our soul resides within.
Engaging in rituals allows the body and mind to slow down, it creates a sacred space for being and reflecting. This allows space for the rhythm of the own self to emerge and lead. Rituals are a way of bringing meaning and value into our actions, where there is more emphasis on how we are executing than what we are
executing. These concepts are shared with the Ritual Design Lab who use design rituals for bringing meaning into everyday life, on an individual and collective level. I came across their platform early on in the process and shared many of their ideas around rituals and how valuable they are within design. Although they
mainly discuss products and how these can be used to ‘trigger meaning for humans’ (Ritual Design Lab 2014), their research and practice adds weight to my approach and attempt to integrate rituals within the field of design.
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So what happens when we slow down? And what does it actually mean to lower the pace of our actions, our thoughts and our way of living? By lowering the tempo of doing we invite presence and move into stillness, into being (human). Here we are able to experience our own essence, thus experiencing the essence of life itself.
It is this essence that moves us, our bodies. (Hartley 1995 p.xxvi.)
The principles of Slow design have been a vital contribution to this project.
The first principle aims to Reveal neglected practices and experiences existing within everyday life (Strauss and Fuad-Luke 2008 p. 3.), which relates to the unravelling of the power of the skin and its sensorial properties that are many times taken for granted. The second principle, Expand moves deeper into this concept of these neglected properties and values within the haptic or tactile experience perceived by the skin. This is done through investigating different expressions that can emerge from a certain practice, environment or object and searching beyond its initially perceived function (Strauss and Fuad-Luke 2008 p.
4.). The third principle, Reflect has played an important role in this project, within the process, evaluation and the experience that is being offered through the content of this projects materialisation. As an experience formed by Slow design it aims to inspire and encourage reflection on an intimate level within the walls of ones own skin and the relations our skins touch and engage with. Labelled as ‘reflective consumption’ by the SlowLab (2008 p. 5.). The fourth principle, Engage moves into the part of collaboration. Making processes open source and sharing to further evolve the extended field of design (Strauss and Fuad-Luke 2008 p. 6.). This ties into another key stone in this project of co-creation. By engaging the public through other female voices it brings more weight, diversity and depth to the work and what we are trying to communicate and share together.
The fifth principal, Participate is about empowering communities and
including them in the process of making where they are impacted, exchanging ideas to take responsibility for what it is we are creating (Strauss and Fuad-Luke 2008 p. 6.). This is closely linked to what I mentioned within the principle of engaging where I included the aimed users within my process and creating this project together for both ourselves and other women so that we can strengthen the position of women and nature in society. Evolve, the final principle,
recognises that slow design aims to be a catalysts for paradigm shifts.
They state “We believe that we as designers can create more meaningful products that bring values, deep emotions & spirituality into our experiences” (RDL 2014) I strongly agree with these words, not only in relation to this project but also in how I want to position myself as a designer and agent for change. It is a guide of how I want to tackle the challenges that are present in the world today, what I want to engage with and how I want to be of service. I perceive the practices of slowness and rituals as closely interlaced.
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The notion of sacredness suggested is an encouragement to view the body through a lens of devotion. The female body has long been, and still is subjected to abuse, sexualisation, inferiority and in ownership of the patriarch and this is a way for women to reclaim their bodies. It is a way to nurture ourselves and feel our bodies through our own experience instead of through the patriarchal structures inherent in today’s society.
Early on in my process I was introduced to ceramics designer/artist Christin Johansson’s works as a possibility to anchor my project within the field of design.
I could draw many similarities in how we introduce a sacred space within which we work, through deeply intentional actions that are clearly visible in her following works, “Ceremony of her porcelain spirit” (2014), “Purification of Her porcelain spirit” (2015), “REFUGIUM Vallauris” (2016), “Clay Tempel a place for healing”
(2017) and “Her porcelain chapel” (2018). In each of these works there are
ceremonial aspects shaped through carefully composed rituals, where this act of slow intentional movement become meditative and the concept of time and space is lost. Equally these are my intentions, we are both facilitators of space and guides of a journey, she uses ceramics and I forge the path through skin and touch.
It isunderstanding that things evolve over time and that we must look beyond the present moment to imagine what might be needed in the future (Strauss;
Fuad-Luke 2008 p. 7.). This is what the practices within this project aims at, to be revisited and reflected upon over time.
