a t m o s p h e r e

Mind, Body, Soul, Space

Research into the historic socio-cultural contexts using Spiral Dynamics as a guiding framework

Slava Kozlov, Summ( )n

Background

The following are the slides from a relatively old project (circa 2008), aimed at supporting a design research into the concept of atmosphere.

The scope of this design research was defined (perhaps deliberately) very vaguely, and gravitated around such things as multisensorial, immersive, interactive and poetic.

Eventually a working definition of the atmosphere concept was suggested, as ‘Mind-Body-Soul in Space’. I decided to inform this definition it with a broad historic socio-cultural contexts, using the Spiral Dynamics approach as the main guiding framework.

The team was inspired by a definition or, rather, a description of atmosphere suggested by Ezio Manzini (to my best knowledge - but I may be wrong with this attribution):

“Imagine that you enter into an old cathedral - you feel its atmosphere immediately, through its architecture, interiors, light, sound… The very time speaks to you.”

(I was actually shocked, not by the quote itself, but by the naivety with which it was taken as a guiding principle by a design team. Oh, well…)

Another inspirational example was taken from the Poème electronique pavilion at the Brussels 1958 Expo (by Le Corbusier and Edgard Varèse) where a combination of light and sound distributed in the space over time reportedly created an amazingly powerful atmosphere.

NB: I need to warn that both here and further in the presentation I don’t attribute the images, only because I didn’t know their authors/copyright holders. Please let me know if you are one of those, so I can attribute the work (or remove it in case of your objection).

Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is both a theory and a practical framework introduced by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, based on the studies of human psychology of Clare Graves; Ken Wilber further popularized these ideas in a series of his books.

According to this approach, human nature is not fixed: humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their environments by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models of the world, that allow them to handle the new problems more efficiently.

The term vMeme refers to a core value system of any given stage that acts as an organizing principle and expresses itself through various memes (self-propagating ideas, habits, or cultural practices).

vMemes: 1st and 2nd Tiers

1st Tier vMemes(antagonistic)

2nd Tier vMemes(integral)

Beige Purple Red Blue Orange Turquoise YellowGreen

We are somewhere here at the moment

A few main vMemes evolved during human evolution (they are all color-coded in this theory - see above). Every time the next appearing vMeme is in conflict with its predecessor (although in reality it does not necessarily replace it, but rather builds upon it. The new emerging ‘integral’ vMemes behave differently, trying to encompass all the previous vMemes into a more holistic system.

More on each specific vMeme will be explained further.

The Matrix

Mind

Body

Soul

Space

atmosphere

I clustered all the examples and illustration in a matrix of some sort, which can be read either ‘by column’ (illustrating the concepts under consideration for the given vMeme), or ‘by row’, showing an evolution of the concept over time.

The matrix builds up one vMeme after another, and is assembled in full at the end of the presentation.

Beige• Instinctive / Survivialistic vMeme• Started 100.000 years ago

- Uses instincts and habits just to survive

- Distinct self is barely awaked or sustained

- Food, water, warmth, sex and safety have priority

- Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life

- Lives ‘off the land’ much as other animals

Do what you must

just to stay alive

Basic Theme:

Beige Minds

Looking around for resources

Doing nearly all activities together

Close family relationships

Food, water, warmth, sex and safety have priority

Beige Bodies

Protection of the naked body

Strong, robust – but suffering - bodies

Supporting each other

Uses instincts and habits just to survive

Beige Souls

Simple joys among many fears

Tokens and amulets

Collective story-telling

Distinct self is barely awaked or sustained

Beige Spaces

Living in the spaces, not in places

No borders yet, placements are opportunistic

Protective constructions

Lives ‘off the land’ much as other animals

Beige atmosphere

Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life

Warmth of fire in the night

Tribal dances

Rituals of a wise shaman

Beige Symbol

Purple• Magical/Animistic vMeme• Started 50.000 years ago

- Obey the desires of the spirits

- Show allegiance to the chief, elders, ancestors

- Individual subsumed in a group

- Preserve sacred objects, places, events, memories

- Observe rites of passage, seasonal cycles, customs

Basic Theme:

