CREDITS
complexity@risd.edu
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Creating Enabling Environments

Dara Benno, charlene sequeira

In this guide, Dara and Charlene lay out a set of activities that address pressing issues of environmental disconnection and a stifled ability to imagine a desirable future. Designed for both individual introspection and group engagement, the guide offers steps to take toward breaking free from a “culture of uncare” and moving towards a more empathetic and sustainable existence. These exercises are inspired by studio practice at the CfC and conversations with Rowan Conwayand Cassie Robinson, both attendees of the CfC Planetary Retreat. These engagements are offered here as a work-in-progress—proposing methods of grounding perspectives in reality and restoring an ability to imagine new visions for a better tomorrow. We are eager to hear any feedback you might have after conducting or participating in any of the activities. Please email us at complexity@risd.edu. 


Overview


Being stuck in what Sally Weintrobe identifies as a “culture of uncare” restrains our ability to grow, imagine, and create. A reliance on avoidance and dissociative techniques preserves toxic mentalities of entitlement and privilege that prioritize economic gain and exploitation rather than quality of life. If our goal is to nurture a path forward, then we must make space for reflection, connection, and restorative practice—the mind and the body, the self and the collective, the human and the non-human.

Click on the links below to jump to each activity:

Activity 1: Inroduction to Studio Practice

Activity 2: Grounding

Activity 3: Collective Imagination



Activity 1: Introduction to Studio Practice


Objective: To set intentions for and guidelines on desirable individual and collective practice in a studio.
To build a vibrant studio in the short time facilitators and participants have together, we offer the following suggestions to support their success. This list should be printed out and reviewed together as a group.

Materials: Downloadable Studio practice rules here.
  1. No hierarchy, no expert. We all bring something to the table
  2. Loosen your thinking from the comfort of certainty. We are all learning, unlearning, and relearning.
  3. Look and listen with curiosity, humility, and wonder. Ask questions with wonder and healthy skepticism.
  4. Seek relevance in everything. Purpose in the destination and each step of the journey.
  5. Open attention to weak and peripheral signals. Being sure doesn't mean being right. And being right doesn't always feel sure.
  6. Make time to build a new vocabulary. Language can open or close new ideas.
  7. Explore the boundaries of truth and goodness. Be open to alternative interpretations and perspectives.
  8. Work is not precious; re-use, recycle, repurpose! Build and break and build again.
  9. Measure all other questions for their relationship to “why“. This connects to purpose.


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Activity 2: Grounding


Objective: To reconnect with the natural world through a somatic practice of being present in the mind and body.

One with Nature

As humans, we have managed to mark the natural world as other. We build environments, mine resources and overconsume. We have chosen our own creature comforts and conveniences over fair and just treatment of the land and beings with which we coexist. Shifting away from mechanical interactions and moving toward consciousness in daily life can help reconstruct how we perceive the world around us and how we choose to interact with it. This present state of mind allows us to tap into our ability to reconnect with the natural world as though we are truly part of it and reflect this connection through future decision-making—working toward restoring our relationship with the land, ourselves, and one another.

The facilitator should offer participants exercises that call for a multisensory engagement with the world around them. Through an intentional consciousness and active assessment of one’s surrounding environment, participants can work toward building an awareness of space and place as well as scale and time—(re)establishing a personal and sympathetic/empathetic connection to the outside world. Opening up to an experience of interoception, or the ability to be aware of one’s body and internal sensations, is a type of somatic resolution work that is not only helpful in reducing stress and anxiety while aiding in a recalibration of emotion but also can act as a bridge to reconnect to the natural environment. This type of work can take many forms of engagement—including breathing exercises, stretching, guided meditation, focus rituals, etc.—and depends on what the facilitator feels comfortable leading. The following instruction is for someone who might need an introduction to a somatic (body-centered) practice and pulls from a series of simple exercisesby somatic practitioner, Dave Berger.