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Design story
Skin Landscapes has been carried with me for longer than realised. For a few years now I have been travelling along this path of the skin, observing and exploring through touch. I have used and tested these findings in carefully curated yoga classes taught to my students. I see now that all of this testing and searching has laid the groundwork for Skin Landscapes and throughout this process new
revelations have appeared. In this storyline I share glimpses I deem most valuable during this process. The parts that have impacted me, the process and outcome the most. The process of carefully picking a part and re-assembling, several stories weaved into one. This is a journey through the making of Skin Landscapes and its key components.
What is care? And what is it that makes us care? How many layers of care are there? And what are the depths of care? (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017 p.1.). María Puig de la Bellacasa poses similar questions in her book ‘Matters of care - speculative ethics in more than human worlds´ and she too attempts to explore the many facets of care in hope to discover something new. These are not questions that I aim to answer rather explore from the perspective of the body. Using the skin and tactile perception to navigate both well trodden paths and unravel buried passages.
I feel the comfort of her reaching hand guiding me during this journey of
unravelling connections between skin, touch and care through the thoughts and research she shares in her work.
unpicking care
I am viewing care from a few different perspectives here within. Self-care; what does it mean to take care of one self, in what way might this manifest and in which forms can it be expressed as well as experienced?
Caring with other humans; what does it mean to care for or with another and what could that potentially look like? What is the exchange and dynamics of the
relationship of/with care (carer and caree)? Finally I will look at the dynamics of care between human and more than human; which relationships need to be established to care with something beyond our own form and how can these connections be formed? What does it mean to care for and with another specie, animal or elements of nature? And how could these actions of care play out?
My theory is that when we have a relationship, a deep connection with something or someone we also care and we invite actions of care with that thing or someone.
To understand different perspectives of care I had to first pick it apart, organise and re-associate.
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Through a workshop lead by designer Marie O’Connor called “Unpicking” I began to dissect the project in an attempt to narrow down and deepen my field of research.
Writing down the key aspects I had at the time and placing them in a hierarchical order. From there I picked one of the main topics, care, and started to “unpick”.
Using a wall to get a better overview of the work in progress and see how I could connect and develop associating subjects to care and what care means. This opened up new ways of thinking and seeing care in a different light.
Seeing patterns and acknowledging the width and depth of this topic. This allowed care to guide itself into the role it needed to take on in this specific project. It is partly out of this exercise that the project in its current form started to take shape.
It became clear that care was not the core topic, rather it is one of several intrinsic parts and outcomes of these practice and exploration suggested.
This exploration clarified the context which the project is placed and how I wanted to communicate it. Through this unpicking I became aware of many angles of care that I had not thought of before, for example funeral homes caring for the bodies of departed souls. By categorising care in actions and places it became clear how interconnected they all were and how many more subcategories could be added for further deconstruction. I realised that what I was trying to explore was connec- tion as a path and catalyst for care, the act of caring and caring with, within and beyond the own body. I kept returning to the questions what is care and how may it be expressed? We humans are stuck in the idea that we have to care for. Care for nature by managing it, care for animals by caging them or restricting them, care for ourselves by excluding others. Of course there are many more facets to these concepts of care I am mentioning here and some were discussed further in a group setting with other students within the Design + Change program.
Together with master students Clara Veneziano-Coen, Naďa Okruhlicová and Stephanie Föhr, who were also working with care in their independent projects, we created a manifesto containing guidelines for us and other’s working with matters of care.
These discussions together with the situation of social distancing materialised in the ‘Caregiver Manifesto for Living in Times of Social Distancing’. This manifesto contains practical tools that can be used as a performative investigation of care and the positioning of caregiving. Building upon studies from other researches and our own explorations we have developed these tools that we are integrating into our own practices. We also aim to inspire and guide others into the exploration of care with. Below I have inserted a short excerpt from the manifesto as an
example of tools offered and how they relate to my project.
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Unpicking care Organising topics
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“Caring with as a knowledge creation
Caring with can be used as an experimental, explorative and attentive practice for knowledge creation. This practice moves in between discovering and reflecting, practicing and questioning. There are possibilities to reveal, unwrap, open up new trains of thoughts and expand existing pathways. In the following, we introduce tools of knowledge creation relevant to our design practice, that can be an inspira- tion beyond design.
