Establishing A Shared Language

Dara Benno

In this practical guide, Dara offers two hands-on activities aimed at nurturing personal and collective well-being. Whether you're an individual seeking self-improvement or a facilitator guiding a group, this toolkit provides actionable steps for reconnecting with nature, healing from trauma, and fostering a more caring and sustainable lifestyle.

Overview

Known for large-scale, complex sculptural works, Richard Serra has identified a technique of language-based drawing as a key component in the development of his sculptural practice. Verb List,^{Figure 1.} is a series of infinitives based on Serra’s identification that “drawing is a verb” and written by the artist as an exploration of “actions to relate to oneself, material, place, and process.”

Figure 1. Richard Serra’s Verb List.

Click on the links below to jump to each activity:

Activity 1: Semantics in Practice

Activity 2: Nurturing a Planetary Consciousness

Activity 1: SEMANTICS IN PRACTICE

As we start to understand, define, and assume our roles in combating the polycrisis, a practice of continued reflection is necessary in order to be grounded in our current reality. Communicating how our actions relate to the self and to the collective is vital to effectively think and act critically together. Establishing a shared understanding of the vocabulary we use will be advantageous in developing meaningful relationships and aligning strategic goals.

Participants should consider how the definitions of commonly used words may have shifted and continue to shift in the Anthropocene. The focus of this exercise is not to introduce new terminology but instead, to focus on words that are used regularly and can be perceived to have different meanings based on individual experience, goals and visions for the future. This exercise should be completed individually and reflected upon as a group in order to identify and discuss the differences between initial, individual understanding, patterns of broadened thinking and intentional group meaning expansion.

Part A — Language-based Sketching

Choose focus words ^{Figure 2}that relate to the overarching themes of your work, specific research, or organization as a whole. When working with participants from the same organization, keywords from the organization’s mission statement or theory of change should be considered.

Prepare a piece of paper and a writing utensil.
Set a timer for 2 minutes per word.
Write down as many related verbs as you can within the 2-minute timeframe. Then, get to verbing!

Some words to consider using are:

progress, control, care, identity, value, efficient, solution, trust, power, crisis

Figure 2. Sample verb list by a member of the Center for Complexity, considering the words progress, control, and care.

Part B — Reflection and Examination

Although this exercise can be completed by one person for their own thought provocations or initial brainstorming on certain topics, it becomes more valuable when executed individually and reflected upon as a team.

Solo

Examine your list of verbs for each focus word.^{Figure 3} Are some of the verbs on the list describing the word as it is currently understood, as it has been understood in the past, or as you hope it will be understood in the future?

Optional: Choose 1-3 of the descriptive verbs to guide a reflective thinking process through 15+ minutes of freewriting, not worrying about grammar or writing style but just getting thoughts down on paper and expanding thinking around the initial focus word. These chosen reflection words are identified in the following practice by a red outline.

Figure 3-4. Student work from Design Manuals for the Anthropocene, a course offered by the Center for Complexity at the Rhode Island of Design, considering the words control, crisis, and climate. Time considerations are marked with a check (present), star (future) or crossed out/’x’ (past). Words that stand out during reflection are marked with an outline.

As A Group

Participants should tape their verb lists to the wall.^{Figure 4}
Looking at each other’s lists, discuss and share observations and reflections. How many verbs are repeated between participant lists? Are the lists similar or very different? Do any verbs stand out as surprising?
Zooming out, consider and discuss where there is a common understanding in the group and where people have started to broaden their thinking. Is the common understanding one that the group thinks should continue as such? Or are there other meanings that resemble how they would like the word to be understood moving forward?

Back to All Activities ︎︎︎

Activity 2: Nurturing A Planetary Consciousness

The field of planetary design might be familiar to some but will likely be new to many. It’s important to address and understand that while many words have universal meanings, they might carry specific nuances in the context of the polycene. Diving into this concise vocabulary and discussing offered interpretations of understanding not only introduces a rich tapestry of terminology but can be helpful in adding a foundational tool for collective work and offering a shared language to expand upon.

Terminology Cheat Sheet

Participants should be introduced to the Polycene Design Lexicon as a reference. Pulling what might be new words and concepts (unknown to the participants) from the lexicon, participants are introduced to a handful of terms that will be used during the workshop exercises that can not only aid in identifying challenges and points of opportunity but also act as a new tool with which to talk about the topics at hand. Facilitators should pre-select these terms depending on the focus of the work and/or group of participants, adding them to the foldable format for participants to work off of and refer back to.

When executing the sequence of exercises as they are presented in this polycene design manual, the following terms should be included:

Polycrisis, Anthropocene, Polycene, Planetary, Planetarism, Planetarity, Biophysical Reality, Discontinuity, Externalities, Stewardship, Agents (Model-bound and Unbound), Small and Large Worlds, Epistemic Errors

Figure 5. Pre-populated terminology cheat sheet.

Participants should each receive a populated cheat sheet^{Figure 5} and fold it into a booklet.
As they read through the terms presented to them and their definitions, they should try to come up with at least one example for each (either individually or as a group) and think about how their own work, or the work of others, is relevant to the new terms.