Vision From Leong 2003

Vision from Within: from the Micro Self to the Macro Whole by Benny Ding Leong 10.11.2003 (School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract: Discussions of sustainability are often carried out objectively and rationally in terms of the macro whole. Subjective discussion about everyday people as micro individuals is often unnoticed. Based on the theme “from within”, three overlapping but mutually related analogies are proposed to articulate a possible world vision. 1. Humans as seeds represents the very root of sustainability. 2. Humans as plants signifies the predictive growth of society. 3. Humans as fruit denotes the nourishment of an emerging future. To get to the root of the problem of sustainability and a sustainable world ideal, one must investigate the inner self in daily life. Key Words: Sustainability; cultural design strategy, co-creation, Chinese culture, vision of future

I) Vision New Spaces, Conviviality, and Life-amassment An alternative vision of the world includes three aspects. 1. Living in new ‘spaces’ Imagine cities that are infused with new spaces; spaces that relax the hectic pace of our everyday lives and cleanse our spirits and souls, like the apparent blank spaces of Chinese paintings that contribute substantially to the wholeness of the intended meaning. New spaces here are interpreted as a fusion of ‘Greening’ and ‘Time’… … imagine an organic, invigorating city with vegetation everywhere. The city is full of green islands of various kinds, with organic allotments and Chinese gardens of various sizes surrounded by small rivers. These green islands are linked to residential islands with bridges on which people leisurely stroll. Every now and then a couple of bicycles shuttle back and forth in the meandering small road … Without the intrusion of unwelcome, harsh technologies (except manual devices or solar powered lighting system), life has become leisurely with the uplifting influence of the greenery and bird song … The greening of the environment is no longer treated as a remedial post-act of the construction of cities; it is the philosophy of holistic being of this new world … 2. Creating ‘Conviviality’ In a convivial (1) society, people are no longer satisfied with passive consumption. The convivial society encourages and helps collective individuals to “make things among which they can live, to give shape to things according to their own tastes, and to put them to use in caring for and about others (Illich 1999).” The convivial society is an act of art and enriches the ultimate being of living by means of participatory creations that fuse social and economic, production and consumption activities into one. … the city is also full of artistic auras, especially at the rims of the green islands, with small arts and crafts booths selling a great variety of household items. Solar cars, furniture, digital equipment and pottery can also be found. Each of these booths highlights its own unique artistic style and invites co-creation to attract customers. Though prices are generally more expensive than products produced by big corporations, these booths attract a growing number of customers as they provide numerous innovative, interesting schemes and after-sales services including packages of co-creative and co-productive designs that allow participation by customers, open forums on philosophy of art and design, free training on repair and maintenance, and free membership of arts and crafts clubs, etc. This signifies a new age of the oneness of arts-based social and economic, producing and consuming activities…

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3. Nurtured by ‘Life-amassment’ Knowledge can be learned but wisdom has to be amassed with time. We cannot lead a purposeful and meaningful life without realizing the meaning of our existence. The envisioned world should be enriched and nourished by cultures and amassed wisdom of the past… …there are many traditional arts bodies in these green islands. They work like an open museum of arts and crafts with areas such as the poetry corner, the calligraphy and painting courtyard, tea room, gardening pavilion, Tai Chi park, Qigong health path, etc. … Many elderly people volunteer as tutors in these traditional arts and crafts corners to contribute to society, whereas young people are eager to learn traditional culture to uplifting themselves. The study of poetry, prose, and songs become a favorable nonmaterial consumption for people of all ages … Traditional culture is not seen as irrelevant and far-fetched, and it is reabsorbed into daily lives and provides a spiritual uplift for every walk of life… In my view, a better world can only be developed and realized when micro individuals are morally cultivated and rectified. This will require patience and time to nurture. Hence, the vision above is proposed to advocate the initiation of the natural environment as the ground for nourishment, rich and profound human-based culture as nutrient, and the promotion of an artistic co-creation economy and society as the supportive framework. Altogether, we would see a healthy growth of the ‘human tree’ (our civilization), where life would be transformed from the extreme of the materialistic to the well being of the spiritual.