Tools for questioning in times of social distancing:
• What types of networks can I explore during times of physical distancing?
• What is physically and/or mentally close to me that I can practice care with?
• How are networks expressed other than through physical closeness?
• What is close to me that I usually overlook or take for granted?
Tools for practicing care:
• Delve into the practice of fermentation for example through different senses in a playful way.
• Go to the forest and mimic the meaning and function of your furniture in its place of origin.
• Choose an object in your close surroundings, dissect its material composition and your emotions connected to it.
• Explore yourself and your surroundings with your skin and sense of touch, unraveling and deepening hidden connections.”
We pose questions for the reader to reflect upon and engage with. In Skin
Landscapes it ties into slowness and reflection. Urging the reader to explore their surroundings through touching with their skin to view their environment from a different perspective. (for complete manifesto see appendix 1.0).
Equally as a designer, change agent and human being I am a collective worker.
Designing is not a solo journey, there are many hands involved in weaving the garments we wear with self important pride. Making as a community allows a depth that cannot be created by one person alone, it holds a diverse and wide range of perspectives. Therefore it was important that this project was developed with others’, those the project was being created for. To work with women was a
highlighted aspect of this project because I felt a calling to work with those whom I could relate experiences with. Initiated from a sense of disconnetc from myself and my own femininity as a result of conforming to the societys structures.
co-designing: women with women, for women
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Shared exploration and skin landscapes by co-creators
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Originally I planned to host a workshop during “Care day” arranged at the university, however due to the restrictions around physical closeness and the nature of this project around touching of skins it was cancelled. This would have been a way for me to reach out to people beyond the scope of my direct
surroundings, so I had to re-think of ways to reach out to a broader group of women.
Claiming the benefits of social media during times of social distancing it made sense to send out an open call invitation on Facebook, where it could also be shard beyond my own network. Here it was vital that I crafted an invitation that was vi- sually alluring to draw potential collaborators to read the information it contained.
Carefully connecting words to communicate who I was, what my project was about, what I was asking of them and what they would receive in return. Through these visuals and the languaging I wanted to communicate a soft poetic feeling of depth and authenticity.
It was slightly intimidating reaching out to other people so openly. Putting myself in a vulnerable position and the fear of disappointing them if I could not produce what I intended became almost paralysing. Something that helped me through this was to remind myself of the same thing I communicated to my collaborators, that I was not looking for perfection and I wanted this to be as authentic and honest as possible. These words have become corner stones for my work and its process.
Continuously bringing myself back to this state, dismantling this crippling and unnecessary pressure of a social construct that in reality does not exist.
To materialise this feeling of inclusiveness in the invitation, I created a collage of female skins and body parts. This was used as background to place the information on and to make the text easier to read I added patches of digital brush strokes with low opacity in-between the collage and text. The invitation contained two parts. In the first part I asked for the picture of their skin landscape and story related to skin and touch that I intended to transform into a poem. For the second part they were gifted a guided grounding meditation (see appendix 2.0), and a couple of written ritual guides to explore and give feedback on.
Moving interactions into the virtual world forced me to release control over the content my collaborators would share with me. Giving them more power over their own creative process and artistic expression of storytelling and sharing.
This enhanced the level of trust both in the process and in the women coming together to bring this vision to life. This was not what I had envisioned but I much preferred it and the element of trust it enforced.
Eleven women with a variety of skin colour and type, between ages of 20-40+
contributed to the project by sharing their skin landscapes, stories and experiences.
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cratfing invitaion: collage making
final invitation
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The concept of embodied research, using the body as a tool for research is also mentioned in the “Haptica” project led by sculptor and professor Cheryl Akner Koler in which they conduct their research in precisely this way. Although they use touch and other senses in relation to food in their study, the conclusions are simi- lar. To me this proves that these sorts of practices where the body is at the centre of research can provide designers and the the field of design with much richer and meaningful content to share with users.
Decisions that were made throughout this process came from feeling into my own body and observing how it responded to visuals, languaging and the combination of them both. I felt an urge for softness and used a poetic language to reach into the softness that each heart possesses. By embodying my research and using the practices that emerged from there impacted me the way I wished it would touch other women. I started to notice the transformations happening within me, my skin became more sensitive and alert to subtle frequencies within and around my body.