Keep the spirit happy,

and the settlement

warm, safe and in order

Purple Minds

Higher forces and powers, gods and pharaohs

Strict and unchanging social order

The world is known, described, prescribed

Obey the desires of the spirit

Purple Bodies

Show allegiance to the chief, elders, ancestors

Subordinated and serving

Obeying orders and rules

Manifesting stratification

Purple Souls

Worshipping, revering and devoting your life

Coding and decoding symbolic meanings

Working towards enlightenment and nirvana

Preserve sacred objects, places, evens, memories

Purple Spaces

Observe rites of passage, seasonal cycles, customs

Erecting walls and fences

Dividing and separating

Guarding access

Purple atmosphere

Individual subsumed in group

Mystical light and silence

Uplifting and elevating

Harmonious and uniting

Purple Symbol

Red• Impulsive/Egocentric vMeme• Started 10.000 years ago

- The world is a jungle full of threats and predators

- Break free from any domination or constraint

- Stand tall, demand respect, and call the shot

- Enjoys self to the fullest right now without any guilt

- Conquer, out-smart, dominate others

Basic Theme:

Be what you are

and do what you want,

regardless

Red Minds

Break free from any domination or constraint

Fight and conquer

Dominate and suppress

Fear (and be feared)

Red Bodies

Expand and transgress

Armour your body and threaten your enemy

Fight, kill, die

Stand tall, demand respect, and call the shot

Red Souls

Enjoys self to the fullest right now without any guilt

Ranks and positions

Executing unlimited will

Honour: gaining, manifesting, defending

Red Spaces

Conquer, out-smart, dominate others

Dominate, threaten, protect

Barriers, obstacles, trenches, barricades

Locks, bars, latches

Red atmosphere

Demonstrate your power and might

Loud, shining, grand performances

Humiliate and execute enemies

The world is a jungle full of threats and predators

Red Symbol

Blue• Purposeful/Authoritarian vMeme • Started 5.000 years ago

- One sacrifices self to the transcendent Cause, Truth or righteous Pathway

- The Order enforces Code of Conduct based on eternal, absolute principles

- Righteous living produces stability now – and guarantees future reward

- Laws, regulations and discipline build moral fibre

- Impulsivity is controlled through guilt

Basic Theme:

Life has meaning,

direction and purpose

with predetermined

outcome

Blue Mind

Discover transcendent Cause and Truth

Explore, probe, discover

Hypothesize, question, inquire

Formulate the true Laws of Nature

Blue Bodies

Laws, regulations and discipline build moral fibre

Dissecting bodies, revealing inner organs

Understand – and improve – body functioning

Design and build life through knowledge

Blue Souls

Enforces Code of Conduct based on eternal, absolute principles

Write down your knowledge, read the knowledge of others

Imagine and innovate

Deconstruct the world around you

Blue Spaces

Impulsivity is controlled through discipline/guilt

Construct rational knowledge spaces

Functionality regulates design

Technological sophistication (often for the sake of technological sophistication)

Blue (Artificial) Spaces

Constructing artificial places and spaces

Expanding the scope of habitat prescribed for humans

Building new worlds

Blue atmosphere

Righteous living produces stability now – and guarantees future reward

Well designed and perfectly functioning spaces

Complex, sophisticated performances

Technology saturated environments

Blue Symbol

Orange

• Achieist/Strategic vMeme• Started 300 years ago

- Change and advancement are inherent within the scheme of things

- Progress by learning nature’s secrets and seeking the best solutions

- Manipulate Earth’s resources to create and spread abundant good life

- Optimistic, risk-taking, self-reliant people deserve success

- Societies prosper through strategy, technology, and competition

Basic Theme:

Act in your own self-interests

by playing the game

to win

Orange Minds

Optimistic, risk-taking, self-reliant people deserve success

To be the first and the best is the key motivation

Rely on yourself, exploit everything around, win

Never give up, keep moving, just do it

Orange Bodies

Change and advancement are inherent

Everybody should be famous – at least for 15 min

Beautify and expose your body

Body as yet another device to drive you to success

Orange Souls

Materials wealth – gained by whatever means – is the criterion of success

The only place worth being at is the top one

The more the better

Prosper through strategy, technology and competition

Orange Spaces

Manipulate Earth’s resources to create and spread abundant good life

Greed is good

The shinier the better

Shopping bag is my space

Orange atmosphere

Radiating wealth and success; seven stars

Abundance of choices

Exclusive and elitist

Progress by learning nature’s secrets and seeking the best solutions

Orange Symbol

1

Green

• Communitarian/Egalitarian vMeme• Started 150 years ago

- The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness

- Feeling, sensitivity and caring supersede cold rationality

- Spread the Earth’s resources and opportunities among all

- Reaches decisions through consensus and reconciliation

- Endorses spirituality, seeks harmony, enriches human development

Basic Theme:

Seek peace within

the inner self,

and explore, with others,

caring dimensions

of community

Green Minds

The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness

Communal practice and activities

Inner peace and search for harmonious balance

Golden rule of ethics applies

Green Bodies

Feeling, sensitivity and caring supersede cold rationality

Caring about your own health, both physical and mental

Caring about people around you

Caring about the Planet

Green Souls

All-connecting spiritual search

Harmonious living for all human beings (and preferable for all living creatures)

Embracing tolerance, encouraging diversity

Endorses spirituality, seeks harmony, enriches human development

Green Spaces

Spread the Earth’s resources and opportunities among all

The Planet is our Home, let’s care about it

Eco-friendly and eco-responsible spaces

Nature-resembling design and functionalities

Green atmosphere

Reaches decisions through consensus and reconciliation

Being close to nature, embedded into it

Embracing sustainable lifestyle

Shaming all non-green

Green Symbol

Reading Matrix by vMeme

Mind

Body

Soul

Space

Atmosphere

From 1st to 2nd Tier vMemes

1st vMemes(antagonistic)

2nd Tier vMemes(integral)

“What I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiralling process, marked by progressive subordination of older lower-ordered systems to newer, higher-ordered systems”.- Clare Graves

‘cold’

‘warm’

Changing worldviews: From one to many truths

OneTruth

manytruths

I

We

Yellow

• Integrative vMeme• Started 50 years ago

- Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies, systems and forms

- The magnificence of existence is valued via material possessions and immaterial experiences

- Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority

- Differences can be integrated into interdependent natural flows

- Understand that chaos and changes are natural

Basic Theme:

Live fully and responsibly

as what you are

and learn to become

Yellow Minds

Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies, systems and forms

Joyfully coping with uncertainties and ambiguities

Operating in turbulent, complex and chaotic mediums

Developing new mental capabilities

Yellow Bodies

The magnificence of existence is valued via material possessions and immaterial experiences

Multiplicity of identities, multiplicity of bodies

From avatars to cyborgs

Enhancing life experiences with diverse technologies

Yellow Souls

Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority

Surfing through life using abundant opportunities

Mixing & Meshing multiple streams of meaning

Paving unique personal trajectories

Yellow Spaces

Understand that chaos and changes are natural

Flexible and dynamic environments

Smart and interactive spaces

Personalized spatial arrangements

Yellow atmosphere

Differences can be integrated into interdependent natural flows

Interactive, playful, stimulating, multisensorial

Co-authoring and involving

Emerging and non-predictable

Yellow Sign

Turquoise• Holistic vMeme• Started 30 years ago

- The world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind

- Self is both distinct and blended part of a larger, compassionate whole

- Everything connects to everything in ecological alignments

- Energy and information permeate the Earth's total environment

- Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions prevail

Basic Theme:

Experience

the wholeness

of existence

through body,

mind and spirit

Turquoise Minds

Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions prevail

Collective intelligence

Open source practices

Wiki-consciousness

Turquoise Bodies

Self is both distinct and blended part of a larger, compassionate whole

Swarming, distributed bodies

Eco-somatic awareness and self-regulation

Transformative practices

Turquoise Souls

Everything connects to everything in ecological alignments

Let’s make the universe better

Transformation through empowered passion

Holistic, integral thinking

Turquoise Spaces

Networked and interconnected

Systemic interactions

Evolving, emerging, generative

The world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind

Turquoise atmosphere

Global collective actions

Collaborative art

Co-creative encounters

Energy and information permeate the Earth's total environment

Turquoise SymbolRhizome allows for multiple, non-

hierarchical entry and exit points,

trans-connections and interactions,

networked hyper-structures

without vertical domination.

Reading Matrix by vMeme

Mind

Body

Soul

Space

Atmosphere