Materials:

  • Pen and paper

  1. Start by asking participants to consider the following questions. Open the floor for discussion and sharing. (10 min)
    1. What does it mean to be ‘present’ and ‘connected’?
    2. How can we maintain/develop the ability to not only observe and notice the world around us but also understand our place in it?
    3. How can a practice of exploration help shift awareness?
  2. Participants should be prompted to go outside with the goal of achieving a “heightened consciousness” through an active practice of being present. If it feels appropriate to go outside with participants and guide them through prompts in real-time, that is an option. In order to do this, the facilitator should prompt participants with the following. (20 min)
    1. When you go outside, stop in a safe place. Pay attention to what you are seeing. Focus on one thing at a time and notice any movement or stillness. As you walk, what can you feel under your feet? If you stop and close your eyes (making sure you are in a safe place), what can you hear? What can you smell? What can you feel?
    2. Consider your relationality, or connectedness, to the natural world with which you are interacting. What kinds of emotions, if any, do you feel? Try not to dwell on any one emotion but notice all of the sensations your body might be experiencing.
    3. Pay attention to whether or not you feel yourself slipping into a state of resistance or acceptance to receiving and listening to the world around you.
    4. Take some time to explore.
  3. Participants should return inside and reflect on their experience through verbal sharing or writing. Revisit the prompts for a more engaging conversation.


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Activity 3: Collective Imagination


Objective: To broaden patterns of thinking to create desirable future scenarios.

Nurturing Hope

The reality we live in is one of uncertainty. With alarming news headlines and apocalyptic storylines everywhere we turn, it’s becoming more and more challenging to envision what a future might look like that isn’t based on a dystopian outlook. Shock value might help reader and viewership but it doesn’t help expand our thinking on what a desirable future might look like and how we get there.

This is a time for participants to let go of fear and broaden patterns of thinking beyond what they might already know, believe to be possible, or feel comfortable facing. This exercise is designed to be a gateway into new ways of imagining future scenarios through a light-hearted and low-stakes collaborative interaction. Think Exquisite Corpse meets Experiential Futures Ladder.

Materials:

  • Writing utensils and paper

  1. On a small piece of paper, the participants should each write down:

    1. A challenge they are facing in their personal life, professional life, or life in general,
    2. What they see as the ideal outcome for the challenge, and
    3. What they fear the outcome could be

  2. Fold up all of the papers and put them in a bowl.

  3. The facilitator should choose one of the papers and create a prompt or starting point for a collective narrative based on the challenge or struggle the participant has listed. The facilitator should also read out both written possible outcomes from the piece of paper (ideal outcome and feared outcome), allowing the participants to guide the narrative toward either resolution.

    We found out this morning, the US will no longer be exporting waste to other countries. We have been advised to…

  4. One participant starts off, picking up where the facilitator’s prompt left off, adding to the narrative for up to 30 seconds.

  5. This format continues around the group with each person adding to the narrative for up to 30 seconds before passing it on to the next person and until reaching either of the two outcomes from the folded paper.

  6. Finally, allow time for reflection.

    1. Was the group able to navigate toward a desired outcome together?
    2. Were they happy with the narrative and/or the outcome?
    3. Were there any surprising turns in the narrative?


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    Sources:

    Berger, Dave. “Basic Somatic Experiencing Exercises and Tools.” Dave Berger, 31 Mar. 2021, daveberger.net/blog/0z4owbw6enfezzuo1kd2uuiub8o4c3. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.

    Robson, David. “Interoception: The Hidden Sense That Shapes Wellbeing.” The Guardian, 15 Aug. 2021, www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/15/the-hidden-sense-shaping-your-wellbeing-interoception.

    Somatic Trauma Resolution. www.somatictraumasolution.com/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2023.
POLYCENE DESIGN MANUAL 

GETTING STARTED
PERMISSION
WHO “WE” ARE
PROJECT ORIGINS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Polycene Design Manual 

GETTING STARTED
PERMISSION
WHO “WE” ARE
PROJECT ORIGINS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CREDITS
complexity@risd.edu
complexity.risd.edu