II) Motivation ‘Factor 10’ Transition and the need for a Cultural strategy The motivation for formulating the vision above had two cognitive aspects. 1. “Factor 10” Transition To transform from the present widely diverging world of 20/80 (2) to an ideal society with the goal of achieving a low-consumption rate of factor 10, it is highly possible that we will undergo two critical phases of transition (see Illustration 1). a) Phase one: This may appear in the next 10 years (approx. in 2012) when developing countries are at the peak of their industrialization (e.g. 20% shift to 60% consumption rate) and developed countries have just shifted to service-based economies (consumption rate remain at 80%). The consumption volume is highly likely to exceed the bearing capacity of the world’s ecosystem (result in 140% environmental load). This is expected to be the most severe test for humankind since civilization began. b) Phase two: This is estimated to appear in 2022 when the annual growth rate of the world’s population will drop from the present 8.4 percent to 6.4 percent. With the aging population, the consumption rate will drop together with the productivity rate. The world’s economies will drastically shrink.

Illustration 1: Forecast of the transition phases of the low-consumption goals of “Factor 10” in the next 22 years.

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2. The role of Culture in sustainability Apart from the promoted concept of Sustainability, which highlights mostly the aspects of ‘environment’, ‘economy’ and ‘society’, there is an urgent need, in view of the two critical transitional phases above, to develop a strategy of design for sustainability that is driven by ‘culture’. Long-term study of traditional Chinese thinking about creation revealed to me the importance of locality specific and culturally specific approaches to sustainable design. There are two main aspects of a culture driven strategy of sustainable design. • Making use of local culture: this relates to the horizontal dimension of a culture – community groups and human resources. • Value re-creation from traditional culture: this relates to the vertical dimension of a culture – the deposits of ethnical and traditional wisdom. These two aspects are parallel and not in conflict with each other. However, culture (especially traditional culture) needs recognition, reservation and revitalization for any possible further application. People from different regions have different understandings and interpretations of their local cultures. For example, From a Chinese perspective, my interpretation of ‘culture’ is as follows: “Culture means ‘humanized system’, which also means ‘Ideology’. It is the thinking of a set of cultural systems that embraces the dimensions of the vertical and horizontal, the traditional and societal. The predicament of production and ecological imbalance faced by the world is the certain outcome of the alienated development of the subjective ‘Ideology’. Therefore, the culture-driven sustainable design strategy advocates the re-adjustment of human culture and the value judgments embedded therein, including the temperance of over-expanding human desire and reframing the understanding of the relationship of man, material and nature. Driven by a ‘humanized system’, we are hoping to make the ‘technological system’ and ‘natural system’ normalized and sustainable so that a real balance can be achieved for the entire ‘Neo-Ecology’. (3)” This culture-driven sustainable design strategy comprises the following three major points. a) Nature-based – based on the thinking of 2 kinds of traditional Chinese natural philosophy: i) Symbiosis of Nature and Humanity The cultivation of ‘Ideology’ among individuals and society through the natural environment with an emphasis on helping individuals and social groups to nurture a sense of close affinity with nature. It also advocates the re-learning and construction of a new and sustainable ‘technological’ culture based on the exploration of the ‘natural system’ of ecology. ii) Nature is Natural Respect for the evolution timetable of gradual change and accumulation of a ‘natural system’, and to relieve the mental tension of modern humanity’s urgent demand for instant results. b) Human-based – Emphasis is placed on the value of humans, including the double meaning of humans as individuals and groups. i) Humans as Individuals Seeking richness in spiritual life by elevating one’s quality in the realm of culture and arts. This advocates an inner morality of self-awareness, ‘self-temperance’, and ‘contentment’. ii) Humans as Groups Advocating the social structure of small organizations and small groups (4). Emphasis is placed on treasuring the wisdom and experience that is amassed by the elderly and strengthening the ties of communication between generations. Through group activities that feature self-sufficiency and low-consumption, a new social fabric and economic system will be constructed.

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c) Culture-based – to advocate the co-existence of past (old) and present (new) cultural practices. This means the capacity to allow the parallel application of contemporary cultural practices (e.g. cyber-culture) and traditional experience and wisdom (e.g. Chinese herbal medicine and dietary nutritional therapy) so that the two extremes can supplement each other in innovative cultural design strategy.

