Store, Share, Encourage, Transform
The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.
-Marcus Aurelius
Life is messy. Full-stop. Period.
That premise is irrefutable. While we like to think about ourselves as put-together and well-presented, we are interconnected to so many things, have so many wavering thoughts, and encounter so many unforeseen happenings that any supposed order is simply a fantasy.
But that’s okay, because if it wasn’t messy, we couldn’t advance.
If at a given moment, you were cut off from all external stimuli, including people, sounds, glimpses at nature, and all the rest, you would only have yourself, your immediate environment, and your thoughts to occupy your time. Nothing could be created except by your mind, which would only have the experience you brought with you into your cell/chamber/room.
Depending on your age, this might be perfectly fine or quite disastrous. Your sanity might depend on the experiences you accumulated and the way your mind developed up to that point.
That unfortunate circumstance exposes an important part of our human nature. We are architected to grow and expand. That growth and expansion is based on what we can encounter in the world and process in our minds. That processed result leads us to action, which then affects others in the world.
Storing Knowledge, Sharing Stories, and Encouraging Discovery are things you can do with rich media, but they start as things you can do as a Person.
The most efficient machine that we know of is our own. Our bodies and minds are more complex as a whole and many times as parts than anything we have yet created. Yes, we create widgets that generate energy, process complex math, and brew coffee, but our bodies can do all those things as well. Our principle function, beyond survival, is to take-in the world with our 5 senses and make patterns with them that we use to live our lives. Over time, we have developed toolkits for reasoning: philosophy and mathematics. And now we add those observations and conclusions into our patterns and we use them to direct our conscious minds to actively create patterns, works, widgets, environments, experiences, and systems that behave like we do (or in ways that extend beyond what we can do).
How does the transformation of hearts and minds take place?
Usually without us realizing it. Everyday. A facet of being an intricate calculus of agents (i.e., the world) is an inability to process the full weight of all our actions or inactions. The best thing we think we do might be the most damaging to others (while the converse is also true). The disparity that is created in the world also creates physical and mental opportunities. But, none of that can happen without the encouragement to explore, the willingness to share, and the dedication to store.
How does this relate to GroundWork Design?
The name says it all. We are actively engaged in finding ways to promote the most human of practices: the generation of experiences, the storage of knowledge, the sharing of stories, and encouragement of discovery. These fundamental things will always move us forward as a people. These actions are foundational, fundamental, the undercurrents … The Groundwork. It is a human practice, made possible by human practices, for the purpose of moving forward humanity in the most humane way possible: the way it has always been done: gather, share, process, expand.
How can I help / participate / use / make / learn / do?
You just did. But you can also read our FlashCards, see our Case Studies, and see what we say in About You.