[Short Research Essay]
Modern society is ensnared in a cycle of aimless existence characterized by attachment, ignorance, and self-referential mind wandering. By drawing parallels between Buddhism, neuroscience, and theories of conditioning we understand the mechanisms of craving and clinging, to consider how individuals can break free from the human condition of ‘directionless wandering,’ or samsāra.
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Theories of Embodiment
[Short Research Notes]
Mindfulness, contemplation, and environmental design intersect to shape human experience and consciousness. By priming mindfulness and fostering contemplative practices, individuals can transcend self-referential thought patterns and cultivate resilience. Drawing from psychological research and the Buddhist tradition, we discuss embodiment theories, that highlight the role of physical interactions in shaping perception and meaning-making processes—to foster present-centered consciousness and promote well-being.
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Contemplative Spaces
A Proposal for Artists, Designers, and Architects
Contemplative Spaces, as proposed, are environments strategically designed to address the challenges of modern existence by reducing distractions and promoting active contemplation in everyday life. Informed by the principles of operant conditioning, Contemplative Spaces facilitate meaningful integration and modification of mental states, to foster states of contemplation and conscious awareness.
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The Power of Aesthetics
[Short Research Examples]
Aesthetic experiences are characterized by multi-sensory engagement. They induce states of contemplation that parallel the intrinsic rewards of conscious contemplation, mindfulness meditation, and flow states. By engaging neural networks related to contemplation, aesthetic experiences offer opportunities for focused internal reflection and curiosity.
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The Knit Wiggle
[Illustrative Design Experiment]
As a novel approach to designing objects for Contemplative Spaces. The Knit Wiggle is proposed as a modular inflatable that facilitates seamless transitions between communal dialogue and private reflection, adapting to users' immediate needs by engaging multiple senses and providing aesthetic feedback, to encourage curiosity and support contemplative behaviors in dynamic interior environments.
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The Visual Spatial Relationship
Embracing relational knowledge in architecture, designers can create transformative Contemplative Spaces that prioritize the interconnectedness of spaces by fostering conscious awareness through perceptual shifts, flexible design solutions, and innovative features.
The Perception of Color
Color has a profound influence on human perception, behavior, and well-being within architectural and urban design contexts; it shapes spatial experiences and cognitive processing. Integration of color can transform built environments into Contemplative Spaces through the use of calming palettes, interactive feedback systems, and guided color transitions.
The Haptic Feedback Loop
Touch allows for a deeper connection to textures, scales, temperatures, and material qualities that vision alone cannot emcompass. Architecture that prioritizes multi-sensory, whole-bodied design informed by touch and haptics can foster familiarity, comfort, and a lived-in quality through careful selection of materials, lighting design, and spatial configurations that support the development of Contemplative Spaces.
Help Me Navigate This Site !
[Visitor Guide]
Follow the links to experience the whole site. Each page outlines a vital part of the proposed theory. Although speculative, this theory borrows from several scientific, social scientific, and humanities plinesdisci.
Directionless Wandering
Theories of Embodiment
The Power of Aesthetics
The Proposal
Guiding Principles
The Visual Spatial Relationship
The Perception of Color
The Haptic Feedback Loop
The Approach
The Knit Wiggle
[Visitor Guide]
Follow the links to experience the whole site. Each page outlines a vital part of the proposed theory. Although speculative, this theory borrows from several scientific, social scientific, and humanities plinesdisci.
Directionless Wandering
Theories of Embodiment
The Power of Aesthetics
The Proposal
Guiding Principles
The Visual Spatial Relationship
The Perception of Color
The Haptic Feedback Loop
The Approach
The Knit Wiggle
In Short—
[Project Summary]
In the 1950s, the acclaimed biologist and physician Jonas Salk toiled away in a dimly lit basement laboratory—fervently seeking a cure for polio. His progress was slow and prompted him to seek solace in Assisi, Italy. There, amidst a 13th-century monastery with its magnanimous architecture, Salk had a moment of revelation. He found himself engulfed by newfound insights, one of which ultimately led to the development of his groundbreaking polio vaccine. From the Byzantines to the Romans—art and architecture have consistently embodied a profound spiritual significance that affects humans beyond the ordinary and material. In a stark contradiction to Cartesian dualism, it speaks to the body, mind, and soul all at once. This raises the question of how design—and our interaction with external objects and spaces—may change our internal state of being.
John Dewey’s landmark book ‘Art as Experience,’ alluded to aesthetic experiences as ‘intense, unified, complete experiences focused on single objects whose features reward curiosity and active attention.’ It is a fundamental aspect of human perception and our understanding of the world—and it extends beyond mere appreciation of superficial visual stimuli. Monroe Beardsley, in 1958, states that aesthetic experiences were inherently rewarding and ‘gratifying.’ Be it art, architecture, or design, in our digitally-driven worlds, multi-sensory aesthetic experiences have become exponentially more valuable. Research has found similarities between the neural correlates of intense aesthetic experiences and contemplative states associated with contemplative meditation and focused internal awareness in selectively engaging the brain’s default mode network (DMN), a set of brain regions involved in spontaneous cognition including focused internal reflection and mind-wandering.