Everything I touched and that which touched me, whether physical or through energy fields I felt more connected to, including myself.
Through this embodied research and explorative quests seven ritual guides formed within the categories; human to self, human to human and human to more than human. Within the the human to human category, subcategories were added;
Nature and her elements earth, water, air. The process and the work was very much birthed and guided from an intuitive wisdom in the body that needed space for stillness to allow these subtle vibrations of creation to surface.
Throughout the process I spent a lot of time in nature, just being there, breathing and listening. Laying down on the soft mosses of the forest grounds watching the tree tops meet the sky and feeling the earth breathe under the weight of my body.
After a while it was as if our bodies merged and our breaths became one soft movement. It is through these meetings the guides were developed, in close collaboration with nature, my own skins and my co-creators.
skin: a gateway to self and embodied research
Through their willingness to fully immerse in these requests they offered valuable feedback on the rituals guides, providing me with an understanding of how these rituals were experienced beyond my own body. Some of the women I knew and some I did not but each and every contribution equally valuable. The response I received was overwhelming, reading through the content they shared with me I got quite emotional and I feel so incredibly honoured to be entrusted to contain these fragments of the most intimate parts of their bodies. These women have made this project and it is as much theirs as it is mine. As I look forward and restrictions loosen I aim to invite future co-designers to meet in person, as I originally intended, to further develop these practices and exchange stories.
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Embodied research: being in nature
Embodied research: observing, breathing with nature
Embodied research: meeting nature and elements with skin
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As a creative I consider myself a designer of words, taking people on a journey through the vulnerability exposed in my writing. I have always been a maker of words and I am guided by a deep calling to share stories, my own and others’.
This project became an outlet for all the dreams infested within my bones. In a way you could say that this project started backwards, if that is even a thing. It started with wanting to make a book. So one of the first things I did was to make a simple mock-up of the book to make my ideas more tangible. This way I had something to work from and come back to during the iteration process.
the booklet: stories and rituals of touching sense
Quite soon I realised that the ambition of making book were too high within the timeframe I had to work with, and through several discussions with my tutors and supervisors I decided it would be a booklet instead. A first draft teaser for the full version that would expand beyond this thesis.
From the start I had a clear vision of how I wanted the booklet to feel, not just in terms of the haptic experience of engaging with the booklet itself but the subtle trigger point embedded in each page. The pictures of women’s skins were meant to resemble the landscapes we see in nature to further unravel these hidden networks I communicated through text. Displaying bodies and skins as poetry in motion, a constant stream of changing terrain just like the rivers shape and transform the earth shell.
It was these constant analogies of human and nature that set the criteria for the aesthetics and how the stories within progressed. This was made visible in the collage-like mirrored images of my collaborator’s skins. This expression was developed through many trials and errors attempting to create this blurred line between human skin and nature. Not having control over the images that were sent by my collaborators sparked joy in the challenge of working with what I had,
pushing my creative boundaries. This way of working, letting go of control and trusting connects both to the state of the world where there is a necessity to apply a mindset of using what we already have and the Meta design term “flying in the dark” (Jones 2012; Lundebye 2012), trusting the process.
The process and project as a whole was meant to be explorative in an attempt to allow the wisdom within my own body to guide and lead. Once most of the
components were completed it was time to assemble them, making the booklet and by doing this it became clear how much content I actually had, fifty two pages of text and pictures. The writing beyond the ritual guides were composed through my own bodies interpretation of the meaning behind these rituals.
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booklet mock-up
Visual exploration of collaborators skin landscapes for booklet
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The booklet is not perfect and that was not the aim either. It is meant to be
imperfect, it is my way of critiquing these expectations that exist within society and especially within the field of design. This booklet is not only a carrier of rich
narratives from the perspective of skin, it is a compilation of individual and collective expression. It tells a story with every perceived ‘mistake’ or intentional decision of the process and the hands who have made it. It is proof that it is made by real people, who embrace their faults and imperfections with warmth.
This provokes detachment from perfection and the dehumanisation capitalism and patriarchal structures are built upon.
