Awareness Design: The Most Powerful Field for Our Future?
OK, OK, I don’t really subscribe to anything being “the most” of something… the headline was just a bit of sensationalism to capture your attention. 😉
*gently slaps self on wrist*
However, now that you’re here, I want to make a case for a new field of design.
I read a paper over the weekend called Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, which lists the most effective strategies for making large-scale shifts in complex systems. #1 on the list was “the power to transcend paradigms.”
How timely, as our discussions of late have been about culture hacking, technologies of culture, and conscious evolution. It made me wonder –
What would it look like if we had a discipline called Awareness Design?
Like many design fields, the focus would be on behavior. The approach would be on ‘shaping digital and social tools that increase people’s awareness of themselves, their environments and systems.’ (so, expanding people’s capacity for self-awareness and systems-awareness).
The idea is to satisfy people’s needs and desires within a context of deep self-knowledge as well as a living systems perspective. By creating more awareness in one’s inner world, people would become aware of a larger range of options in how to respond to situations and make decisions. By creating more awareness to the outer world, people would gain a more thorough understanding of the impacts of their choices and behaviors on themselves and the world at large. These feedback loops would encourage more creative and empowered behavior.
Let’s further explore the what and why of awareness design!
Continue reading “Venessa Miemis: Awareness Design – The Most Powerful Field for Our Future?”
