•  cultural mindset 

    we are future makers:

    “We humans do not like change. For Paleolithic humanity change meant floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, famine, wars and epidemics. Our biological inheritance is to fear change; it is encoded in our genes. Biologically we are future takers....
    ... through restructuring our cultural mindsets we can neutralize the effect
    of this biological baggage and turn future takers into future makers.”

    Dr. Peter Ellyard “The Art of Future Making,” Saxton Speaker Bureau Series

    I conducted interviews asking people to describe their ideal world. From these interviews I learned that people usually do not wish for concrete objects or situations. Instead, people wish for balance, health, love, happiness, freedom, comfort, and friends. Some have futuristic dreams and seek things like teleportation or the ability to fly.

    For the most part, however, people desire simpler things: free time, tasty and healthy
    food, the ability to hear, to smell, and to sense. They want to enjoy the world, to have the freedom to travel, and to help other people. They want to enjoy the work they do, to support each other, to learn new things, and to be comfortable with who they are.

    I used the collected interviews to create a video that summarized these wishes, in their abstract form, before they go through the filter of social influences.

      Reference:  Incognition Interviews 
     Dr.Peter Ellyard, “The Art of Future Making,” Saxton Speaker Bureau Series 
     Alastair Fuad-Luke, “Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World,” 
     John Thackara, “In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World” 

     the critique is dead 

    the post-critique era:

    “What would critique do
    if it could be associated
    with more, not with less,
    with multiplication, not subtraction....”

    Bruno Latour “Why has Critique
    Run Out of Steam? From Matters
    of Fact to Matters of Concern.”

    Designers often challenge problematic issues in society – including but not limited to social, environment, and political issues.

    When design concentrates on negative parts of its subject it supports the idea of a partial truth* – critical design separates the negative aspect of its subject matter, from the subject itself.

    For my research I collected examples of recent design work that did not focus
    on the negative. Instead they still efficiently addressed the same social problems as critical design did before. When I began to look for similar design approaches, I re-read Italo Calvino, “Six Memos for the New Millennium” where the term “lightness,” and its description helped me to realize that today’s design can be classified as a post-critical, or better to say design for Lightens. Design for Lightness concentrates on resolving the issues. It extends the discussion, offers open questions, creates communities, and finally elevates its subject to a better position, adding to its value.

      Reference:  Bruno Latour, “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? from matters of fact 
     to matters of concern.”     alfred north whitehead, “the concept of nature.” 
     jean baudrillard, “ The Spirit of Terrorism” and “Requiem for the Twin Towers.”
     Giroux, Henry,   “ Animaiting Youth: The Disnification of Children’s Culture.” 

     design for lightness 

    the lightness of
    italo calvino:

    “Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness,
    I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don’t mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach,
    look at the world from a different perspective, with
    a different logic, and with fresh methods of cognition and verification.”

    Italo Calvino
    “Six Memos For the Next Millenium.”

    With Incognition, I address the issue of social influence on the individual psyche following through the methods of Lightness. I am developing experiences, methods, and objects that convey messages about ’using your mind‘ and I hope it can influence a person’s behavior in a positive way.

      Reference:  italo calvino, “Six Memos For the Next Millenium.” (pdf) 
     Jan Van Toorn, “Designer’s Delight” and “Critical Practice.” 
     david bohm, “wholeness and the implicate order.”