Initially the booklet was meant to be a sensory experience where one would enter a haptic journey while exploring and engaging with its contents through different materials and textures on each page. However for this first version this was not achieved, therefore I refer to another graduating student project I came across to to better accompany my description of my intention and original idea, as well as what I aim to further develop in coming iterations. KADK Master student Nina Gabrielle Rivera Sanchez’s project “A Tactile Guidebook of Amager Fælled” (2019) shows clearly what I intended for the materialisation of this project, yet failed at due to these extraordinary circumstances and all that follows with it. Her project has clearly materialised as well as visualised a tactile experience.
Final booklet: cover
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Final booklet: cover
Conclusion
This project is a culmination of my learnings and understanding of sustainability and how it can relate to design. It in some ways represents my own journey
towards self-realisation as it also forced me to face myself, making me more aware of my own societal contribution. It makes me reflect on which stories and voices I favour over others and the impact these choices have. What aligns with my body and what does not. World making is the stories we tell, the narratives we support and shape through the actions and thoughts we engage with.
There is always more than one side to a story and I am aware of the problematics that can come with skin and touch. Touching is not just poetic, soft, beautiful and transcendental. It can be abusive, degrading, unwanted and traumatic. I understand that this project can seem one sided from the outside because these problematics mentioned here are not communicated extensively within this work but they are present. These problematics have circulated within my own mind and body, with- in my own experience and this is my way to reclaim that. It is an offering to other women to reclaim it. Reclaim their bodies, their skins, their touch.
From feedback received from my collaborators and users I realise that there is a need for these practices and they have a place in the world. The have a place in design and academics. They invite the mystical essence that the body craves but the mind repels. Embodiment is tangible spirituality and it lives within us. There is nowhere we need to go or anything we have to do besides turning the gaze inwards.
Skin is an entry point, touch is a pathway, rituals are a gateway, slowness is a conduit and they all lead to all encompassing care. I want to remind you of the Matt Khan quote I mentioned in the beginning,
“You can only meet others to the depth of which you have met yourself.”
(Khan n.d.)
We have to keep on meeting ourselves, face what we do, what we say and how we feel to contribute to a better and more equal world. Equality means equity, we should all have the same opportunitiesSustainability starts within, peace starts within, so go there, to the depth of yourself to meet yourself in a sweet embrace.
From here we have the ability to asses when care means action and when care means observe and listen.
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References
Adele, D. (2009) The Yamas & Niyamas, Minnesota, On-Word Bound Books.
Bainbridge Cohen, B. (1993) An introduction to Body-Mind Centering, Available at:
https://www.bodymindcentering.com/(Accessed: 15 May 2020).
Fuad-Luke, A and Strauss, C.F. (2008) The Slow Design Principles - A new inter- rogative and reflexive tool for design research and practice, Turin, Changing The Change: Design Visions, Proposals and Tools.
Haptica, Available at: https://www.haptica.se/ (accessed: 7 June 2020).
Hartley, L. (1995) Wisdom of the Body Moving - An introduction to Body-Mind Cen- tering, Berkley California, North Atlantic Books.
Johansson, C. Christin Johansson Works, Available at: https://christin.dk/exhibi- tions/ (accessed: 4 June 2020).
Jones, H and Lundebye, A. (2012) METADESIGN: A DYNAMIC FRAMEWORK FOR SEEDING SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE DESIGN, Central Saint Martins, United Kingdom, 8th International Conference on Design and Emotion.
Keltner, D. (2010) Hands On Research: The Science of Touch, Greater Good Maga- zine, 29 September. Available at: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/
hands_on_research (accessed: 27 May 2020).
Khan, M. (n.d.) Quote, Available at:https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7809554- despite-how-open-peaceful-and-loving-you-attempt-to-be (accessed: 7 June 2020)
Kursat Ozenc, F and Hagan, M. (2014) Ritual Design Lab, Available at: https://www.
ritualdesignlab.org/, (accessed: 4 June 2020).
Myers, N. (2014) Sensing Botanical Sensoria: A Kriya for Cultivating Your Inner Plant, Centre for Imaginative Ethnography, Available at: https://imaginative-eth- nography.com/,
(accessed: 4 June 2020)
Oxford University Press (2019) Available at: https://lexi.com, (accessed: 4 June 2020).
Plumwood, V. (1993) Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, Routledge.
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017) Matters of Care - Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds, Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press.
