Communing. Communion. Whenever, wherever, and however.
There is a Moorish proverb that goes something like, “he who does not travel does not know the value of men.” Or much else, we might argue. Recently, we’ve all been feeling caged and restricted, and the yearning for excursions of almost any type is fueling a wanderlust on steroids. But, of course, with a few exceptions, we’re not going much of anywhere, and if we are, it looks and feels vastly different!
We’re all trying to redefine what travel, and community, and communing means to us in a world suddenly way more local, way more constricted, and way more complicated.
Which gets me to situationist theory. Stay with me here. A key concept of situationist theory is the necessity of—and the finding of the means to—counteract the spectacle, that creation of commerce and ideology that hid the true nature of things behind the shiny and the artificial. The situationists were all about creating situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening, for the pursuit of authentic desires, for encouraging the experience of the feeling of life and adventure, as well as encouraging the liberation of everyday life.
We believe that communing with our fellow travelers (however we’re traveling—whether through the wilds of the Internet, to see a client, to a secluded desert island)… through dialog, discovery, breaking bread and dancing and singing, in celebration of shared life, perpetuates hope, and all that is worthy of our attention; and that our ability to access the fullness of such experiences is profoundly limited in times of local or global turmoil, and the shifting of norms does not erase the need of our base humanity to connect with the larger world, to survey, to discover, and be awash in fleeting or recurring pleasure. Anias Nin said, ”we travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” We could not agree more.
The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities, or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society. At PARE, we couldn’t agree more, and believe that meaningful, intentionally derived objects, spaces, and vessels for inhabiting those spaces, transport us emotionally in a way that is even more important, and more valued the less we are able to indulge in our wanderlust, and no doubt, more appreciated once we are.
As with all theory and its applications, scale is critical. The bigger, and greater, and more widespread, the better. All quality interactions with others—over a beer across the fence, on a streetscape, in a café or tavern, at work or at a store, or in an intentional or unintentional gathering of family, friends, or community—the common denominator of fellowship, conversation and connection remains a vital component to our humanness. It will be essential work and an unflinching focus for designers to respond to current and potential circumstances that might tear us apart with solutions to keep this essential weaving of social fabric at the forefront of our efforts. At PARE, we anticipate such conversations and challenges.
—Steffany
