I wrote
this article and posted on Medium two and a half years ago. It is a proposed way of working with the world in developing intentions. From my article:

Design by Field: Understanding Intention & Consequence

I would like to propose another contribution that designers and artists can make towards the tough uncharted territory of designing the world: a creative dynamic between intention and consequence. I call this Design by field.

In Design by field the operative field is elicited from the world. Instead of imposing intentions upon the world, a field — or what holds together the relevant content of the world — is engaged in a reiterative process of action, reflection, modification; action, reflection, modification, etc. An intention emerges from this operative field. Three artistic ways of working that are essential to the dynamic of emergent intention are: sensibility, improvisation and imagination. These abilities are field based; they depend upon practice with specific contingencies of specific situations and cannot be intellectualized. Above all, sensibility, improvisation and imagination rely upon intense concentration. As the poet Jane Hirshfield wrote, “In the wholeheartedness of concentration world and self begin to cohere. With that state comes an enlarging: of what may be known, what may be felt, what may be done.”

Sensibility is an intimately felt knowledge that hinges upon perception. It may include everything from how you process a simple technical task to how you position an observation you make in a broader context of the world. It is based, though, on something felt and on knowledge you actually absorb in your body. Sensibility is not just how you take in information through your sensory organs. It is also about how you use that information to form a concept that places you in relation to the world.

Sensibility relies upon reading the process the work. It as though the work has an intention that needs to be read. Coco Chanel used sensibility in designing through the touch of draped fabric on a body. It is also at work when the architect Louis Kahn asked, “What does the brick want” or when green chemist, John Warner asks, “What does the molecule want?” Craftsmen and farmers develop this tacit knowledge. Sensibility is incorporated experience of working with the material in the world.

Improvisation is of extreme value. Improvisation is pure process: acting, perceiving, adjusting and acting again. Improvisation is an art form that has a range of speeds or durations: from the rapid-fire improvisation of a stand up, the on the spot creations of a chef or jazz musician, to the improvised dialog an actor may find in character development. It is an in-the-moment skill of simultaneous thought and action which is off the charted plan and relies upon surprise and discovery of the unknown. This skill is needed in making difficult calls in science, economics, health care, legislation, etc. as well. Improvisation is needed in situations of crisis.

Improvisation depends upon observation or listening skills in the present. One needs to be actively sensitive to the unexpected and volatile nature that directs process as much or more than the stated intention. The immediacy of strict limits triggers the resourcefulness of improvisation. This can also be the case when intentions fail or accidents happen and the initial intention needs to be redirected.

Improvisation propels progress of a work. Novelists speak of following, as opposed to directing, a character’s development in knowing what happens next. It is a way of working with contingency and proceeding with propositions that are neither true nor false under every possible valuation.

Imagination is the forming of a mental “image” or virtual representation of something that is not present to the senses or has never before been wholly perceived in reality. It is an investment you make in what doesn’t yet exist; an investment in the future. It has sensory attributes that can be perceived internally, in much the same way as you perceive virtual realities when you dream. It is a mistake to see the role of the imagination as primarily fantastical. It requires a psychic commitment. The psychic commitment that a novelist makes to the character’s next move in writing a novel is imagination. Leaders of the civil rights movement used the power of imagination in envisioning a world without racism.

Sensibility, improvisation and imagination are interdependent and are a product of a past, present and future flow of psyche and world. You find a connection or affinity between your inner nature and the culture that you are a part of and with the bigger nature of the world. This affinity is a sense of good form. Tough judgements in the field are in-formed by the situation at hand. Sensibility, improvisation and imagination are needed to recognize the sense of good form. Form gives authority in making tough judgements that are off the beaten path. It makes you courageous.

The world should no longer be seen as resources and environment.[4] Our impact is inextricably connected to the world. As James Hillman wrote, in The Soul’s Code:

“As notions of environment shift, we notice environment differently. It becomes more and more difficult to make a cut between psyche and world, subject and object, in here and out there. I can no longer be sure whether the psyche is in me or whether I am in the psyche as I am in my dreams, as I am in the moods of the landscape of the city streets, as I am in the music heard so deeply/ That is not heard at all, but you are the music/ While the music lasts. Where does the environment stop and I begin, and can I begin at all without being in some place, deeply involved in, nurtured by nature of the world? “

Paradigm Shifts

The following paradigm shifts of our relationship to the world are active in designing by field.

we are in nature >< nature is in us

Form in-forms

form follows function >< function follows form

Order forms >< form orders

Form is materialized >< material forms

Design intervenes in Nature >< Nature intervenes in design

We live in a world >< The world lives in us

Resources > World

Property > Land

Poultry > Birds

Meat > Animals