Appendix 1.0
Preamble
We are collaborators striving for change for our close environments and by the domino effect the bigger scale paradigms. We move in and out, with design into other disciplines. We become change agents and on a bigger scale, human care- givers. This manifesto is inspired by the Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene (Gibson, Rose, and Fincher, 2015). In turn, we seek out to inspire others that are or desire to become caregivers.
We find ourselves in times of social distancing due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This pivotal moment, like the global financial crisis 2007-08 or the Ebola outbreak 2014-16, has a great potential to shift mindsets to a greater understand- ing of the networks that surround us. With social distancing being physical separa- tion, we find new ways of socializing and caring.
We aim to explore notions of care.
Reveal and unwrap the layers of the inevitable.
Discover hidden relationships of the human and more than human networks we live in. Acknowledge the interdependencies and accept differences to identify what seeks our care. Encourage balanced non-hierarchical networks and embrace new values. Expand already existing meanings, functions, and understandings.
Keywords
Caring with, tools for care, more than human, exploration, storytelling, social dis- tancing
Meanings of care
Care is not a one-way action, it is not just giving or taking, but an interdependent relationship. Actors of care participate in different kinds of relationships.
Human to human care involves human to other human and human to self-care.
Human to other human care includes relationships like migrant to a local, parent to child, friend to friend. Human to self-care is being in dialogue with oneself from within to outwards, from spiritual to physical, from mind to body.
We consider care to be not just a human practice. Ecologies, microorganisms, forests, planet Earth, material artifacts, household objects, nature like plants and animals all participate in care. More than human to more than human care can describe relationships between food and microorganisms, forest and furniture, tree and lichen.
Caregiver Manifesto for Living in Times of Social Distancing
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More than human to human care combines both types of actors in a relationship.
Here we embrace the notion of care between for example humans and furniture, humans and food, humans to artifacts and humans to nature.
Relationships are characterized by empathy and understanding.
Care is a playground for knowledge-making and exploration of the unknown.
Sometimes we can allow ourselves to leave things to be the way they are and know when not acting can also be an action.
We can not forget caring mindfully can come with difficulties and challenges.
We have to relearn how to restrain ourselves, to prevent caring to become control.
Allowing ourselves to dedicate time and energy to care can be challenging, even if social distancing seemingly gives us more time. We have to admit a lot of luxuries stem from not caring, and the practice of care is a lifestyle change. At the same time, it’s a privilege to care.
Caring with as a knowledge creation
Caring with can be used as an experimental, explorative and attentive practice for knowledge creation. This practice moves in between discovering and reflecting, practicing and questioning. There are possibilities to reveal, unwrap, open up new trains of thoughts and expand existing pathways. In the following, we introduce tools of knowledge creation relevant to our design practice, that can be an inspiration beyond design.
Tools for questioning in times of social distancing:
• What types of networks can I explore during times of physical distancing?
• What is physically and/or mentally close to me that I can practice care with?
• How are networks expressed other than through physical closeness?
• What is close to me that I usually overlook or take for granted?
Tools for practicing care:
• Delve into the practice of fermentation for example through different senses in a playful way.
• Go to the forest and mimic the meaning and function of your furniture in its place of origin.
• Choose an object in your close surroundings, dissect its material composition and your emotions connected to it.
• Explore yourself and your surroundings with your skin and sense of touch,
• unraveling and deepening hidden connections.
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Stories
Our life is a unique story. It is created and influenced by short tales of us and other beings, puzzle pieces that come together seamlessly. We are all co-creators of these narratives we are living and experiencing in the present.
During this pivotal moment in history, we as humans are separated from each other by physical distance. Yet there is a potential of discovering new narratives with actors that already exist in the background of our lives, who we may have neglected or forgotten.
Through exploring, revealing and sharing stories of more than just human life puzzles, we can collectively weave them into a common narrative. By exploring a multitude of paces, for example, slowing down in a fast world, we become more perceptive and are able to unravel the many untold and silenced narratives that are still waiting to be heard. We aim to co-write with care for inclusive futures in a shared world.
To be able to understand the stories from more than humans we need to change our perception of language. Stories and storytelling can be expressed in more than just words.
• Yeast and bacteria communicate with us in the form of gas bubbles released during the fermentation process. The more bubbles released the more sugar is being eaten.
