Cheryl Hsu
This paper and presentation unfolds in more depth on the speculative praxis presented at RSD10 and at the American Society of Cybernetics (ASC) on “Transversal Design” (2021-2022). Specifically, it explores the radical phenomenology of discovering-creating “(w)holes” (or “worlds”, “futures”), and the oracular bodies that are attuned to this capacity in the experimental embodiment of Transversal Design.
If in accordance to the panarchy cycle, our culture is presently in the Omega Ω phase — a “back-loop” time (Roy 2024) of release and re-organisation — what is the unique design praxis called for in this time between worlds? This work builds upon the potential of the “numinous coherence” that is possible through relational practices that cultivate embodied attunement and collective wisdom.
This piece looks more deeply at the speculative provocation: “what if the futures we desire live inside the body?”. The hypothesis is that systemic designers are also “oracular bodies”, with capacities to sense into the visions of desired futures that want to be born through us. These futures are their own whole “lifeforms” (transversal wholes) with latent blueprints and pathways to enable their unfoldment. This is in contrast to the materialist-empirical paradigm of seeing the futures as outside of us, something to be predicted and strategically foreseen through scanning for signals and trends. Instead, we investigate the posture of a “Transversal Designer” as one who dares to desire towards the unfoldment of the future.
This paper is also a letter to the Systemic Design community, as a creative project of ontological design born out of the passion and devotion of the author. She hopes to re-enchant ways of seeing and sensing that discloses radically creative and sacred forms of being-in-the-world, that renews hope and joy for the futures that we long for.
Keywords: Sacred Design, Spiritual Innovation, Ritual, Transversal Design, Imagination, Soul, Wholeness