RETROM

Hospitality toward difference—what I describe in my book as xeno-solidarity—is particularly important here. In the book, I call for an approach of outward-looking solidarity with the alien, the foreign, and the figure of the stranger, over restrictive alliance with the familiar, the similar, and the figure of the compatriot.

The Underwater Collective:

We are a group of water-enthusiasts /(divers and designers), exploring the shaping abilities of water. 

Water is one of the life giving forces on earth. Over billions of years it has crafted the most mesmerising environments, mind-blowing organisms, that are richer in colours, shapes and ideas than most sci-fi fantasy stories.Water is natural force of creation. A space of secrets where you find a rainbow between black and white, the dynamic void between the circle and the square. A body of the past and the future and we are diving into this fascinating world.

For us, design is about playfully shaping the presents and futures of our world. The plural-’s’s are important to us. There is many different forms of life on this planet and presents and futures aren’t singular. We should collective practice dreaming making them. When diving, you should always dive with at least one ‘buddy’. But this spirit of collectivity is not limited to security alone. When we dive we not only dive under the surface of a body of water, but also into a metaphorical depth of society, spirituality, emotionality and the unknown all together. As terrestrial beings, the process of submerging into this alien environment carries the need to adapt on many levels. It requires a certain calmness and trust that blurs boundaries and creates space for a recreative weightlessness – a deeply meditative and therapeutic venture, present in a space without time. Surfacing from this intertwined journey is marked by heightened feeling of connectedness, to our body, mind and the world surrounding us. In water, life and death are constantly becoming each other, a coming and going, a fluent state shaped by the destructive and creating forces of water. We want to explore this magical fluid ability of shaping life, thoughts, matter and feelings. 

Shape Testing Results. Layover

I did not just wonder which of the two shaped the people prefer, but also which one is more suitable for the roots of a plant.  The people preferred the rounded shape, plants the womb allike shape. This is mainly due to the holes which could be added in the other shape aswell.  The reasoning for the rounded shape was though mainly intuition. the people who preffered the womb shape had a reasoning aswell.