Mind-wandering is the most inherent part of the human condition. By and large, it is an immediate and immensely gratifying experience. Contemplation is a cognitive facility that may be hard to access and/or sustain for most individuals in the modern world—it is not instantly rewarding, and requires active mental processing. Latent distractions in the built environment tend to act as active deterrents to cognitive functions such as contemplation. The matching law, a quantitative analytical tool and behavioral principle, suggests that behaviors occur in direct proportion to reinforcement available for not just one behavior but also other behaviors in the environment. This shows that our level of engagement in a certain behavior is not merely a function of reinforcement for that particular behavior. Thus, the introduction of alternative opportunities for reinforcement, such as mind-wandering, can result in a change in the reinforcement of intended behaviors, such as contemplation.
Built environments such as the Rothko Chapel employ multi-sensory design with tactile materials alongside visual and aural elements to cultivate silence, stillness, and focused internal reflection conducive to contemplation. At it core, this experience is a deeply aesthetic experience that induces contemplation. Such spaces show that attunement to the senses can induce context-specific contemplation—that is, external stimuli can spontaneously and effortlessly resonate with our sensorimotor system to induce contemplative states through aesthetic experiences. Multi-sensory aesthetic experiences are inherently contemplative experiences.
Borrowing from theories of operant conditioning, ‘Contemplative Spaces’ are sites for conscious awareness where new inputs and keen curiosity can modify existing knowledge structures and allow for rewarding spontaneous discoveries. They promote selective reinforcement environments that redirect attention and alter behaviors to promote contemplative consciousness. Contemplative Spaces are experiments in designing spaces to reduce cognitive load and distractions that result from the physical and mental worlds. From distractions by technology, to the fundamental human tendency of mind-wandering—controlled aesthetic feedback is used as the primary reinforcer for contemplation.
The Knit Wiggle is an attempt at creating objects for Contemplative Spaces.
Read More
[See individual pages for more information and references]
[Project Summary]
In the 1950s, the acclaimed biologist and physician Jonas Salk toiled away in a dimly lit basement laboratory—fervently seeking a cure for polio. His progress was slow and prompted him to seek solace in Assisi, Italy. There, amidst a 13th-century monastery with its magnanimous architecture, Salk had a moment of revelation. He found himself engulfed by newfound insights, one of which ultimately led to the development of his groundbreaking polio vaccine. From the Byzantines to the Romans—art and architecture have consistently embodied a profound spiritual significance that affects humans beyond the ordinary and material. In a stark contradiction to Cartesian dualism, it speaks to the body, mind, and soul all at once. This raises the question of how design—and our interaction with external objects and spaces—may change our internal state of being.
John Dewey’s landmark book ‘Art as Experience,’ alluded to aesthetic experiences as ‘intense, unified, complete experiences focused on single objects whose features reward curiosity and active attention.’ It is a fundamental aspect of human perception and our understanding of the world—and it extends beyond mere appreciation of superficial visual stimuli. Monroe Beardsley, in 1958, states that aesthetic experiences were inherently rewarding and ‘gratifying.’ Be it art, architecture, or design, in our digitally-driven worlds, multi-sensory aesthetic experiences have become exponentially more valuable. Research has found similarities between the neural correlates of intense aesthetic experiences and contemplative states associated with contemplative meditation and focused internal awareness in selectively engaging the brain’s default mode network (DMN), a set of brain regions involved in spontaneous cognition including focused internal reflection and mind-wandering.
Mind-wandering is the most inherent part of the human condition. By and large, it is an immediate and immensely gratifying experience. Contemplation is a cognitive facility that may be hard to access and/or sustain for most individuals in the modern world—it is not instantly rewarding, and requires active mental processing. Latent distractions in the built environment tend to act as active deterrents to cognitive functions such as contemplation. The matching law, a quantitative analytical tool and behavioral principle, suggests that behaviors occur in direct proportion to reinforcement available for not just one behavior but also other behaviors in the environment. This shows that our level of engagement in a certain behavior is not merely a function of reinforcement for that particular behavior. Thus, the introduction of alternative opportunities for reinforcement, such as mind-wandering, can result in a change in the reinforcement of intended behaviors, such as contemplation.
Built environments such as the Rothko Chapel employ multi-sensory design with tactile materials alongside visual and aural elements to cultivate silence, stillness, and focused internal reflection conducive to contemplation. At it core, this experience is a deeply aesthetic experience that induces contemplation. Such spaces show that attunement to the senses can induce context-specific contemplation—that is, external stimuli can spontaneously and effortlessly resonate with our sensorimotor system to induce contemplative states through aesthetic experiences. Multi-sensory aesthetic experiences are inherently contemplative experiences.
Borrowing from theories of operant conditioning, ‘Contemplative Spaces’ are sites for conscious awareness where new inputs and keen curiosity can modify existing knowledge structures and allow for rewarding spontaneous discoveries. They promote selective reinforcement environments that redirect attention and alter behaviors to promote contemplative consciousness. Contemplative Spaces are experiments in designing spaces to reduce cognitive load and distractions that result from the physical and mental worlds. From distractions by technology, to the fundamental human tendency of mind-wandering—controlled aesthetic feedback is used as the primary reinforcer for contemplation.
The Knit Wiggle is an attempt at creating objects for Contemplative Spaces.
Read More
[See individual pages for more information and references]