Dear Dr. Russell, Dr. van der Merwe & Dr. Haenlein,
*- snip -ATTENTION, for me, serves as the solution to blind spots. The
place from which all action originate, which you mention, is a fascination
of mine.- snip -*
I share this curiosity with the concept of improved attention and recently
shared the following (non-academic) thoughts with my supervisors regarding
what the development of this skill might reveal: “The act of attention is
highly regarded by Wisdom Traditions to achieve agreeable levels of
self-knowledge and cultivation of desirable human qualities. Fields such as
Psychology, Neuroscience and Physics (and recently Interpersonal
Neurobiology) recognize the scientific value of living-consciousness and
suggest a wide range of attributes to the application of receptive
attention; from the organization of particles at the quantum level, to
neuroplasticity, to the management and development of a diverse array of
human cognitive, physical and mental conditions and aptitudes. The
discipline of mindfulness is widely researched and can be considered a way
to train the 'muscle' of attention to improve the ability of an individual
to have an accepting and discerning awareness of their immediate
experience. Some of the effects of such discipline appear to promote
behavior that has been termed non-egocentric, or 'eco-centric'. It could be
argued that the influence of this present state of awareness is an
emergence, or better yet, a re-surfacing of an underlying intelligence
which tends to support a balanced, cohesive and symbiotic interaction of
all living systems. Akin to the autonomic functions of organisms that
support health, the cooperative processes of sustenance in nature that
underpin survival, it would seem as if behavior considered ‘compassionate’,
’moral' or 'ethical' arises out of mindful attention. It may be, not that
behavior changes to consider a greater good, but that as attention is
improved, behavior reflects such overarching cohesive intelligence that all
organisms possess.”
*- snip -Tigers are part of a REACTION system.Dragons are part of an ACTION
system.…On my perception of life, almost nothing that happens is OF the
dragon¹ Almost all that happens is OF the tiger. That is, we spent all but
all of our time reacting to the circumstances we find ourselves in.…We all
work with what most people would either call (professional) intuition,
“know-how” or tacit knowledge, the knowledge base we have built up over the
course of a design career. Paradoxically, this working method can be the
worst barrier to product innovation, …- snip -*
A view of how this know-how arises in designing has also been framed by
Young (2012) around the term *metis* (as skills acquired via repetition of
craft practices). And, processes like flow have been described (Hart et al.
2013) as actively displaying both mindful and mindless qualities in the
sense that, whilst immersed in this state of mind, tacit knowledge emerges
in tandem with arising insight. If the automatic influence of this
knowledge base is what may hinder innovation, then developing the skill of
open attention may potentially transform such moments. Morihei Ueshiba,
(founder of meditative martial art Aikido) is said to have intensely taught
skills of attention as a complement to the action aspect of the art. One
story is that right at the start of class after everyone had settled, he
asked everyone how many steps where there between the door and the place
the presently sat. After no answered he abruptly ended the class for that
day.
If what informs reactions is arising know-how, then an argument could be
made that any tendency towards decision-making is highly pre-determined if
we spend most of our time in the reaction system. Awareness of the
arising-insight component in the flow of designing, or the flow sparring,
can arguably be balanced and enhanced by developing the skill of receptive
attention.
Kind regards;
Fernando Rojas
PGR Design
Northumbria University
https://northumbria.academia.edu/fmrojas
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UNNSTUDY/
References:
Hart, R., Ivtzan, I., & Hart, D. (2013). Mind the gap in mindfulness
research: A comparative account of the leading schools of thought. Review
of General Psychology, 17(4), 453–466.
Young, R. (2012). Refocusing the practice of service design to align
actions with intentions in socially responsible contexts. Chapter in
Miettinen, S.and Valtonen, A. eds.: Service Design with theory, pp81-92.
Lapland University Press. ISBN: 978-952-484-551-9
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