III) Methodology From Micro Individuals to the Macro Whole Discussions on the concept of sustainability often cover three inter-related areas: the ‘environment’, ‘economy’, and ‘society’. Mainstream debate of this kind is often remote, rational and objectified. It is so detached from the individual’s deep felt emotion and daily experiences that it is deemed out of touch with the fundamental sense of humanity. In fact, sustainability is not an objective issue because it is hidden in each organic being on earth (including humans), and is fundamentally desirable for every living creature. Therefore, as human beings, as individual living beings, it is perhaps more relevant to begin the discourse of sustainability from the standpoint of our micro self in relation to the macro social environment. I employ three overlapping but mutually related analogies as the origin for the projection and formation of a possible world vision. 1. Humanity as ‘seeds’ – what does our daily life reveal? Our daily lives and the experiences that we gather every minute, whether from internal cognition or external social interaction, reveal a series of unhealthy encounters: • overwhelming connectivity and information overflow that take up a huge amount of our time; • unexpected calls and messages from mobile devices at various point of time and space that exhaust our mental energy; • newspapers that fail to enrich one’s thinking or knowledge, and TV advertisements that are full of pompous and repetitive ideas that bewilder us; • vibrant images and videos that assault us everywhere we go; • promotions and advertisements that encourage us to spend, spend and spend on our credit cards for bonus points; and • never ending talk about what’s “IN” and what’s “OUT” of style. Using the analogy of individuals (humans) as receptors (seeds) that are filled with the alienating daily practices described above, we germinate and spawn the following kinds of culture and social phenomena. a) Speedified Life: The hasty rhythm of life and the overloading of information have contributed to a extremely distorted and imbalanced state of modern life. Drifting images and superficial and nihilistic lifestyles have hindered society from the formation of “quality” culture, further prohibiting the sustainable growth and development of society and local culture. b) Diversified Vagueness: There is a drastic increase of new gadgets and phenomena as well as information, from consumer products to artistic items. These are mainly repetitive industrial productions wrapped with stereotyped packaging. Daily consumption focuses on “quantity”, or look and form; it is deprived of a cultural depth and value. The over development and expansion of visual media and the rapid decline of textual media (5) have pointed to the crisis of the spiritual vagueness of modern life. c) Consumable Future: Changes and innovations are considered trendy. There is an overstatement of the concept of advancement. We have forgotten how we can learn from the past. In fact, we are in the age of “Learn to Forget”. Driven by a highly materialistic and consumptive culture, a kind of nihilistic lifestyle that emphasizes “the present being made

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in the future tense” has emerged, revealing the common attitude of “harvesting the future crop ” (Woo 1995), “spending future money”, and “living it for today”. The above phenomena reveal the hidden hurdles that a civilized society must negotiate during its pursuit of sustainable development. These spawn mainly from the individual, who feels the stress, emptiness and depression of life and transfers it to an obsession of ‘materialistic consumption’ to achieve a psychological balance, leading to a severe imbalance between the ‘material’ and the ‘spiritual’ in daily life. These kinds of adverse development are slowly spreading from individuals to society as a whole, as the trend toward efficiency and high consumption results in alienation among society members. To achieve a balanced sustainable society and culture in years to come, one’s ‘spiritual’ life has to be elevated, and hence the cultivation and normalization of sustainable ‘Ideology’ is deemed essential. 2. Humans as ‘plants’ – Where are we heading? Like plants, humans, as organic beings, need to grow; so do societies. We may foretell the developmental path of human civilization in the near future by projecting our physiological progress. From the standpoint of the generation born in the 1950s and 1960s (the ‘baby boom’ era), one can certainly predict a ‘Maturing Society’ in 20 years time. This conjecture can be proven statistically and philosophically. a) The Aging Population We have been warned that the human population will age in the later half of the present century (UNS 2003). As a result of the advancement in biological and medical technology, the average human life span in the year 2050 will be an average of 14 years longer than it was in the 1950s. Coupled with the fact that birth rate is declining (6), it is predicted that the elderly population (aged 50 or above) in 2050 will account for more than one-third of the world’s population. Due to cultural, biological, and physical factors, women will account for three-quarters of the elderly population. It is estimated that one-third of these elderly women will need to live alone after the deaths of their companions. Due to a decline in physical strength coupled with a gain in wisdom and sophisticated thinking, they (meaning also ‘us’ in the future) will be inclined to search for a more spiritual life and delights that comfort the soul. Most people talk about the problems of aging society, but we should see the positive side of it in terms of the future development of sustainability. b) Toward Artistic Living According to E. Cassirer, mankind has six different categories of cultural embodiment, namely Myth, Religion, Science, History, Language, and Art. On this basis, another Chinese academic Wenyi Ju has further deduced the diverging routes yet converging goal of the West and the East in the ultimate path of evolution, that is ‘Art’ (7). The evolution of an entire civilization is similar to that of an individual. For example, during childhood, an individual’s development is mainly related to the ‘body’ (eating and physiological growth is most important). Similarly, at the very beginning of a civilization, the development of agriculture and social systems is most important. When an individual reaches adulthood, bodily growth is complete, thus transferring the focus of the growth to the ‘mental’ (intellectual and spiritual). The same can be observed with civilizations today as knowledge-based economies and creative industries are being explored and developed. ‘Art’ will become a common cultural symbol jointly developed by all societies. Proof of this is emerging. For example, in Japan, there is increasing emphasis on promoting industries as cultural and artistic engagements (Ekuan 1995); and in the USA, academics have pointed out the importance of nurturing arts and culture to reinvent the realms of science and economy (Florida 2002). 3. Humans as ‘fruits’ – The Container of ‘Seeds’ of the Future The future of a possible society, like ‘seeds’ that are hidden in the core of ‘fruit’ (containers of various emerging cultures), await recognition and discovery to become the mainstream practices of the future. However, can we foresee how this new, possible society will take its form? Inspiration can be drawn from two emerging consumptive ideologies.