• Wooden solid furniture is marked by the weather conditions during its growth as a tree. Thin or thick growth rings resemble how wet or dry the growing seasons were.
• Objects become a translation of our values and connect us beyond words.
• Materiality is a vessel of cultures of the past and future.
Our skin reads as an intelligent landscape, able to tune into the frequency of our surroundings, thus embodying the communication between humans, other species, nature and its elements.
Narratives can also be explored, experienced and built with the physical
embodiment of and with more than human materialities rather than just our minds.
• Use different senses during the fermentation process. How does your food taste pure, salted or after a few days of fermentation? What are your impressions massaging the salted food to create an environment for microorganisms? How does it sound when bubbles travel to the surface of your fermentation jar?
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• Make the most fabulous blanket fortress with the help from your furniture.
When you are done, make yourself a tea, take your favorite book and hide inside for as long as you need!
• Hold an object in your hand. Close your eyes, feel its surface against your cheek, taste it on your tongue. Sketch it fast and sketch it slow. Spend a day without it in your surroundings, and a day with it on your person.
• Find a comfortable seat and close your eyes. Slowly slide your fingertips across the surface of your naked skin. Freely explore your own skin landscape, moving around the entirety of your body’s terrain. Moving your awareness between touching and being touched. Allow some time after to sit with the experience and give space for reflection.
With these tools, you should be able to access an inclusive information flow, across human and more than human barriers.
Researching
Research is participatory and continuous. We encourage others to build uponthis theory and practice of care. As the Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene, which inspired us, put it so well:
“As participants in a changing world, we advocate—
• Developing new languages for our changing world;
• Stepping into the unknown;
• Making risky attachments; and
• Joining and supporting concerned others.” - (Gibson, Rose and Fincher, 2015, p. iii)
Authors
Clara Veneziano-Coen, Naďa Okruhlicová, Stephanie Föhr, Suzanne Sköld
Reference
Gibson, K., Rose, D. B. and Fincher, R. eds., 2015. Manifesto for Living in the Anthro- pocene. Brooklyn, New York: punctum books.
License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Li- cense. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
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Find a comfortable seat where you can sit in stillness for a while.
Take three deep breaths; Inhale through your nose and sigh it out.
Inhale filling your body up and exhale release.
Inhale and let go.
Allow your breath to flow freely in and out of your body.
As you inhale feel how your body is filled up and begins to expand.
As you exhale feel how your body softens and moves further into relaxation.
With each breathe your body becomes heavier and heavier, merging with the earth underneath you.
Begin to guide your breath along the path of your spine all the way down to its base, to your root.
As you exhale imagine the air exiting through your root into the earth carrying you.
Now continue to draw the air from the earth entering trough your root and allowing your breath to expand the area of your pelvis.
This time as you exhale imagine roots growing from the base of your spine, digging its way through the soil below you.
Inhale through the roots.
Continue to inhale and exhale through your roots.
Allow your breath to follow your roots digging deeper into the soil where you meet mother earth.
She embraces you in all her presence and speaks to you softly.
Come in.
This is an invitation.
An invitation to a journey through the many layers of your inner realm.
Step forward, into the unknown.
Awaken your senses.
Allow them to take over.
This is an internal journey.
Your feet firmly on the ground.
Energetic roots merging with the soil that is me.
Steady now.
Ground now.
Spellbound by the sacred space emerging within.
Your breath moves slowly.
Your mind slows down.
Your heart beats to the rhythm of that which is I.
Meditation
Appendix 2.0
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You and me are now one and the same.
You and me are one and the same.
You are me.
You are a manifestation of me.
I move and stir deep within you.
I cleanse you through the power of the moon.
Let it flow.
Let it free you.
I charge you through the sacred space from within you that is your womb.
The space from which you create and birth.
From my sacred womb to yours, Gaia Earth Mother.
Now take a few deep breaths here just sitting with the vibration and connection to the earth mother below you.
When you feel ready slowly start to come back to your physical body, maybe touching your thighs, your arms or any part of your body that is asking for your attention in this moment.
Bringing you back into the space that you are in.
And when you are ready gently blink your eyes open and slowly take in your surroundings.
You are here.
Anchored in your body.
Grounded and connected.
