My reflections after reading Emergent Strategy (Shaping Change & Changing Worlds)

“A mushroom is a toxin-transformer, a dandelion is a community of healers waiting to spread…” (9)

Q: In your view, what is the function of humans in the universe?

A: I’d like to think our sole purpose is to manage, till and exist within the Earth in a way that entrusts its growth and its ability to flourish. As far as we know, Earth is the only place that has life as we know it, so it would only make sense that its organisms work in tandem to keep it functioning as a place for living beings of all kinds. The conditions are perfect for us to live here, and there’s something to be said about humans’ hand in the Earth “revolting” and showing opposition through climate change. I for sure know that we weren’t put on Earth to produce for commercial gain or to line the Elite’s pockets; that mindset is what’s put us in this hellscape now. We’re meant to be growing natural foods, giving and taking from the natural resources around us, living in close community with family and friends, gathering and teaching knowledge to the next generation, and operating from a place of love.

“I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free” (18)

Q: Have you felt trapped inside of someone else's imagination? How have you broken free?

A: I’m a Black man, and there are certain expectations placed on us from the moment we take our first breath. Society has an expectation of how we move—how we act, walk, talk. I knew about these expectations from a very early age, and I can say it’s dictated how I interact with people, even if inadvertently. In addition to that, familial expectations exist too. As the youngest, and who went away to Morehouse College and graduated with honors, I knew that if I strived to have a certain career that provides a certain salary and grants me with things, that I had “made it.” That expectation alone was suffocating, and eventually I got fatigued with keeping up appearances, and that was the exact catalyst for me pursuing at Masters at NYU. I made the decision to blow my life up at 36, move to the other side of the country from LA to NYC, and pivot from my, now unstable, job in tech to pursue, what I feel is, my calling to be an artist. I feel free to explore the bounds of my interests and imagination now.

brown often refers to sci fi writers. She quotes Ursula Le Guin saying “It’s up to authors to spark the imagination of their readers and to help them envision alternatives to how we might live.” (19).

Q: Do artists, designers, and technology have that same or similar responsibility? What are the nuances between those roles?

A: I think so. I think all 3 of those things has the ability to spark imagination in the public, inspire questions and alternative thinking, and challenge the way we think. Specifically, artists are the ones who take philosophical questions or ideas and make them something people can ingest (through whatever form is used). Designers make the thing accessible to be consumed or interacted with—they prioritize the experience, where artists prioritize the question or thing to be explored. Lastly, technology is the thing that makes it all real. It also provides the constraints in which the artists and designers have to work within. Does the tech exist? Does the tech make sense for this use case? How can it be used creatively? Together, these 3 things can bring forth really interesting outputs that inspire really novel thoughts, critiques and speculations.

How this maps to my research for Project 01.

The Emergent Strategy reading impacted my research for Project 01 a bit. My topic is gossip within the theme of transgression, so as I was reading, I considered how gossip affects the human experience on both the micro and macro levels of society. I started to think about how gossip has transformed over the years. What would gossip look like in hunter-gatherer societies of the past? What did it look like for villagers before the “New World” was a thing? How did gossip impact conquests? How did it stratify society in The Gilded Age? What will gossip look like in the age of AI? These are the questions I started with when I first started researching, and I have the idea of really doubling down on this idea of tech-enabled gossip and the dissemination of it through various networks. One thing that I’ve since learned from starting my research? Gossip can be good! Researchers “conclude that gossipers have an evolutionary edge not only because they spread useful information about people’s reputations but also because they encourage people to behave less selfishly.”

I’m still exploring how to make it playable, but because of the whole network thread and this idea of “playing telephone” that’s currently sticking out for me, I think figuring that part will be pretty easy.