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a) A Consumptive Culture of Co-creativity According to various academic and non-academic surveys that have been conducted overseas in recent years, consumers have shown an increased desire to participate in the production of products for self-consumption (Ray and Anderson 2001, Florida 2002, Sanders 2003). One of the explanations is that over the past century, the tools (industrial tools) that we once relied upon for the improvement of lives have gradually taken away our pleasure of producing things. As a result, the satisfaction of simple daily lives has been steadily eaten away by the general increasing volume of consumptive behavior. A transference of consumptive behavior can be noticed in recent years, from a ‘Consumptive Mindset’ of pure shopping, buying, owning, and using to a new ‘Creative Mindset’ of doing, adapting, making, and creating (Sanders 2003). Although most commodities are still restricted to ‘personalized’ product services that include just insubstantial ‘changes’ in colors or patterns, it is predictable that a new economy and consumptive behavior patterns that signify the cocreative and co-productive relationship between users and manufacturers will soon become the norm. This is driven by the individual’s growing desire for creative participation and the advanced interactive information and technology of responsive manufacturing. b) The Undercurrent of Anti-systematization The other consumptive transformation that is happening nowadays is the questioning of production based only on quantity. People (particularly knowledgeable ones) have great vigilance and cautiousness over institutional bodies such as transnational corporations (TNC) (8) and the immense virtual power of the Internet (9), which have bred the ‘zero-time’ competitive culture. The antiglobalization movement in Europe in recent years, with environmental groups directly confronting transnational enterprises, has revealed a great sense of hatred on the part of everyday people towards the monopolization of mega systems. All around the world there is an emerging number of small enterprises such as family-run eateries, shops, organic farms, and so on. There is a possibility that we will see greater polarization emerging from the confrontation between organic ‘nonsystems’ as exemplified by numerous self-sufficient economic entities and the ‘systemized’ transnational enterprises. The future could develop in various directions, and what happens depends on micro individuals, especially those who could be the most influential. With regard to the design profession, the task is seen as a great challenge.

IV) Conclusion The Future Role of the Designer With all these thoughts and aspirations for a better future, what kind of role should designers take? Here I offer some of my initial thoughts. • The major roles of the designer in the near future are to create new spaces, enable the conviviality of artistic activities, and to nurture culture amassment. • The designer’s responsibility is to provide cultural frameworks in which everyday people could fill in the ‘content’ of life. • The process of design should become more open for participation by users. • Designs should be culture-centered, and life experience should be explored by people in their own daily lives and not as designated by external actors. • The practice of micro-interference ‘experience design’ should not be promoted. • Designers should learn how to design less by using the original environment and cultural resources as much as possible. • Designers should think from the perspectives of common people, and should always be aware that the creativity of common people is rich and excellent. • We should learn modestly from mass culture, as well as from the legacy of traditional culture that was passed on by our predecessors.

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We have to understand and perceive our environment and nature both rationally and intuitively. The greatness of the world and the unforeseeable future is seemingly out of our control. However, as designers and micro individuals not only can we transform society with positive actions, but we can also try to influence others by exerting temperance and cultivating moral principles. It is often said that children are the masters of the future. However, in 20 years’ time the world’s population will be dominated by us, our elderly generation, who will carry much of the responsibility for sustaining and paving the way for a better world.

Note: 1) Radical theorist Ivan Illich identified 2 kinds of tool; the ‘convivial tool’ and the ‘industrial tool’.

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Unlike industrial tool, ‘convivial tool’ “allow users to invest the world with their meaning, to enrich the environment with the fruits of their visions, and to use them for the accomplishment of purposes they have chosen. (Illich 1999)”. 20% of the world’s population (mostly in developed countries) is consuming 80% of the world’s resources. “Ideology” is an integral part to the concept of “Neo-Ecology” advocated by the author (Leong 2002). “Neo-Ecology” refers to an interactive organic system made up by a group of systems including the natural system of “Ecology” or called “the First Nature” (also “Primeval-Ecology”); the system of “Technology” or called “the Second Nature”; and humanized system (also cultural system) of “Ideology” or called “the Third Nature”. This complex of interactive organic system of “Neo-Ecology” has replaced the “Primeval-Ecology”(the First Nature) as the world’s new reality. “Ideology” is a crucial part deciding the future development of the entire “Neo-Ecology”. This was followed by traditional China until 1950s. Traditionally China’s development is based on small agricultural economies. There are altogether 3 million villages and more than 1500 counties and towns. Villages are made up of family units with blood relationship, whereas counties and towns are made up of self-sufficient neighbour units. Be it in villages or in towns, they are composed of small community groups. In fact traditional Chinese culture lacks awareness of the concept of society, which is of greater scale and systemized.(Lau 1989) In “Endangered Minds”(1990), Jane Healy mentioned a research report by Dr Benice Cullinan. The report stated that American youngsters spent in average 130 minutes daily on watching television, whereas reading did not take up more than 5 minutes of their time. According to the same demographic survey of the United Nations, the world’s average birth rate in 1950 was 2.4, whereas by 2050 the average birth rate will be 1.85, a decrease of nearly 25%. According to Taiwan academic Zhu Wen Yi, the evolution path of Chinese culture is myth – history – language – art, whereas for the West it is myth – religion – science – art (Ju 1995) Kanniah, Assistant Director, regional office for Asia and the Pacific of United Nations’ environmental projects, pointed out that the total power of transnational corporation has already exceeded the economy of all nations. They are therefore capable of casting great impact on the global environment. (Kanniah 2002) Legal academic Sunstein of Chicago University considers the Internet as promoting individualism and the credibility of information circulated on the internet is doubtful. The personalized information being encouraged on the internet has not contributed to the accumulation and sharing of knowledge and experience (Sunstein 2002).

Reference 1) Leong, B.D. (2002), The investigation of Localization of DfS and its Implication to Industrial Design Education in China. Changsha, Hunan: National Industrial Design Education Symposium, China. 2) Ju Wen Yi (1995), Space, Symbol, City: A theory of urban design (in Chinese). Taipei: ShukShing Publishing Co.,. 3) Woo, Henry (1995), The West in distress – Resurrecting Confucius’s Teachings for A New Cultural Vision and Synthesis (in Chinese). Hong Kong :Chinese University Press.

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4) Lau Chong –chor and Yang C.K. (1998), The Chinese Society: from no Change to Great Changes (in Chinese). Hong Kong :Chinese University Press. 5) Long-Range Population Projections (2003). Proceedings of the Technical Working Group on Long range population, Division Dept. of Economic & Social Affair, United Nations Secretariat, New York, August 2003. 6) Ernst Cassirer (1992), Essay on Man: an Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. Yale University Press. 7) M. Levet-Gautrat and A. Fontaine (1987), Gerontologie Sociale (in Chinese). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 8) Florida, Richard (2002), The Rise of the Creative Class and How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books. 9) Kenji Ekuan (1995), Homogeneity or Heterogeneity. Taipei :Symposium Proceedings (in Chinese). ICSID. 10) Dr. Clark, H. and Leong, B.D.(1999), Culture Based Knowledge Towards New Design Thinking and Practice. Conference proceedings. Helsinki UIAH:Useful and Critical, International Conference. 11) Dr. Sanders, Elizabeth B.-N.(2003), Scaffolds in Communicational Spaces for Building Everyday Creativity. conference proceedings. 12) Ray, Paul H. and Anderson, S. Ruth (2001), The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Chinaging the World. Three Rivers Press. 13) Healy, J.M. (1990), Endangered Minds. New York: Simon & Schuster. 14) Kanniah, Rajeswari. (2002), Progress made in changing production and consumption patterns and remaining challenges. Plenary Session Paper. Prague, Czech Republic: UNEP’s 7th International High-Level Seminar on Cleaner Production. 15) Sunstein, Cass R. (2002) Republic. Com. USA: Princeton University Press. 16) Illich Ivan (1999), The Right of Useful Unemployment and its Professional Enemies. USA. Marion Boyars publishers Ltd.

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